All About Full-Time Maids

[minnie2004]

Hi smilingqueeeeen,


We've been hiring direct for our last 3 maids (by referrals). But we still went thru an agent to handle everything as I don't want to go thru the trouble myself. It's true that the costs will be higher but the maid will pay us back anyway. The risk is if she turns out to be bad, we can't send her back to the agent and will lose all the upfront fees. So have to prepare to be very tolerant till all the loans are paid back .

The good thing about direct hire is that we have at least some background info about each other instead of relying on the agent and biodata. So there're no big surprises on either party. Our last 3 maids turned out to be reasonably ok (no major issues after closing 1 eye) and we're in the process of bringing in the 4th one, also a friend of my current maid. Hopefully she'll be ok too

[DesertWind]

Hi all,


One day I asked my experienced maid why there seems to be so few experienced Indo maids in Singapore? Is it because most of them after some years went back home and retire?

She said NO, usually new maids come to Singapore for training and after 2 years, they go to Taiwan or Hong Kong to work! For Taiwan and Hong Kong, they cannot get a job without any experience hence they must be ex-SG! Their agent in indonesia will also encouraged those experienced ones to work in TWN or HK. Some goes to Japan but for Japan, you need to be EVEN MORE experienced due to their high standards!

My maid worked in Taiwan before and she could not tahan the cold weather (her nose bled) so she returns to Indo. and chose to come to Singapore again!

There are those who went to work in Mid.E as well but seems like they get abused quite a lot so she will not go even if the pay is more! SG is safe for them and the law protects them. Also the weather is warm and nearer to Indo.
Gee......how come only SG like to employ fresh young maids? :idea:

[janet88]

Hi Desert Wind,

For a newbie maid to go to HKG, they have to study 4-5 months Cantonese in Indonesia, as compared to 2 months of basic Eng for Singapore. HKG employers do not like newbies as their expectations are very high and they don’t have time to teach from scratch. They want maids to be very independent & adapt quickly.

A friend of mine who is a HongKonger said maids in HKG spend a lot bcos they have off day every Sun and spend a lot of money shopping (higher pay). In the end, they have no savings.

Some SG employers like to employ fresh young maids bcos they have not worked as maids b4 and so easier to train and teach. Of course there is a lot of hand-holding in the beginning. After 8-9 months, these ‘fresh young maids’ have this mentality their wings have hardened and can fly. :x

[minnie2004]

According to my maid, it's not easy for them to go to HK, they have to pay fees upfront which many of them can't afford. Also, if their employers don't like them, they can send them back home and all the $$ paid is gone. So it's quite risky for them. In SG, it's the opposite. The maids don't need to pay anything to come here. The employers pay and they just work off the loan. That's why SG becomes their natural stepping stone.


The other disadvantage for SG employers is we have to pay heavy maids' levy while there's none (I think still being waived) in HK. So even though the total out of pocket expenses are similar to those of HK employers, the take home pay of SG maids is much less than their counterparts in HK. This again puts SG employers in an unfair position to compete with other places in terms of attracting maids :stupid: .

[LOLMum]

spore is a stepping stone to canada as well. out of 5 maids i knew living in my condo (while in spore) were waiting for approval to go there.


maids coming to spore or already here prefer to work for expats. they have day off, higher pay (which i consider quite ok) and other perks. recently came across a thread in an expat forum asking does she need to pay the maid to baby sit the children in the evening when she and hubby are out. and seems like the maid does expect to be paid becasue her friends are paid by the employers.

i recall interviewing a maid (working for an expat) years ago and was told she only work certain hours of the day, must let her go to playground to meet her friends after 9pm daily, all sunday and public holidays are day off, wont clean windows, no washing of clothes by hand, must have 2 weeks yearly holliday and expected pay was $600-700.

anyway, maids would definitely prefer to go to hong kong because of the strong support they get from various orgainsations there and they can always go to the street and protest at any issues. the laws there are more pro maid.

[LOLMum]

minnie2004:

This again puts SG employers in an unfair position to compete with other places in terms of attracting maids :stupid: .

not only that, we have to compete with the expats here for maids. expats think we are treating the maids badly which i disagree.

[DesertWind]

LOLMum:

i recall interviewing a maid (working for an expat) years ago and was told she only work certain hours of the day, must let her go to playground to meet her friends after 9pm daily, all sunday and public holidays are day off, wont clean windows, no washing of clothes by hand, must have 2 weeks yearly holliday and expected pay was $600-700.

