All About Full-Time Maids

[lostbunny]

I have had 2 Mymmar maids last year. The 1st only last for about 3 weeks. Couldn’t really communicate with her as she could hardly speak English. So couldn’t bear the communication bit and had to return her to the agent. The 2nd Mymmar maid was a transfer maid. Her English ok, can understand. But the problem is she is too stubborn. After about 4 months, we couldn’t tahan that she refuse to change the wrong way of doing things despite us telling her again and again. When I complained to the agent, the agent said "Mymmar maids are like that. They are stubborn."


I am really not sure if that is really the case. I have seen forum discussions about good Mymmar maid and an ex-staff’s brother also has a good Mymmar maid.

I just it is really all about luck when it comes to getting a good maid. Keeping my fingers crossed that my new maid who is coming next week will not disappoint me.

[moonee]

Angelight:

Anyone hired Myanma maids before? Are they good? In terms of work attitude and communication?

errr... if u look back at my post Im still looking , the agent I called is burmese and Im still waiting for her to come by my home Just prepare to be very patient with them, most hv communication problem but Im willing to put up with that. I dnt need her to speak too good english, as long as shes willing to learn and work seriously Im happy. Frm what I know most dnt have common sense and some can be quite slow. Im still maidless and agentless for 23 days... I do appreciate the privacy Ive nt had for years. I dont miss the absence of a maid but my mums pushing me to get one fast

[janet88]

A friend of mine had a Burmese maid…stubborn and slow. Not only that, can be calculative like Filipinos and Indonesians. The agent I used to get my maids from didn’t want to bring in Burmese ones bcos they are not popular. Language wise, most do not understand English and so will be ‘living in a world of their own’.

[shine_fs]

Angelight:

Anyone hired Myanma maids before? Are they good? In terms of work attitude and communication?

My agent don't recommend Myanma maids

To employ maid is also by luck.. :love:

[smilingqueeeeen]

anyone can enlighten me on how to go about direct hire maid instead of engaging maid agency service?

[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.