All About Full-Time Maids

[noixlml]

Hi,


Need advice from mommies who handled maid agencies before. This is my 1st time employing a maid as my husband insist that i need the help with our 4th child on the way. Our 3rd is only 15 months.

So we decided to employ XX agency which is the same agency that my parents is using for their helper. This is a rather reputable agency. I told the staff that handles my case, Ms W, my criteria that I need the helper in at least by end July or early August before I deliver (EDD is in 3rd week of Sept) so that the helper knows my routine and I can concentrate on the two little ones. The two older kids are more or less self sufficient. She just needs to prepare them for school, do marketing, housework, prepare the food and sometimes help me with the two little ones once in a while. We decided on a Filipina helper. That was on 6th June. We did the paperwork, chose the maid and Ms W say MOM takes 7 working days to approve Work permit etc etc etc. Once the work permit was approved, Ms W told me that she has given instructions to their Philippines agency to send the maid over and will keep me updated. One week around early July, no news from Ms W and I had to chase her. Only then, she found out from the Philippines counterpart that during transition, the helper that I chose changed her mind and decided not to come over to Singapore to work and she apologised and emailed me another set of helpers to choose from.

So I chose another helper and had to resubmit my application to MOM for a new work permit. My hubby was there and demanded to know how long this will take. Ms W told us that once MOM approved the work permit, the helper can come down within 2-3 days and after 1 day of medical check up, I can take her home cuz she worked in Singapore for two years before? So I should expect her by this coming week latest. The work permit approval took another 7 working days and by the time MOM approved this one, it was already last Friday. Ms W told me that she needed the original work permit approval to submit to the Philippines immigration and I told her that in my condition and juggling 3 kids, I can only give them the original today. She said they will expedite the bond, insurance with the faxed copy of the work permit faxed by MOM but they still need the original to submit to the Philippines immigration. Is that true?

The other thing is when i went down today, Ms W was on leave and won’t be back till Tuesday. So i gave the original work permit approval to her colleague and asked whether my maid is on the way. To my shock and horror, she told me that she can’t guarantee cuz their Filipino helpers are all stuck there and her clients are also chasing her cuz the Philippines immigration changed their ruling recently. Apparently they only allow a certain number of helpers to leave the country each day and there is some sort of a queue. I asked her what she meant by that but she couldn’t elaborate. I told her that this is not acceptable cuz you can’t expect to leave your clients hanging like this. At least give us a time line of sorts but even that, she couldn’t give. And if that was the case, why didn’t Ms W inform me of this? As of this week, she still maintains that my helper should be in within 2-3 days and latest by this coming week.

So I am now a very pissed :x :x pregnant woman who is due to give birth in 5 weeks time . Called up MOM and they were no help. Asked me to call the Philippines embassy tomorrow to check. I asked my friend to check with her agency and she told me her agency says they did not encounter any issues cuz the filipino helpers she had were all delivered on schedule. Should I grit my teeth and wait or find another agency which will take me another 3 weeks or so and by that time, I may have delivered. Going to call up the XX agency again tomorrow and speak to the more senior staff. !! Would appreciate any advice. TIA!

[verykiasu2010]

fyi, MOM approval for maid’s WP application is usually approved within 24 hours, online approval

[moonee]

[quote=\"shine_fs\"]I heard this story b4.....do I know you (cody) :? Or did u posted some where b4 :?[/quote


Me too, I heard this story a long time ago, probably a lot of other maids hv been doing this too :x

[Breadandmuffins]

Hi noixlml


What about gettig a transfer maid who is already in sigapore from this agency? Not all transfer maids got problems…its really 50% chance.

[shine_fs]

noixlml:

Hi,


Need advice from mommies who handled maid agencies before. This is my 1st time employing a maid as my husband insist that i need the help with our 4th child on the way. Our 3rd is only 15 months.

So we decided to employ XX agency which is the same agency that my parents is using for their helper. This is a rather reputable agency. I told the staff that handles my case, Ms W, my criteria that I need the helper in at least by end July or early August before I deliver (EDD is in 3rd week of Sept) so that the helper knows my routine and I can concentrate on the two little ones. The two older kids are more or less self sufficient. She just needs to prepare them for school, do marketing, housework, prepare the food and sometimes help me with the two little ones once in a while. We decided on a Filipina helper. That was on 6th June. We did the paperwork, chose the maid and Ms W say MOM takes 7 working days to approve Work permit etc etc etc. Once the work permit was approved, Ms W told me that she has given instructions to their Philippines agency to send the maid over and will keep me updated. One week around early July, no news from Ms W and I had to chase her. Only then, she found out from the Philippines counterpart that during transition, the helper that I chose changed her mind and decided not to come over to Singapore to work and she apologised and emailed me another set of helpers to choose from.