Wah so pampered ah? But I think because expats are really not used to having maids. They think maids shopping for groceries for them is already a \"BIG DEAL\", great luxury to have a maid hence they cannot \"bear\" to ask maid to do the things we considered normal ie. wash clothes by hand! (I mean only for those fragile clothes lah not all!) In these expats' home countries, \"human rights\" is probably a big issue hence to have a \"maid\" seems to them to be something \"inhumane\" so they let the maid have so much freedom, pay, rights, whatever.....I heard before that in an expat household, the employer will demand the maid to sit together at the dinner table with them and eat and talk together!
Oh well, I am no expert but I think maids who work for expats are in a class of their own and I don't think they can ever work for locals after that!
:lol:
:celebrate:

[minnie2004]

It's true that the expats (esp the new ones) are not used to having maids. It's so expensive in their home country to have maids that they feel bad to see the maids here working such long hours with so \"little\" pay. However, except for maybe those die-hard human rights advocates, once these expats are here long enough, they'll also follow local customs


My previous 2 maids both went to Norway before completing the 2-year contract with us. They only need to work 5 days a week, 5 hours a day, salary is something like EUR600 :shock: ! There's no way I can and will match that kind of terms . So I just let them go and wish them good luck. My current maid is going to Denmark soon. I've accepted the fact my home is a training centre for new maids and I just try to make the transition process as smoothly as possible.

I'm now videotaping my maid doing housework. So when the next one arrives, I'm just going to show her the orientation DVD (since this time the 2 maids won't be overlapping). Hopefully that'll save me some time doing training

[mrswongtuition]

From what my Indon maid tells me, Msia is their first choice.


Reasons:
1. Fast training, only 1 month in training centre. Sometimes 2-3 weeks will do. They are not paid in training centre.
2. No language barrier.
3. Near to home.

However, those with friends/relatives who have worked in Msia will advice them against going to Msia.

So, their 2nd choice is SG.

Reasons:
1. For fresh maids, training is around 2 months. For experienced maids (like mine - ex-Msia), no training needed. Once passport is ready and employer picks her, she gets to come immediately.
2. Low crime rate (at least they heard lesser horror stories compared to Msia).
3. Near to home.

The experienced maids will definitely want to go to HK, Taiwan, etc.
However, my maid is very realistic.
She does not want offdays as she will spend away her hard earned money.
She prefers somewhere nearer to home where the weather is similar.

How your maid turn out after the initial training by you also depends largely on how you 'educate' them.
I always tell my maid that she can't bank on being a maid forever. When she grows old, her 'demand' will also lessen due to her age.

So she must think LONG TERM.
I've taught her how to start her own business.
We sit down and work out business plans for her when she returns to Indon.
We plan her money very carefully now, how much to keep here in the bank and how much to send back every 4 mths.
I motivate her to send her son to a good school so that he will have a better chance of going to uni (preferably by getting scholarship). Now, she also sends her 4yo boy to enrichment classes in Indon!

Her hubs also expressed desire to start his own logistics company. So I also advised her on start-up/running costs. We did our research online, etc.

After careful calculation, she realised that she needs to work here for at least another 3 years to earn enough to be able to go back, start her business and survive the first few years.

I don't have much trouble with her cos she is matured in her thinking and we have honest talks with her.
Expectations are laid out clearly and she knows that we will give positive/negative feedback when necessary.

I've never scolded her for the 2yr ++ she's been with us.

[DesertWind]

Hi mrswongtuition!


Wow, you really care about your maid's future to help her plan to do business !

I wish I can do that as well because I also thought about what my maid is going to do next time when she gets older and go home. I asked her can she set up a business selling food? She said not in her village because people just come and take and said \"o'tang\" but can never get back the money. Do this business sure collapse. So how about building house and selling? No lah not in the village because everybody build their own house! Nobody buy and sell. So what can you do? I asked her. She said mostly people buy land, up in the mountain got wood, once all the trees grown they will chop down and sell the wood. Work in the field planting vegetables etc. If working for others must go to big cities.

So really depending on which part of Indon. the maid is from otherwise limited business opportunities?

My maid's goal now is to build her own house in her village. She has been saving hard not using her money at all (except buy phone card). She save all those ang pow money, bonus etc. as well and she has already gotten people to do the foundation for her in her village. When she goes back in 2 months time, the people will start to build up her house. I am happy for her that the salary I paid her has gone into good use ie. a roof over her head and for her daughter! It is fortunate that she is also a mature and stable maid, can think for herself and got enough discipline to save and invest in house, not spend all her money on other things!

:celebrate: