All About Full-Time Maids

[verykiasu2010]

Tamama:

dear all, thanks for all of your replies and information.
before i got my maid one of our friends advised us to give the cash allowance to her so she buys her own consumables, so if she has some leftover it can be her pocket money. (cos i think the maid is quite poor that they don't have salary for 6 months and carrying no money all the time...) now i guess i better cut the cash allowance and keep check on her usage...

talking about phone card and phone handling, haha, my maid doesn't have one (yet), and she doesn't need to use our phone to IDD back to phillipine. instead, on her 2nd day of arrival, she asked my hubby to set up the internet connection on her own laptop!!! wow!!! :!: i'm not bias or looking down or whatever!!! from my previous maid hiring experience and my friends talking about their maids, none of them brought their own laptop to work. but yes, she appears very happy that every night she can msn/skype her hubby and daughter. and we are kind of resting early family, so basically after 9pm i don't care about what she does inside her room. :roll:

i don't even carry laptop for some of my biz trips ......

[KSmom8]

titank:

Hi All,


Just went maid agencies shopping around. Heard that now for new Tagalog & Indon Maids their starting salary would be $400 without off days, $380 with off days. These would be fresh new maid. Agency fees would depend which can range from $299 onwards.

Another information is that it may come very soon that maid loan would be reduce to 2 months where the agency fee would shot up rocket high. Those who intend to get new maid better act fast. :celebrate:

Thanks for the info.

Is the reason for reducing the maid's loan to 2 months and transferring the remainder to the employer due to requirement from the Indonesian or Phillipines government?

[hquek]

Tamama:

dear all, thanks for all of your replies and information.
before i got my maid one of our friends advised us to give the cash allowance to her so she buys her own consumables, so if she has some leftover it can be her pocket money. (cos i think the maid is quite poor that they don't have salary for 6 months and carrying no money all the time...) now i guess i better cut the cash allowance and keep check on her usage...

talking about phone card and phone handling, haha, my maid doesn't have one (yet), and she doesn't need to use our phone to IDD back to phillipine. instead, on her 2nd day of arrival, she asked my hubby to set up the internet connection on her own laptop!!! wow!!! :!: i'm not bias or looking down or whatever!!! from my previous maid hiring experience and my friends talking about their maids, none of them brought their own laptop to work. but yes, she appears very happy that every night she can msn/skype her hubby and daughter. and we are kind of resting early family, so basically after 9pm i don't care about what she does inside her room. :roll:

hi tamama,

I don't quite agree with giving maid cash and letting them do as will - if the cash is earmarked for something. She should show you the receipt - $50 for toiletries for 1 person is quite a lot. Is she shopping at Marks & Spencers?

It's good that she has found a way to communicate with her family without incurring a lot of money. But I think it'll be good if you could state her bedtime - is she skyping/msn-ing until wee hours of the night? Concern is if she ends up lack of sleep - 1. her safety could be compromised if she is sleepy (fall down etc), 2. she could say that you don't give her enough rest.

[KSmom8]

hquek:

KSmom8:

When questioned on why she left the home with the doors open, she coolly said that she was only standing at the stairs for a while :x, refused to admit what else she was doing. This comes after she \"under-declared\" her hongbao money... though I subsequently found a used phonecard and $10 cash on her... at least another $30 to $50 still unaccounted.... she still claims that she had lost it and does not know the amount cos she didn't open the hongbaos She also insists that the phonecard was given to her by another maid. Now, her actions make me so suspicious that she has done more than just \"under-declared\" her hongbaos. Very defiant and unrependant, she only apologised after I scolded her and made her admit that she was at fault. Am already wary and have advised all in the family to keep watch over their cash and valuables.


Heard that more expensive (salary and agency fees) to employ maids now. What is the situation now?

Am keeping my options open, just in case, can't trust this maid though she has been a good worker for the past 4 months. She still claims that she wants to continue to work, but am quite convinced that she is a habitual liar... In the meantime, am changing my routine and keeping her in the dark about it.

One, I cannot believe that only 4 months she can be so yahyah already. Sorry, I'm being evil, but if you don't intend to keep her, once her loan end - just send her back immediately. Don't let her transfer.

Yes, don't ever let her catch on what your routine is - element of surprise is always good.

Two, I think you got to think of backup plan. What is your maid's motive to come to SG to work? for her family? If so, maybe remind her constantly in subtle ways. Talk about her family and how wonderful when its time to return and how much she can do with the money she's earned. I like to feed my maids stories about those maids who went back to buy land, build house etc - keep their focus on their goal. A bit boh liao, but I can't think of anything else.