So I chose another helper and had to resubmit my application to MOM for a new work permit. My hubby was there and demanded to know how long this will take. Ms W told us that once MOM approved the work permit, the helper can come down within 2-3 days and after 1 day of medical check up, I can take her home cuz she worked in Singapore for two years before? So I should expect her by this coming week latest. The work permit approval took another 7 working days and by the time MOM approved this one, it was already last Friday. Ms W told me that she needed the original work permit approval to submit to the Philippines immigration and I told her that in my condition and juggling 3 kids, I can only give them the original today. She said they will expedite the bond, insurance with the faxed copy of the work permit faxed by MOM but they still need the original to submit to the Philippines immigration. Is that true?

The other thing is when i went down today, Ms W was on leave and won't be back till Tuesday. So i gave the original work permit approval to her colleague and asked whether my maid is on the way. To my shock and horror, she told me that she can't guarantee cuz their Filipino helpers are all stuck there and her clients are also chasing her cuz the Philippines immigration changed their ruling recently. Apparently they only allow a certain number of helpers to leave the country each day and there is some sort of a queue. I asked her what she meant by that but she couldn't elaborate. I told her that this is not acceptable cuz you can't expect to leave your clients hanging like this. At least give us a time line of sorts but even that, she couldn't give. And if that was the case, why didn't Ms W inform me of this? As of this week, she still maintains that my helper should be in within 2-3 days and latest by this coming week.

So I am now a very pissed :x :x pregnant woman who is due to give birth in 5 weeks time . Called up MOM and they were no help. Asked me to call the Philippines embassy tomorrow to check. I asked my friend to check with her agency and she told me her agency says they did not encounter any issues cuz the filipino helpers she had were all delivered on schedule. Should I grit my teeth and wait or find another agency which will take me another 3 weeks or so and by that time, I may have delivered. Going to call up the XX agency again tomorrow and speak to the more senior staff. !! Would appreciate any advice. TIA!

The filipino maid usually takes about 2 weeks+ to arrived.

mb yours will be here next week after national day.

[minnie2004]

moonee:

shine_fs:

I heard this story b4.....do I know you (cody) :? Or did u posted some where b4 :?[/quote


Me too, I heard this story a long time ago, probably a lot of other maids hv been doing this too :x

Now that this trick is well-known, the maids will try to think of other creative way to hide - put inside their shoes, sewed into sanitary pads?

My DH usually tells all our new maids upfront (the 1st day of work) in a very serious tone that he will not tolerate any stealing of anything. Once caught, he will not hesitate to send them to the police. Not sure this helps, but at least gives them a stern warning right from the start.

[sesame]

Breadandmuffins:

Hi noixlml


What about gettig a transfer maid who is already in sigapore from this agency? Not all transfer maids got problems...its really 50% chance.

Both my maids are transfer maids. They have their pros and cons and as long as they care for the kids properly, I was pleased with both and couldn't ask for more.

[cher_06]

Just to ask your opinions because my husband and I had a slight argument regarding how my family treat our maids. Firstly, we have maids over 20 years and we never have problem. In fact my 2nd maid worked for my family for 10 years.


We got a maid a year ago and now she wants to go home. My husband tell me that he dont agree with how we treat our maid when it comes to food.

My maid when she goes out with us, she eats on the same table as us. My mom or myself if we are alone, we will ask her to join us at the table to eat. In fact, sometimes my mom cooks for her to eat, otherwise she is always very lazy and dont want to cook. So my mom cooks and they will eat together. In family outings, it is the same thing, she will eat together and sometimes in hawker centers, my mom will pass her $10 and ask her to buy whatever she wants to eat.

