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Thread: 1/6 Like many, we have house cleaners who come once a week. Like virtually everyone in that position, we asked them to stop coming when COVID broke. And like most folks (I hope), we kept paying them even as they stayed away.
2/6 Paying them was tough at the beginning -- and not because we were feeling the pinch. Rather, we needed to send them a check and they wouldn't send me the address because they didn't want to be paid when not working. Finally, after three weeks, they gave in . . .
3/6 and we sent them a catch-up check. Then weekly thereafter until a few weeks ago. At that time, we talked and figured that we were comfortable with them coming and they were already eager to come. I sent them a video with some good instructions on masks & gloves . . .
4/6 which added to everyone's sense of safety. And I'm fortunate enough to have a space to go to while they clean. But what struck me is what they said (by phone) after they first cleaned (our very dirty house -- we tried our best but we're not as good as them!).
5/6 The lead cleaner (it's a team) said: "Gracias por regalarnos estas semanas." For those w/ less Spanish, "Thanks for gifting us those weeks." But it wasn't a gift -- it was an obligation that should have been met by society but was rightfully met by us.
6/6 That they think of it as a gift rather than a right saddens me. And that we have not designed a safety net to catch our informal and often undocumented brothers & sisters deeply angers me. California & America -- we can and should do better.
