"it's so hard to find good help"

Could that possibly be the most obnoxious, elitist sentence of all time?

And yet, it is I who am saying it. Because I really hate to clean house, and finding a cleaner has become harder work than doing it myself.

I seem to have bad cleaning lady karma. Soon after the last one left, never to be seen again, I miraculously heard of an English-speaking woman, quite new in the country, looking for cleaning jobs. I thought I was very lucky indeed, but she turned out to be a worse cleaner than I am, and I really didn't think that was possible. Certainly not in one actually taking money for doing it.

I could tell, even the first time she was here, that there was a problem. She left half the kitchen untouched, bits of dirt on the freshly-washed floors, streaks on the mirrors, a floor rag hung on a personal towel, unvacuumed sections behind anything that would require even slight moving, and caps from cleaning products forgotten around the house. And she never even got to the small balcony, layered in dust. I always thought my standards were low, but for the very first time in my decade of experience with cleaning ladies, I was walking around the apartment noticing places that hadn't been dusted, or were left with dirty streaks. There was none of the usual satisfaction and relief at a shiny home in exchange for hard-won shekels.

Having assumed she knew what she was doing, I had tried to leave her to her work without bothering her, but that clearly had not been the right choice. I hoped that if I worked with her the next time, things would go more smoothly.

However, the second time was equally problematic. I had to teach her how to wash the floor properly so that she wouldn't be leaving small puddles around the house, and I had to ask her to do several tasks a second time because they appeared to be not done at all. The kitchen counter she said she'd cleaned was still covered with crumbs and grease spots. And again, she "forgot" to do the kitchen sink. I was really sounding to myself like a nag, and the experience was giving me more stress than benefit.

Still, I was desperate to have someone once in two weeks, and cleaners are very scarce around here. Let's just consider this better than nothing, I thought, and carry on. Surely she'll improve with experience.

The third time was much the same, but this time with a twist: Five days after being here, she called to ask if we'd found the 150 shekels I'd paid her, as she had apparently mislaid it and thought she left it here. I got this message from Mr. S. when I got home, and just rolled my eyes at the endless problems with the woman. She didn't call back again until 2 days later, when she left a message that "the cleaning is not working out" and she wouldn't be back.

I must say, I felt only relief, as I've said to the cleaning-obsessed Mr. S. several times that it would be easier to clean the house myself rather than go through this anymore with someone who is obviously not suited for the job. The last one -- though she proved to be untrustworthy -- was a brilliant cleaner, ten times better than I am, as you'd expect from a pro.

So why am I left with this yucky feeling like I've been fired?