However, when it is at home, my husband becomes very unhappy. He feels that we never give my maid a good and HOT meal. Whenever all of us are at home to eat or at my grandma house, my maid is the last to eat dinner as sometimes she is expected to serve us. She will eat whatever we have left, and my mom always portion but we do not portion the food right from the start. And sometimes, my husband feel that we do not leave anything for her, when in fact, there is a whole pot of soup with chicken and vegetables inside. Many times, she also cannot finish. We also tell her that if whatever is not enough, please go cook something from the fridge. He says that we should let her eat at the same time with us, and she should eat a hot meal. I told him that she can always heat up the food in the microwave if she feel the food is not "hot" enough.

What do you all think? We have never restricted her with what she wants to eat or cook if she is alone. In fact, I am so angry because I buy so much food and she does not even want to cook! She rather eat bread or maggie noodles.

What do you all feel about her eating what is being left. In fact, my mom sometimes feel that if it is not presentable, she always put the meat and vegetables on 1 plate nicely. Sometimes my dad eat my maid’s leftovers if he works late. I dont think we are unreasonable right?

[bigfoot]

cody:

KoalaMummy:

[quote=\"liuhao\"]keep quiet and put some more money in the cupboard and install a hidden camera, pointing to cupboard...

quite a good idea. but how to install a hidden camera? how much does a hidden camera cost? on the other hand, other than this suspcion, this maid is good. if it proved that she really steals, means you have to send her back??

Koala Mummy:
i don't mean to frighten you, but let me share a true story with you:

my cousin in law had a maid for the longest time .... for over 10 years.
they thot she was DE BEST, cooked well, cleaned well, loved the kids, had initiative etc.
relatives knew the maid too, and treated her like one of the family.
so over the years, they built trust in each other.
the employers trust her totally and leave her to do the marketing etc.

so one day, when the maid was due to go home for a vacation, the employer sent her to the airport.
at the airport, the maid suddenly remembered that she had baked a cake and forgot to bring it.
the maid INSISTED on going home for the cake, but the employers refused. Instead, they just bought her a cake from the airport and told her to bring it home. It doesn't make sense to go home for a cake and foresake the air ticket right?

So the maid went home, and so did the employers.
They didn't think much of the cake, but since its already there in the kitchen, they decided to cut it to eat.
To their horror, they discovered the reason why the maid insisted on returning to get the cake !!

The top and sides were indeed cake, but buried in the cake was a small tin filled with jewellery !!!
Needless to say, the jewellery pieces were small items belonging to the employer and her daughters.
Likewise, my cousin-in-law also never heard from the maid ever again.
The return air ticket was forfeited, and her handphone etc went dead.

Of course there are good maids that are truly honest, but looks can be decieving.

No matter how good a maid is, once you discover that she's been stealing from you .... send her back to her home country immediately!
(i sent my stealing maid back to the agent the very day itself, and bought her the next available flight home!)[/quote]This is the story of my wife's grandparents' maid. Do I know you, cody? lolz....

[DesertWind]

Dear cher_06!


My maid nowadays hardly eat maggie noodles or bread. But she cooks for my son every day lunch and eat together with him. For dinner, she cooks very fresh for me and will wait until I finish eating before she eats. I eat quite fast (& take pains to keep it neat) so that when I finish, the food is still warm and presentable (ie. at least half the plate untouched left for her). For family eating together with hubby and kid at home (usually weekends tar pau), I will ask her to join us and eat together so that she eats when food is warm and fresh.

My MIL is a bit conservative, she does not think maid should eat together with family at home gatherings. So when we visit her, she will serve all dishes on the family table first then portion fresh from the pot for her. Every dishes that we eat maid will also get a portion on her plate. But my MIL will NOT serve the maid's portion FIRST. She a bit \"pan dang\" izzit? She said must serve family members first but she will not give \"leftovers\" from the family plate. So how? So she will first scoop from the dishes to give to anyone of the family on our plate FIRST. Then she scoop from the family plates to put on maid's plate. Then all of us start eating together (but maid eats in the kitchen).

Phew....it is ok if you do not fully understand what I am trying to say.

But there could be other reasons why maid want to stop work after 1-year. May not be food issue!

cher_06:

...He says that we should let her eat at the same time with us, and she should eat a hot meal. I told him that she can always heat up the food in the microwave if she feel the food is not \"hot\" enough.

What do you all think? We have never restricted her with what she wants to eat or cook if she is alone. In fact, I am so angry because I buy so much food and she does not even want to cook! She rather eat bread or maggie noodles.