All About Full-Time Maids
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As long as we have a live in maid, we are paying to feel threatened everyday.
Do any of our employers feel that way about us ? -
Hi all,
My helper contract will end in half a year time, we are considering to keep or change her. Heard many stories they start to have many patterns after 2 yrs so wondering if a change will be better?
Can anyone advise what is your maid salary? For new and for experience ones from Indonesia? What is number of off days you allow ur helper?
Want to do some benchmarking. Thank U!! -
Bowie:
If your maid has been serving you well, why would you want to risk getting a new maid? If you look at the data on MOM website, only a minority of new maids last for even a year with one employer.Hi all,
My helper contract will end in half a year time, we are considering to keep or change her. Heard many stories they start to have many patterns after 2 yrs so wondering if a change will be better?
Can anyone advise what is your maid salary? For new and for experience ones from Indonesia? What is number of off days you allow ur helper?
Want to do some benchmarking. Thank U!! -
Hi POA Teacher,
Ya that’s one of my consideration too. She is fine. Of cos with good and bad points. She was new when we got her. Salary $420 basic with 1 day off per month.
When I chat with her today. She says she is looking at $580 basic with 2 days off per month.
My key concern is she is the not so thrifty type. She will spend quite a bit of her salary on herself and hp every month. Alothough she has the whole family to support back in Indo. And whenever she goes out, she will not be herself for a few days after she back… So my concern is with more money and off. She may become bad…And I find the increment she is asking is quite a lot.
Not sure if its market rate?? -
trimummy:
I used to have a filipino maid (who is a demon from hell). Created tonnes and tonnes of trouble for us during her 4 years of employment with us. She was around 31 when we first employed her. Initially she was super nice, hardworking, obedient...etc. After 1 year with us, her attitude started to change. Showing us her \"black face\" almost everyday. Common practice in maid - \"Talking back\". Not performing her tasks well. Simply ignore us when we were talking to her. Do not obey our instruction. Shouting at the elderly and children. I truly regretted for letting her staying with us for 4 years. her 4 years stay with us were really a nightmare. Until one fine day when I really cannot \"tahan\" her nonsense anymore, I sent her out of my house to the airport then bought the airtix at the airport and sent her flying back to her own country.Asking fellow mummies for your opinions...
My mum's maid worked for her for almost 6 months and in the 6 months she has threatened us to send her home quite a few times already. Each time it's all because we told her off for doing something wrongly, then she show us black face and said she wanted to go home. Then after a few days when she \"cooled\" down she is back to normal.
This evening, again she threatened my mum to send her home. All because my mum confronted her regarding the way she washes the non-stick pan. I bought the pan for my mum and it's rather new, used for about 2-3 months only. Then one day I discovered that the entire pan is full of scratches. Asked her what happened and she said she dunno. Then I told her she cannot use the metal sponge to wash the pan because it will scratch it. Then she accused my mum of being the one who scratched the pan using the metal sponge. So I asked my mum and my mum said she did not use the metal sponge to wash, in fact my mum did not even wash that pan. When confronted she became very defensive and started arguing with us. Finally, she just walked away even before we finish talking. Then after that she told my mum she wanted to go home! :slapshead:
Very sick of her attitude and behavior. Every time when something goes wrong, she always denies that she is the one at fault (example, accidentally bleaching my colored shorts).. Or she will just say DUNNO. If she got caught red-handed then she will argue and show black face then later threaten us to send her home.
My mum is quite fed up already cos she has been doing this many times in her 6 months of employment. After threatening my mum, she has the cheek to tell her that she is happy working here, just that she cannot take when we tell her off for the mistakes she make! :siao:
Then like that how can she work here? Or anywhere? If she makes mistakes and we cannot point out her mistakes? What kind of theory is that? And we did not even raise our voice at her or scold her. Just told her what not to do next time and like that she cannot take it.