At my fren's place, the door is electronic lock - no key. Maid does not hold the key and she has no clue what the combination is. She can go out (escape in times of emergency) but there's no way to come back in. During night times, they can activate some alarm so if the door was opened (even legitimately), the alarm will ring very loud. Not sure if this will help.

Thanks so much! Hv already reminded her of her motives for coming to Singapore to work. So far, she has been doing her work diligently and her attitude still good. I think that she was influenced by the other maids at my relative's place where we stayed for a while... the maids there are horrible, they can yell and chat from the back of the house to another house a few houses away, signal to each other that can telephone, etc. Yes, will try to motivate her in subtle ways as you suggested. Will also check out the electronic lock though don't know whether feasible for HDB.

Just bought her some pants and asked her to wear these for work and keep the cargo bermudas with lots of pockets (my son's old shorts) for going out ... could not find those without pockets but realised that I can see a bulge if she is carrying things in her pocket.

Actually her actions just reminded me that we can't trust maids, sadly. During the recent springcleaning, found a stack of phonecards that belonged to my most \"obedient\" Fili maid and a \"love\" letter from a 60+ year old American man! Only goes to show that you really can't tell their true character. For my current maid, I'm sort of relieved that I know her character early ... though I am still so disappointed cos she is better at handling the kids than my previous Fili maid and had been doing a lot of housework without showing me a black face. Will be monitoring her... for now, will try to keep her unless cannot tahan anymore.

[gumiho]

fayeV:

Thanks everyone. Appreciate your kind responses...


I just told my DH my plan to change her, we got insurance on the bond so no worries of losing money there.

As for the loan, yes, we have 1 more month to go. just checked, alot of Indo maids are running away and trying to get rehired for higher pay! peapot, you are right, hard to get good ones, my mum says they are mostly the same, all liers. - its a good thing my mum stays with me so at least we have someone there most of the time. I will start looking for a replacement. If i were to go back to the same agency, I can request for someone new, not ex singapore?

I would suggest ex other countries except for HKG, SIN,TW, M'sia because they are too wise.

[peapot]

KSmom8, if my maid is 70% I will try to keep her because now changing maid is so different from the past. We have maid crunch now and demand is huge. Salary going up. So unless its really drastic if not just have to close one eye. That’s my suggestion for you too.

[peapot]

faye, you can request for new ones but now its seems the agent in Indonesian is taking their own sweet time to release the bio-data to Singapore’s agent.


My friend has been trying to change her maid but there was no bio-data for her to select. Quite discouraging.

Good for you to have someone at home. I m really a "lone ranger" at home.

[verykiasu2010]

peapot:

faye, you can request for new ones but now its seems the agent in Indonesian is taking their own sweet time to release the bio-data to Singapore's agent.


My friend has been trying to change her maid but there was no bio-data for her to select. Quite discouraging.

Good for you to have someone at home. I m really a \"lone ranger\" at home.

why not use the agents who have their own recruitment office in Indon ? they can email bio-data and arrange for video-link before you decide....?

[KSmom8]

peapot:

KSmom8, if my maid is 70% I will try to keep her because now changing maid is so different from the past. We have maid crunch now and demand is huge. Salary going up. So unless its really drastic if not just have to close one eye. That's my suggestion for you too.

I agree. I will keep her as long as I can close one eye or even both eyes, but if cannot tolerate, then it's time for a change. It's also stressful changing maids and training them all over again.

Since I'm at home most of the time, and don't leave the kids alone with the maid, I think it's still okay to keep her.

Now you know why I'd rather quit work and be a SAHM (which I feel is tougher than working)... I just can't bring myself to leave the kids in the care of a maid. Just can't trust them and wont take the risk.

[titank]

KSmom8:

titank:

Hi All,


Just went maid agencies shopping around. Heard that now for new Tagalog & Indon Maids their starting salary would be $400 without off days, $380 with off days. These would be fresh new maid. Agency fees would depend which can range from $299 onwards.

Another information is that it may come very soon that maid loan would be reduce to 2 months where the agency fee would shot up rocket high. Those who intend to get new maid better act fast. :celebrate:

Thanks for the info.

Is the reason for reducing the maid's loan to 2 months and transferring the remainder to the employer due to requirement from the Indonesian or Phillipines government?

I'm not quite sure where this is what I obtain from my maid agent. Seem like now can't find low or $0 agency fee, free unlimited maid replacement & 0% interest instalment plan for the maid loan!