All About Full-Time Maids

[Notksmum]

Hi straffan,


Thanks. Actually, we do not want to give her a mobile phone. Our original strategy is we will buy ICC cards (cap at 20 a mth) for her to use our home phone to call home. If she doesnt agree, then we will negotiate on the mobile phone.

Her reason to me was she want to be contactable by her family at home in case of emergency. But we are not willing to let her family have our home number?

Of would giving her family members our home number be a better option? Cos I suspect her family will not call often as well due to high cost.

Then again, my relative’s helpers all have mobile phones, hence sooner or later she will also ask for one.

[Anna Ng]

I allow my maid to have phone since day 1 but no smart phone. After clearing her loan, she bought a smartphone despite i warned her before. So, i keep her smartphone.


Being caught she was using smartphone again and she claimed that loan fr her friend, I asked her to return to her friend.

She went to buy another smartphone after getting her 2nd month salary and being caught always Facebook at Macdonald , so i keep her second smartphone.

Well, last week being caught she was using our IPAD which can connected to internet anytime —

There is no problem giving her a phone but based on her performance, my 2.5 years old son always sick , twice a month, lousy cooking, lousy housework etc… i don think she deserves to have a smartphone…

[straffan23]

My view in this is that a maid is not someone i can control. I only need her to do a job (already that, she cannot do well!). Her social activities should be her own responsibilities. If she wants a phone she would need money to have one. If she needs to call home it would also be her responsibility to pay for the charges. I did offer my maid the use of our housephone, but she never took up the offer. My maid is a mother of 2 teenage daughter… she wants to be contactable by her family, and equally important - she wants to be contactable by all her friends in SG - a purpose my housephone would not support.

[nms1]

Notksmum:

hi all,


I am exploring setting a set of guidelines on mobile phone use for my helper. Anyone can share theirs? I listed the following categories in my draft now but still refining.

1. Purchase: To only purchase the make and model decided by us, the employers. [Objective: We do not wish for our helper to carry one with picture/video/smartphone functions to protect our privacy].

My view is that you don't really have the right to tell her what she can & can't buy. Yes, there are privacy concerns but there you just have to trust her.

2. Maintenance & Upkeep: To take care of the mobile phone at all times. Any repair or replacement cost/expense shall be borne entirely by her. To purchase top up cards at her own expense. [Objective: This is set so that it is clear she is not to come to us or ask us to pay for the repair or replacement phone. To send a clear signal that she also has to be clear that she is not to loan money from us to support her phone calls.]

Goes without saying. If she claims she has a true emergency & her card has run out then call her bluff and let her use the home phone

3. Use: To use only once a week and on off days. To surrender the phone to us for safekeeping after each use. [Objective: This is so she will not be distracted when taking care of our baby and to limt her use to once a week to call home is pretty reasonable; this is so that she will not be phone hogging at night making her suffering from sleep deprivation].

I think this is too extreme. She should be allowed to use it during her free time. If you want to take it away from her during the day you can try but she may just buy another phone. My maid has her phone all the time; she does send SMSs during the day but it is not excessive.I was stricter with my previous maids when the children were younger and needed closer supervision but I never held the phone.

Other Grave rules:
1. She is not to possess another mobile phone without our knowledge.
2. She is not to use the mobile phone to engage in any illegal activities or moonlighting.

If she breaks any of the grave rules, she will be sent home.

Any more rules I should add in? Appreciate the advice.

[POA Teacher]

Can me wicked, heartless, slave-driver or whatever.

But I find that some of you here really spoil your maids.
eg Why do you bring up questions about how much should you pay for the maid’s phone usage? For me the answer is Zero.
The FDW is using the phone for PERSONAL use, it’s not my responsibility to pay for her personal expenses.

My maid uses my land-line to make and receive calls to/ from her friends here. To call back home, she uses a card (which SHE buys)+ my line. When her relatives back home want to contact her, they usually call my hp (and hang up after it rings). Then she calls then.

[Notksmum]

hi all,


Thanks for contributing your different views. I have a slightly better idea how to manage this.

[dasalo]

Anna Ng:

There is no problem giving her a phone but based on her performance, my 2.5 years old son always sick , twice a month, lousy cooking, lousy housework etc... i don think she deserves to have a smartphone...

Strange, but it seems they are smart with smartphones but are never smart at what they are supposed to do. :gloomy:

[KSmom8]

dasalo:

Anna Ng:

There is no problem giving her a phone but based on her performance, my 2.5 years old son always sick , twice a month, lousy cooking, lousy housework etc... i don think she deserves to have a smartphone...

Strange, but it seems they are smart with smartphones but are never smart at what they are supposed to do. :gloomy:

:hi5: :goodpost:

[KSmom8]

When I fetch DS from kindergarten, I see maids chatting on the mobile and crossing the roads with the employers' children. At playgrounds, I see maids on phones, not paying any attention to the children that they are supposed to look after. :yikes:

[Coolkidsrock2]

This is the same for maids bringing kids to the swimming pools.


My mum witnessed a kid smashing into the wall when he lost control while scooting. The kid fell onto the ground, dazed. Maid was talking with her friends.

I had also witnessed a maid with a toddler in the supermarket trolley while she was looking at clothes. The supermarket is in a shopping complex so maid was window shopping after her marketing. Toddler was standing on the small foldable section while the maid was engrossed with putting pieces after pieces of cloths on herself and talking to her friends. It was so dangerous but not sure if the maid ever know it.

Handphones have widen their social circle at the expense of their work performance,