Should my mum just send her home as she requested? Cos really cannot stand her nonsense anymore. Every now and then come and kick up a fuss and threaten us.
Anyone face this kind of problematic maid? By the way she is 36 y.o. Heard from people that older maids tend to be like that. My mum chose her because thought older maids to be more matured.. :slapshead: turns out also not matured...
Don't say maid, we will also be wary when those ppl around us suddenly change their attitude towards us. Well.... We cannot send those ppl around us away but maid can. If I were you, I will not hesitate to buy an airtix and send the horrible maid back to her hometown. Show them that we are not someone whom she can be taken for granted. We are the BOSS, not her. We have the say, not her. Not as if she is happy then she stay, not happy then want to go back agent or home. Do not send her back to the agent because her new employer will be the next victim. Kindness beget kindness. -
JJ Chan:
Gifts from Heaven:
[quote=\"JJ Chan\"]The maid complained that my mother-in-law told her to wash & iron my father-in-law, mother-in-law and my single sister-in-law’s clothing, clean their bedrooms and washed my father-in-law’s car.
Question is - did your mil really asked the maid to do all those things?
Previously, when I had a maid, we also bring our maid to my mother's place with the kids enroute to work everyday n bring her back at night. We make sure that we communicate to the maid before we hire her abt this arrangement n also roughly what she has to do at my mom's plc, n get her agreement. Also, my mom will only ask her to do things related to my kids or us, employers only, not for herself or my dad. But if maid is willing to help, we are ok and my parents will 'reward' the maid with some stuff (like food/snacks or toiletries/clothings) for her effort.
Sorry to say, but some of the things mentioned above did border infringing MOM law, if the maid really did those stuff upon your mil's instructions. And, for your info, washing car is not considered 'domestic duties'. This 'rule' is a common knowledge amongst maids (all nationalities) and employers alike. I know some people pay their maids extra (under table) to wash their cars.
Your maid probably hear from other maids on her 1st off day and feels that she has been short-changed.
Hi Gifts from Heaven & also KimJeow,
Thanks for your replies.
We have just come back from a brief overseas trip trying to get over the shocks after going through the nightmare of my Filipino maid running away to MOM and we 'Kenna\" investigated and warned by MOM with \"bad record\" in the MOM.
When my husband & I interviewed the Filipino maid face-to-face in the agency, we told her we had to bring her to my MIL’s house with my children and she had to work there besides looking after my children. She replied “Ok, can , can .” and the agent staff, a Malaysian girl, kept quite but just told me to”sign here, sign there “ on all the bulky documents to confirm the maid. One week later, the maid was transferred to me with 3.5 months’ loan.
When my husband and I were in the MOM for investigations , we told the officers we did make the maid “Agreed” that she had to work in my MIL’s house because she did not have to work in our own house when we were working and there was no need to attend to our children in my MIL’s house when my children had gone to the schools..
But MOM officers said these:
\"In the first place, there was no such thing as employer making a private agreement with the maid to work 2 houses with “Full Load” intentionally “Contravening the MOM Work Permit Conditions”.
My husband then asked what if we have paid & compensated the maid for washing & ironing my MIL. FIL & SIL’s clothes and washing SIL’s car and the maid agreed? The MOM officers refuted and said these:
“It is the same thing!, there was no such thing as employer making a private agreement with the maid to work 2 houses with “Full Load” with or without compensation thus intentionally “Contravening the MOM Work Permit Conditions. In either case, it is against the law!”
The officers told us that “Your agent should have advised you on this” and “You should have been aware of this MOM Work Permit Condition as from our records, you are not a first-time maid-employer and you should have leant this infringement from the EOP online course you had attended before you employed your first maid, isn’t it?”
The MOM officers would totally quote the laws, the MOM Work Permit Conditions. We had nothing to say because if we did not admit wrong, then the case would not close and we have to face legal actions by MOM in court . So we had to sign the statements to admit that we had infringed the law and were given a “Guidebook for employer of Foreign Domestic Workers” as a “Souvenir” for attending the MOM investigations!
