All About Full-Time Maids

[Awonder]

Hi beanstalk, thanks for the valuable info. We had a cordial relationship with our maid and that is why I can wait for her for 6 weeks to come back. It is really not easy for me cos I had 3 kids, 2 in primary school and a 17 mths old toddler, but we know that she really need so much time to be at her home with her kids too. Moreover, we do not want much hassle employing a new maid again as its not easy to find a good, honest and hardworking one.


Infact, she was worry for me if I can handle all at home, well, I just had to take it in my strike, its also a good chance for me to see how I could handle and probably might not need a maid when my younger one was older.

[lizuan76]

Hi CMF,


Thanks for your link. After reading through, it seems difficult to employ filipino maid directly nowaday

[KSmom8]

My Indon maid has been with me for more than 3 months now. So far, I am relatively pleased with her work and attitude. Recently, I have an issue that is worrying me over the hongbao moneys that were given to her.


Part of the agreement (suggested and enforced by the agent) was that she was not to have any moneys with her to prevent misunderstanding with regard to theft / missing moneys. So far, her salaries (minus loan) have been kept with me ledger style, and we both sign on deposits and withdrawals.

Recently, she passed her hongbao moneys to me for safekeeping, after I reminded her of the agreement. I realised that the amount was lesser than what I knew and expected to be given to her. When questioned on the $10 note that my aunt had given to her, she remarked that she had lost it when she was washing the car. When I questioned her on the need to carry the cash with her, she said she don’t know and that’s why she is passing the money to me for safekeeping. She also brought up (out of the blue) that she won’t buy a handphone cos her salaries in Malaysia was mostly spent on calls. I found her response suspicious and upon probing, she suggested that I go through her belongings. I didn’t want to create unhappiness over the issue, particularly since the hongbao money belongs to her, and didn’t pursue the matter further. Later I realised that the amount of missing money is more than $10, since other relatives’ hongbaos was also unaccounted for.

I am almost certain that she is lying and question her motive for keeping the money. I think that perhaps she wants financial security or has spent it on a handphone (which the agent had forbade her to own). I am disappointed by her lying and it has reminded me once again that maids cannot be trusted. However, my initial thoughts are not to pursue the matter, cos it is her money anyway. Good maids are hard to come by.

Any thoughts on this? How would you handle this?

[auntieM]

Hi KSmom8,

Let’s hope she doesn’t have more lies coming your way… …Maybe you should be more wary of valuables and cash…just to play safe…

[hquek]

Agree, better be more careful as to the valuables and monies in the house. If she really bought a hp, the next question is how she’s going to finance the usage.


Act blur in front of her and pretend dunno. No point going through her belongings as she may have passed it to a friend.

I’m actually wary of letting maids go down to wash the car by themselves becos I see a lot chit chatting away with friends. That is also a good time to pass things around. So either we wash the car ourselves; or we’ll go down with her together.

[catang]

KSmom8:

My Indon maid has been with me for more than 3 months now. So far, I am relatively pleased with her work and attitude. Recently, I have an issue that is worrying me over the hongbao moneys that were given to her.


Part of the agreement (suggested and enforced by the agent) was that she was not to have any moneys with her to prevent misunderstanding with regard to theft / missing moneys. So far, her salaries (minus loan) have been kept with me ledger style, and we both sign on deposits and withdrawals.

Recently, she passed her hongbao moneys to me for safekeeping, after I reminded her of the agreement. I realised that the amount was lesser than what I knew and expected to be given to her. When questioned on the $10 note that my aunt had given to her, she remarked that she had lost it when she was washing the car. When I questioned her on the need to carry the cash with her, she said she don't know and that's why she is passing the money to me for safekeeping. She also brought up (out of the blue) that she won't buy a handphone cos her salaries in Malaysia was mostly spent on calls. I found her response suspicious and upon probing, she suggested that I go through her belongings. I didn't want to create unhappiness over the issue, particularly since the hongbao money belongs to her, and didn't pursue the matter further. Later I realised that the amount of missing money is more than $10, since other relatives' hongbaos was also unaccounted for.

I am almost certain that she is lying and question her motive for keeping the money. I think that perhaps she wants financial security or has spent it on a handphone (which the agent had forbade her to own). I am disappointed by her lying and it has reminded me once again that maids cannot be trusted. However, my initial thoughts are not to pursue the matter, cos it is her money anyway. Good maids are hard to come by.

Any thoughts on this? How would you handle this?

i am doing that for my maid too. when i asked for her red packets $$, she was in the store room opening one of them up half way. I reiterate to her about the agreement, she replied no problem she understand and passed them to me for safekeeping (we signed of cos) BUT thou i wanted very much to give her the benefit of doubt, she told me she had more monies with her which she had forgotten to hand over.

While at the agency, it was declared she only have $2.80 with her, end up she had $90 over with new notes in between, saying it was given to her by her previous employer where she only worked there for a month!! How to have salary when only a mth in sg?? My gals and sons were given same amount of red packets, however no matter how we count, he was short of a few which amount to $30+. My bro said he received 16 of them from relatives and my maid is so \"powerful\" to receive 11 of them. He suspected my maid taking away baby's red packets claiming as hers.

I told her see, keeping your monies to prevent this type of misunderstanding coming up, she then passed some more monies to me stating she still have some more in her wallet. @_@ to trust her or not, i really duno wat to say and she's less than a month wif us so i cant judge her character/work yet

[auntieM]

Honest maids hard to find nowadays… …

Worst are the dishonest and tale-spinning ones… … :x

[bzmum22]

I hate it when it comes to CNY and friends/relatives giving ang pow to maids. I just hope that friends/relatives will stop giving ang pows to maids so that I don’t hv to handle problems of money every CNY.


I also hv a similar incident of my maid wanting to hold the money and under-declaring the amt when we have an agreement of no cash on her. I just tell her straight in the face when she finally hand over her money, after umpteen prompts to pass me the money for safekeeping, that any money I find in her possession after this will be MINE. This did the trick on my maid and she scurried back to her room to retrieve the amt she did not surrender, after giving herself some excuses to have under-declared.

[hquek]

catang:

While at the agency, it was declared she only have $2.80 with her, end up she had $90 over with new notes in between, saying it was given to her by her previous employer where she only worked there for a month!! How to have salary when only a mth in sg?? My gals and sons were given same amount of red packets, however no matter how we count, he was short of a few which amount to $30+. My bro said he received 16 of them from relatives and my maid is so \"powerful\" to receive 11 of them. He suspected my maid taking away baby's red packets claiming as hers.

Unless this maid of yours is super friendly or super good that pp will feel very inspired to give her.

I'm sorry to say that you will have to be extra careful with this maid of yours. I'm not sure how generous your relatives are; but typically I don't see many pp giving angbaos to maids - out of 20 pp, maybe only 4 or 5. And usually they will give token amounts.

Perhaps you may like to inform your relatives in future on the quiet NOT to give your maid angbao so as to make it easy to detect. For now, you can only bite the 'bittergourd' becos no proof.

[catang]

no choice. take it as a lesson never be overly nice to maids