Maids certainly don’t have the most glamorous jobs in the world. After all, they spend their entire work day cleaning up other people’s messes! And to make matters worse, they often get treated poorly, either by employers who view them as a personal Cinderella, or by hotel guests who leave a huge mess for them to deal with. Honestly, it’s a wonder that they don’t get maid more for what they do — it’s pretty awful work.

So, have you ever stopped to think about what maids do when they close the doors and are all alone in an empty house or hotel room, cleaning away? Do they take a break every now and then and say a room takes an hour to clean, even though it only takes them half an hour, so they have a little bit of relaxation time for themselves? Do they get their revenge on guests or employers who leave disgusting messes? And, something we’ve all wondered — are those hotel rooms really as clean as they look?

Well, thanks to the Whisper app, you can get a glimpse into what real maids actually do when no one is looking — and in some cases, it’s even juicier than you may have imagined! Here are 15 maids’ confessions about what they do behind closed doors.

15. If you’ve ever wondered about your hotel sheets…here’s your answer

Look, let’s just be honest — no one really changes their sheets as much as they know they should. People get lazy, and they put it off a day, or even a week, before finally buckling down and trudging to wash them and get a new set. However, it’s one thing to be laying in your own filth — it’s an entirely different thing to be laying in the filth of some stranger that you don’t even know. Of all the things in a hotel room, the bed is probably what people care most about. If the little glasses look dirty, you can just avoid using them, and if the little desk has a few smudges on it, you can just avoid that too. It’s pretty hard to avoid the bed — and you definitely want clean bedding. We hope this maid doesn’t feel ‘lazy’ too often, because… gross.

14. Toss those blankets off the bed — immediately

We have to admit — we always kind of thought you should just toss off that weird, thick, upholstery material blanket off the bed. First of all, it’s scratch and heavy and not exactly the best to sleep under. Second, it’s often got the type of pattern that could easily hide stains, which is gross. And, according to this maid’s confession, that’s exactly what you should be doing. At least she didn’t confess that the sheets only get washed once a year — although we imagine you’d be able to smell dirty sheets way, way before then — but to not wash something in that long, especially when it’s being used by a bunch of different people? Definite ew. I mean, how hard is it to toss them in the industrial machine the hotel probably has?

13. Hey, sometimes you just need a few minutes to yourself

Honestly, we don’t really have an issue with this one. I mean, just think about it — the majority of people spend at least part of their day goofing off in some way or another. It’s tough to keep your focus sustained for eight hours straight, so many people opt to take a coffee break or browse the internet for a few minutes to break up the day. This maid, it seems, plops right down on that cozy bed and turns on her favourite television shows. Given that she does it after she’s already cleaned the rooms she’s responsible for, we have to ask — who is it really hurting? It seems fair that she should get a reward for being speedy with her cleaning (providing she’s doing a good job and not just being too lazy to change the bedding, like some of these other maids).

12. This maid is definitely on the R-rated side of the spectrum

Okay, we really just have one question for this one — how on earth would the guests not notice that their bed has been, well, peed on? The first part we sort of understand — although it seems to be kind of a weird revenge, given that the guest probably will have no idea you’ve gotten your jollies on the same sheets they may be getting busy on later. However, the second part is pretty bizarre. We’re guessing this maid doesn’t exactly work in a luxury establishment, if she hasn’t been caught or fired for this kind of insane behaviour. As much as it pains people in the hospitality industry, sometimes, you just have to repeat to yourself that the customer is always right — even if they’re getting on your nerves and you wish you could just smack them.

11. Not exactly what your dentist recommended

At this point, the idea of cleaning something disgusting with someone’s toothbrush has become a total cliche on television shows and in movies. It just seems like too easy a gag. However, this maid was obviously inspired by spotting someone doing this somewhere, because she decided that her great revenge plan would involve using unpleasant guests’ toothbrushes to scrub, scrub, scrub away at any stains. It must be awful when you have to deal with guests that are particularly untidy, but at the end of the day, it’s kind of your job to deal with that — so we’re not sure how we feel about this kind of a revenge tactic. It’s a good way to ensure your guest never feels safe leaving their hygiene items in a hotel room again!

10. To infinity and beyond — or, at least, to the play room

Cleaning can be a tricky thing. There are some people who are super efficient, have it down to a science, and can get a space sparkling in no time at all — and, as with many things, practice can make perfect. So, it only makes sense that a maid would likely be more efficient than your average homeowner when it comes down to cleaning. However, this homeowner seems to think that if the maid is only there for a short amount of time, even if the space looks absolutely sparkling, it couldn’t possibly be clean — right? We have to admit, we kind of love that this housekeeper spends the remainder of her time getting in touch with her inner child and playing with toys. Why not have a little fun when you can?

9. Seriously — how is not cleaning sheets even an option?!

There are a few corners we can kind of understand a maid being tempted to cut. Perhaps you don’t feel like doing a full vacuum of the room if everything looks pretty clean. Maybe you don’t want to bother dusting the lamps, or cleaning the very top of the shower tiles. However, changing the sheets should be an absolute necessity. I mean, even if the previous guest wore pyjamas (which isn’t always the case), people do all kinds of things in the bed, and you don’t want those gross germs all up on the sheets. There’s a reason hotels almost exclusively use white sheets — so you can toss them in a piping hot cycle with bleach and ensure they’re totally clean and germ free. Not even bothering to change them is majorly disgusting.

