All About Full-Time Maids

[POA Teacher]

Bowie:

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!!

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.

[Bowie]

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??

[gumiho]

trimummy:

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...

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.

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.

[gumiho]

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.

[st2]

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.

[st2]

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!!!

[zbear]

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 $$$$!!!

[ashana]

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.

[ashana]

Were there such a low agent fee "$38, $88 , $117 , $123"? I wasn’t aware of that?! Ours is $888. The salary is $470. Are we overcharged? She is a fresh maid.


I didn’t expect her to speak fluent English. A basic understanding on word related English words is good enough. However, she doesn’t.

The thoughts of trying to explain things to her and expecting her to follow instruction is daunting enough. We can spend 20 mins trying to "talk" to each other and leaving the conversation with lots of question marks?! Did she get what I’m trying to say? What is she trying to say? Can she do it? Does she really understand? Are we on the same page?

So, it has been 2 weeks, we just let her do whatever cleaning she wants to do at her own standard, let her sleep, eat whatever time she wants to. Sometimes, I feel that her presence has inconvenient us rather than lending a helping hand. I think she doesn’t feel much at ease too.

Anyone experiences this too?

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. …
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 …She just turn her body … Don’t even bother to look.

She sleeps at 9pm and we have to vacant the living room for her to sleep…

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.

Hi

If I am not wrong, your Burmese (Actually should be correctly called Myanmar maid because the country has already been renamed from Burma to Myanmar for political reasons) should be a "Fresh maid",

If I am correct, you must have employed her from one of those unethical maid agencies which previously agressively advertised for agency fees of $38, $88 , $117 , $123 only with very big debts ( Loan) for their maids . These fresh maids guarantee cannot speak a single word of English and know "Nothing" about cooking even their own Myanmar foods , hence not to mention our Singaporean cooking ingredients like " Oyster sauce", "Soy souce", "fermented bean curd"… They have received "Zero training" in any aspect from their "Overseas Training Centre" in Yangon . They only go to these so called "Overseas Training Centres" to take photograph, produce biodata and get some English materials back to their villages to study and wait for news.

The so called "Overseas Training Centre" sell these "Fresh maids"’ biodata with English marked "4 " (Good) out of the proficiency scale from "1" ( Poor) to "5" (Excellent) on the MOM standard biodata to Singapore maid agents who can not even understand what the maids are talking about.

So when you have selected them, there will be no interview because the agency fee is so cheap. That is how we suffer from picking cheap maids at unbelievably "Low agency fees" and salary of $420 .These maid agencies offer you to change maids any time with "Free replacement on agency fee" again to bring in another "blurr maid" for you and you will then realise that in the end you have wasted a lot of money and times.

For Myanmar maids, never employ "Fresh maids" unless you are prepared not to change within 1 year , be extremely patient to training them personally dish by dish, item by item …If you have no time and patience, you have to employ ex-SG Myanmar maid who have already been trained by a few SG employers before you take over them . These ex -SG Myanmar maid surely have "Bad Employment History" but it is natural & logical to be so because most of the busy working Singapore employers would not have time to train the "Fresh maid" but to return to agency to change again and again… the last employer actually benefit from a "Trainned Myanmar maid with bad employment History" like my own Myanmar maid who can cook both Chinese food learnt from 4 previous Chinese employers and also Korean food I have taught her.

KimJeow.

[Funz]

It will be an adjustment period for both employer and maid. If you want the maid to work out for you, cannot leave her to do what she wants. Do up a list of daily chores including her rest and meal times and all the stuff that needs to be completed before she goes off to bed and get the agent’s help to make sure that she understands.


When she greets all the family members, do all of you respond and greet back? If you do not, she may feel that it is not something that she needs to do. As for sitting and not getting up when you get home, that one gotta get the agent to tell her that is not acceptable.

You may have to learn some Myanmese words in order to communicate with her. Praise her when she gets her chores right, explain to her if she does not. Ignoring her is not going to solve your problem. Give her and yourself another 2-3weeks. If really cannot make it, consider a change of maid and this time go for one with at least 1 year experience or better still, one who has completed her contract with a family dynamic similar to yours.