‘If there’s no trust, there’s no job’: Cleaner forced to fire her favorite client after she has the gall to test her talents

If there’s one thing TikTok always delivers besides kitchen hacks and viral recipes, it’s deliciously juicy feuds. In recent weeks, we’ve witnessed beefs between nurses and patients, beefs at pizzerias and beefs between complete strangers on the beach. 

This time, the algorithm’s latest feud comes courtesy of a house cleaner and the client she was forced to part ways with. The storytime video, which has amassed over 2 million views, was shared by TikTok user Corinne, who operates the cleaning page Suds N’ Stuff, and whose client did something questionable at best, condescending at worst. 

According to the video, Corrine had been cleaning one of her client’s houses for about six months on a bi-weekly basis. She referred to the client as having one of her favorite houses to clean, and said the unnamed woman usually kept the house “pretty” immaculate. During one cleaning session at the house, however, Corrine noticed something was “a little off.” 

The clean, which typically took her just over one hour, took longer than usual, and Corrine had noticed a scattering of pennies left in random places throughout the house. She also noticed that the towels were folded upside down, something that was “not the norm” during her usual shifts. At first, Corrine thought nothing of these discrepancies, and simply collected the pennies in a coin tray and re-folded the towels. 

When the client returned home, she informed Corrine that she had “passed the penny test”, which left Corrine with a bad taste in her mouth. It appeared the client had purposefully left spare pennies throughout the house as a “test” to see whether Corrine was adequately scouring the house to clean, which made her feel as though the client “doesn’t trust my skill.”   

“I thought we had a better relationship than that,” Corrine said of the test, before revealing that the interaction forced her to fire — or “politely break up with” — the client. Naturally, the so-called penny test sparked debate in the comments section, with people mostly agreeing with Corinne that the maneuver is “super condescending.” 

Others said the tactic would have “sent me into a rage”, describing the penny test as “a big ick.” Fellow cleaners also offered their thoughts, saying the client “should’ve communicated” if she thought something was not up to scratch. “If there’s no trust, there’s no job.” 

In a follow-up video, Corrine revealed that the client reached out to her after they parted ways, but said she still didn’t feel comfortable returning to her cleaning duties for her. “I can hear the hurt in your voice,” one user surmised, “you did the right thing.”

It appears it’s all water on the bridge for Corrine, who has continued sharing cleaning hacks and is therefore rightfully collecting her pennies.