All About Full-Time Maids

[Estéema]

eyer = employer

[eileen1102]

ChiefKiasu:

What's an eyer?

Employer in short

[yenyen_ya]

I’ve a full time maid helping at my mum place by doing household chores. My children are teenagers and do not require much care from the maid. So everyday after lunch, the maid will get to rest /sleep between 1-4pm and at night after dinner, she can rest from around 8pm. My mum also complains that the maid is lazy and said other maids need to work till late at night before she can rest, which probably after 11pm. Is it really so? Are we being too lenient to the maid for letting her having so much rest time?


Sometimes when we have meals outside, we will give her money to buy her own food. Sometimes, for the food she ordered, she tasted not nice to her, she’ll not eat it and let it be thrown away. Isn’t it too wasteful? How to tackle such maid?

[Sam-wong 0]

yenyen_ya:

I've a full time maid helping at my mum place by doing household chores. My children are teenagers and do not require much care from the maid. So everyday after lunch, the maid will get to rest /sleep between 1-4pm and at night after dinner, she can rest from around 8pm. My mum also complains that the maid is lazy and said other maids need to work till late at night before she can rest, which probably after 11pm. Is it really so? Are we being too lenient to the maid for letting her having so much rest time?


Sometimes when we have meals outside, we will give her money to buy her own food. Sometimes, for the food she ordered, she tasted not nice to her, she'll not eat it and let it be thrown away. Isn't it too wasteful? How to tackle such maid?

Oh i used to have a maid like this also, very picky about food. I was very worried when she keeps losing weight, keep wasting food and becomes very skinny. Everytime i ask her to just eat her food, she say she is not hungry.

Which agency did you get your maid from? What i did was i called my agency for help, my coordinator spoke to her and scolded her after that she became much better. Maybe you can try that too. If your agency do not want to help, you can try calling my agency the coordinator maybe they can help you talk to the maid. Mr Phng 8660 5975 (HP). You can say Sam wong referred me, hope he helps you. He is from Best Helper. Good and reliable! Hope this help you.

[mum_of_2i]

Hi all, quite new here but considering domestic helpers… heard that employers have to do a course before employing helper? Is this true - and how long does it take for this to be settled?

[Estéema]

mum_of_2i:

Hi all, quite new here but considering domestic helpers... heard that employers have to do a course before employing helper? Is this true - and how long does it take for this to be settled?

You can use your SingPass to visit MOM online & do an online Employer familiarization course.

[sweetbaby]

My maid four months into the contract still unable to follow schedule and very forgetful. She spends hours cleaning the kitchen after our early dinner but theres still leftover food particles and grease like tonight etc. She’s slow and selective in her cleaning, not thorough at all. When we specifically tells her to redo some tasks the next day, she forgets to do it or claimed she has done them. She often breaks or scratches items, most recently a glass electric kettle. She cant cook and ends up messing up the kitchen. She doesnt manage the fridge or pantry like to throw leftovers or mouldy food. We have to wake her up practically every morning as the DC catches the school bus early, although we provide her with alarm clock and early bed time as well as multiple rest times throughout the day. Most annoying she tends to omits facts or manoeuvre telling the whole truth. Like she claimed she cleaned DC room when asked but all she did was restack the kids books/toys etc. When we checked, fan/window/cupboard/floor not cleaned etc… Recently discovered DS’s turbo fan thick with dust during one of the check. This rather upset me cos DS was down with high fever/flu/cough, she didnt bother to wipe. In fact, we had tasked her to clean that room recently too. This particularly frustrating as DC have allergies and eczema, which has been expressed to the helper repeatedly. Showed, talked, reasoned and sat down with her many times. She says she wants to work. All these while I’m currently off work, I cant imagine what happens when I do go back to work. Currently at wits ends on whether to keep her on. Any tips on how to manage her better? She still have a loan and we likely have to keep her on till April/May cos we have paid ahead so we are feeling frustrated.

[sky minecrafter]

…

[Estéema]

@ SB Don’t your agency allow you replacements? Send her back for counseling/re-training but select a replacement ASAP. Don’t accumulate stress in yr family. Not worth.


Over the years, I’ve come to terms that some just will not be teachable until they wake up. It’s just the way they are unfortunately - some due to poverty, lack of nutrition & education, don’t do much in their kampong except hang ard until family pushed them out to earn money. With limited education & lax culture, they’ll hopefully grow up fast if they need a job, but if they’ve no ambition then no matter what you do to breakdown their job piecemeal, they just blur go thro motion. They’ll deny not doing their job if u qn them, just to save their skin & get scolded.

S’times agencies get this type also headache. In the past, some agents will ‘fiercely’ question them why they didn’t follow eyer’s instructions, etc but now they won’t dare for fear of verbal abuse accusations.

PIL just sent their helper coz this one with one year experience alr - besides using hp behind FIL’s back, will suggest buy food fr hawker Centre. Plain lazy. Can cook very well but act like 老板娘. She takes “tons of rice” according to both PIL, drink MIL coffee & takes biscuits fr FIL w/o asking & deny all. When caught once, she started showing she buys her own magi noodles for her afternoon teatime. During her off-days, she apparently started doing bz receiving Mynmar goodies sent by her sister & selling to her friends. So, her room is stocked full of goodies & had bags of it when we sent her back to agency. Agent say she’s too bold alr. If nobody takes her, best they send her back but they (agent’s) ‘loose’ money in that sense.

I can tell she’s got no heart to care for elderly, tho this is the 2nd elderly she has been placed. The other day was walking along hospital passageway on a hot day. She walked way ahead of us & saw her too a drink fr dispenser. When I approached the dispenser, got a drink for MIL & call for her to turn back. I asked if she was thirsty - “yes”. I asked if she thinks it’s a hot day - “yes”. I asked if she shld get a drink for ahma - “she didn’t ask”. I told her she take care of herself only, then she don’t take care or think for her eyer, “then who pays your salary?” - she gave me the “oops” look. After returning, MIL got worked up & ask her why do many toilet paper disappeared. She claimed “don’t know”. MIL walked into her room & uncovered 5 rolls in her possession. Small matter but tells of her attitude & character in BIG alarming way. Then she said she doesn’t want to work anymore.

PIL wants BIL to cancel her WP, but BIL kind type send her back to agency for ano more fitting family. Took a replacement. He thinks PIL picking on her. Ano family will be transferred this problematic girl. Sigh!

[Carol222]

Just to balance up the arguments, let me say that maids are only human. Like the rest of us they, too, have their likes and dislikes. Of course, that’s no excuse for disobeying orders or refusing to do a job they don’t like.

Over the last 23 years we’ve had maids to take care of my mother who had the stroke. We had some really good ones who took care of my mother very well. Some have returned home after their contracts expired, but till today we remain good friends. In between, we’ve also had some maids from hell!
For my family it is clear that our priority is our mother. Other household chores are secondary. We had a good Sri Lanka maid who cared for my mother, cleaned the house and did the cooking as well. She wasn’t a fantastic cook; or maybe we are not used to Sri Lanka curry. But we could see her effort and the love she showed. We can overlook her shortcomings.
I guess what I am saying is that we, as employers, have to be reasonable. I believe that if we treat our maids well, chances are they will reciprocate. That’s no guarantee of course, but I think that’s the way to get the most out of our FDWs.