My husband & I have decided not to employ any maid right now.
JJ.[/quote]The course (FDW Employers' Orientation Programme) that we took before employing a new domestic helper did mentioned that helper are not suppose to work in 2 or more households. For example, the helper was registered under Jurong Address (own house) and her main duties was to take care of the children (maybe some household chores) but during daytime nobody was at home so she was been brought to the parents house in CCK. Her duties at CCK was to take care of the children only. she was not allow to help out any household chores.
During the olden days, maids don't mind helping out at the parent's home because their intention here (Singapore) was to earn more money and employer will also reimburse them some money (which was done in discreet). Time has change, due to the increase in number of complains from domestic helper for working in 2 or more households. MOM had tighten their regulations and is taking this issue very seriously. During the one day course which Domestic Helper had attended at MOM, MOM will emphasize to them again and again that working at 2 or more households is an offence. Moreover, nowadays most of the maid are here to \"see the world\" and enjoy life. Therefore, they definitely wouldn't want to work more. The maids are getting smarter and smarter because of their connection out there. We also have to play smart with them. -
Can we be at 2 places at one time? As long as the maid is sleeping and waking up at the same time, how can she be doing double load? Can we turn left and right at the same time. Is there any logic?
MOM is teaching the maids to behave like this, not happy ask for transfer as many times as possible. We are held ransom as long as we have a live in maid because they live in our household and can hurt us and our loved ones easily.
Why worse and worse, thanks to MOM, they just want money? Transfer period most agency 21 days, still paying levy.
If MOM can only do one thing…just one thing, "DON’T ALLOW TRANSFER"
This will help us a lot in determining who is serious to take up the job during interview, when agreed then we bring the chosen maid in. If they quit, they should pay the air ticket. -
So it appears that among agents, they maybe take over transfers just to make money.
With MOM, as long as maid still in Singapore, someone is paying levy…so they only want money…this attitude is fuelling all the transfers right!!! -
Cant help noticing all AGENTS (regardless of whether its Maid, Tuition, Estate) - the No 1 thing they are good at is to MAKE TONS N TONS of $$$$!!!
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Our burmese maid…
She was all docile and meek on her first day greeting everyone with a smile.
On day 2, she responds enthusiastically and positively with a yes to everything we ask her to do. We left her unsupervised assuming she knows what to do which later we realized she doesn’t understand a single word at all.
She doesn’t even understand simple English like "Cannot", "wash", "no", "wait".
She doesn’t know how to use the home appliances.
We have to rely on body and sign language to communicate. Oh boy, that is tiring and time consuming.
On day 6 onward, she doesn’t smile or greet us. I’m not expecting her to bow to everyone to say good morning, afternoon and evening or greet us with a mega watt smile with each eye contact. We are simply transparent to her. She doesn’t even bother to look at us when we talk to her.
Our family members work different timing and came home at different time of the day. She stays in the living room and when we reach home at the door, she doesn’t even bother to look or help with our stuff. She just turn her body facing the opposite direction reading her book. Don’t even bother to look.
She sleeps at 9pm and we have to vacant the living room for her to sleep. We have to switch off the lights, do all the dish washing, prepare next day meals and throw rubbish ourselves while she sleeps.
She eats at specific time on the dot and we have to adapt our schedule to fit her timing. She is very aggressive to show us she knows what to do when we want to teach her our way of doing.
It gets very tiring. I just spent 10 mins trying to get her to bring the basket over. She doesn’t understand "Bring", "take", "come", "here", "there", "kitchen" and most importantly "basket". She doesn’t understand english words of shapes, colors, materials… IT IS VERY EXHAUSTING TO GET HER TO HELP.
We wanted a FDW to help us with the chores and baby, and now it seems we have to take care of and teach another baby.
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