8. Another television addict — hey, we identify

Look, we get it. Most people enjoy a little background noise when they clean, whether that be music blasting or the sounds of your favourite television show. It seems maids are no different. At the end of the day, if a maid is consistently not doing a good enough job and not cleaning rooms in a timely manner, she’ll likely get let go — that’s just reality. However, sometimes people just have tough days, and need a little bit of a break — if this maid decides to turn her workday into a binge-watching session of her favourite television show from time to time, hey — sometimes you’ve just got to go with it. I mean, we hope she doesn’t make a habit of it, but from time to time it’s probably exactly what the doctor ordered.

7. If you ever felt like the maid looked at your stuff while you were gone — you might be right

It wouldn’t be fair to judge every maid by the actions of the one who penned this Whisper confession — most maids are probably total professionals who wouldn’t dream of touching your stuff beyond what’s necessary to clean around your things. However, this maid isn’t really worried about any kind of moral code of conduct — she just wants all the juicy details on the client she’s cleaning for. We imagine you can get a pretty good idea of what a person is like by cleaning their things and doing a bit of snooping, but that doesn’t make it right. However, it does make us more paranoid that any maid you encounter who is cleaning your space is actually going through your private things! Yikes — way to ruin it for us, maid who wrote this!

6. Sometimes, you’ve just got to eat

It can be tough to judge someone without knowing the context, because you just never know what’s going on in someone’s life. The maid in question here may have been denied her breaks all day, and perhaps hadn’t eaten in hours and hours. She may be struggling and down on her luck, with not much of a budget left for groceries after paying the rent. However, it’s also possible that the maid in question thought the guest’s pizza looked downright delicious and just decided that the guest would probably never even notice a single piece going missing. Can you imagine the guest opening the box when he or she returns, questions whether they’re crazy or if there’s less than when they left? Not only is it disrespectful to the guest’s property — it’s also downright cruel!

5. Vaping the day away

There are some things you absolutely should never be allowed to request of an employee — namely, anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened in any way. However, there are also things that are totally reasonable to address — like this request. If you have a huge issue with smoking, such as a member of the house being very reactive to smoke in their environment, it’s reasonable to request that the maid not light up in the span of time that he or she is there. However, the maid apparently felt like it was a totally unreasonable request, and is getting full revenge by just vaping it up in every possible room. I mean, that’s certainly one way to address things — although maybe not the best or most productive way.

4. Keep this in mind when you’re debating whether to pick up after yourself

Look, there are certain things that aren’t expected of you when you’re staying in a hotel — you don’t need to make your bed with hospital corners, even if that’s what you might do at home, you don’t need to perfectly fold your towels, etc. Being able to be a bit more relaxed with everything, including your cleaning regime, can be a huge perk of spending the night in a hotel room. However, that doesn’t mean that you should just toss everything on the floor, leave your garbage scattered around, etc. This maid has confessed that when a guest leaves a huge mess, she just uses the same gloves for the toilet and the bed — meaning you’re getting some gross toilet germs all up on your clean sheets. If that doesn’t motivate you to clean up after yourself, we don’t know what will!

3. Sometimes, when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go

Okay, of all the confessions, this one isn’t exactly the worst. Yes, we’re guessing that most maids probably have it written in their contract that they’re not supposed to use the guest’s bathroom, they’re supposed to use the staff bathroom somewhere. That’s understandable. However, we’re betting there are definitely situations where you’re running behind schedule or you just need to go ASAP and you don’t have time to take a break and scamper to the staff bathroom, wherever that may be — so you just use the toilet that’s available, literally just a few steps away. Sometimes, when you’ve got to go, you’ve just got to go — we get it. Just maybe don’t broadcast this to your boss if it’s not something you’re supposed to be doing — good thing these confessions on Whisper are anonymous!

2. Uh… a lint rolled sheet does not equal a clean sheet

Okay, we’re just going to say it again, because we can’t fully wrap our minds around it — how on earth do so many maids thing it’s even remotely okay to not change sheets? They’re basically the grossest, most germ and sweat filled part of the entire room! Nevertheless, here is yet another confession from a maid saying that, if she just doesn’t feel like changing the sheets and putting in all that hard work, she just pulls her trusty lint roller from her cleaning kit and runs it across the sheets to pick up any loose debris or hairs or anything like that. The problem is, it’s not the things you can visible see that are the most disgusting — it’s all the things you can’t see that can only be removed in a hot cycle packed with bleach

1. Seriously — this makes us want to bring our own sheets to every hotel

Again — we’re sure that there are plenty of excellent hotels who take their cleaning seriously and always provide fresh sheets to every guest. However, it appears to be way more common than you would have ever imagined for a maid to just decide that she doesn’t feel like cleaning the sheets. In this maid’s case, though, it isn’t laziness — or revenge. When a guest is being particularly annoying, her solution isn’t just to forget to swap out the sheets — that would be bad enough. She takes it to the next level by swapping the sheets with a stranger’s dirty sheets, which is gross. We know it’s not an easy job, but giving someone dirty sheets is pretty inexcusable. Seriously — maybe consider packing your own sheets to sleep on, after hearing all these gross confessions from maids.