All About Full-Time Maids

[Andaiz]

Admummy:

[BINGO.. this was no. 1 in my Forbidden List!! hahha ....shared my concern with her and she told me abt a type of injection that is famous in Java to prevent pregnancy!!!

Ewwww....safe or not? Is this folk medicine? I'd be wary...after she's been \"Singaporean-ized\", can her body take it? Hope there's no side-effectes :roll:

I mean \"Singaporean-ized\" as in my previous maids, when they returned to their hometown couldn't get used to hygiene levels, food etc...and they've lived there all their lives prior to working and completing their tenure with us. Of course, every day drink CHinese soup till can all \"graduate\" to cook for Chinese families in HK :celebrate: ...my mum's training, what to do?

[Jav]

Hi Admummy,


Similar time frame, my maid is going back between 12-26 Sept but she is from Nusa Tenggara Timur, another island, transportation there pretty difficult. I am paying for her air ticket (return) from Singapore to Surabaya and she has to take domestic flight from Surabaya to Maumere and then take taxi / bus from Maumere to her kampung, which she said she will bear it herself.

SG-SBY ticket is much cheaper, oni SGD 210 with Silk air than her domestic fights, about SGD 400.

If you have not booked the air ticket, quickly do so as during the Hari Raya, lot’s of people go back to kampung and transportation will be fully booked soon. If your maid has not gotten people to pick her up or have not arranged her domestic transportation, she would have trouble time then as everyone would be snatching for public transport.

I don’t think flight to Jakarta from Singaproe is SGD 400, you can always take Tiger Air or Jetstar will be much cheaper. Can check directly at their website.

Hope this helps

[ChiefKiasu]

mummyjoyce:

...Hi,

I am getting nervious. Current maid leaving this Thursday and new maid arriving on Friday. I have took 1.5 weeks of leave from work to train the maid.

However I just got a call from the agent saying that Friday; the new maid will need to go for checkup and English tests. If she failed (either one of them); I will not be able to collect her on Friday afternoon itself.

I am so stress now thinking about Friday :?: I just need to cross my fingers that I am able to collect my maid.

Yes... getting maids these days require a lot of .

Our previous maid returned back home about 3 months ago... and we had to go through 3 different maids since before getting the right one! The funny thing is, we didn't reject the maids... they rejected us :!: . My wife is one tough cookie

[Jav]

It’s all about luck in having the right maid. You can’t just trust the biodata & picture. Prior to my current maid, I was so desperate to hire any maid, any nationality would do that time about 2 yrs ago. We selected a very experienced Filipino maid, fr the picture, she looked very motherly and had been working for 4 yrs with one employer. She speaks good English and I found everything was alright during my phone interview. Perfect match and experience in looking after children. I then asked for a referral to speak with her previous Employer. She was very willingly & convincingly gave me the house number & told me that her sister was also working with the same employer. I called & called but never had a chance to speak with the employer as the employer was not home all the time. At the last minute - a very late evening about 9pm, I told my husband to try again calling the employer. And bingo, the employer answered the house phone, he told it all to my hubby that the reason he had to let go home because he found her pregnant with an eldery man! Oooh lah lah… since then I learnt to do a reference check with ex-employer and normally ex-employer would share about the experience about their maid. If the maid is of sound good character then they would normally say ok ok no prob. I think the same for all of you at least we would want somebody we can trust of, no stealing or lying, right?

[lifestylelink]

My agent has a Chinese Speaking candidate from Myanmar. Anyone interested to get the CV can PM me. I would love to keep her for myself, but my current maid is leaving only in November and she cannot wait that long.

[raynreg]

lifestylelink:

My agent has a Chinese Speaking candidate from Myanmar. Anyone interested to get the CV can PM me. I would love to keep her for myself, but my current maid is leaving only in November and she cannot wait that long.

Hi lifestylelink, drop you a pm.
Cheers

[Andaiz]

Has anyone's maid asked for a pay advance?


Mine did over the weekend after supposedly speaking to her DH and I was wondering if I'd made the right decision.

I asked her what that was for - she replied to redeem her pawn coupons (presumably pawned to pay for her passage here). When asked what the rush was payday is 10 days more), \"so that ma'm you don't need to go down twice to Lucky Plaza to remit money\" - only later did I dig out the details that the coupons expire on 15th...then I asked her why she's not sent money back for the last 2 months? She gave me her usual pan-face!

When checking with her, she said the 2 months' pay was enough for the redemption (which she has, obviously) and wanted a little extra to send back for the kids for some parade through town this month.

I then re-iterated that the cash advance would be approved if her work improved and work attitude changed for the better.

This morning, I had to remind her of the looming deadline for the pawn shop redemption. She then passed me (after she asked if she could put the money on the table - how rude!) less than her 2 months' pay :shock:.

When I inquired why it was so little (I know she's easily $100+ left) and if the advance was necessary, she said nonchalantly \"if you want to ma'm\" :? If it's really needed home, why is she giving so little back home - and waiting (hoping even) that I'd make up for the rest? Her excuse is that the remaining money was for her sister....

Her story keeps changing till I don't know what to believe anymore. She doesn't need to keep that much money with her coz we pay for everything she needs, right down to her sanitary napkin and medical stuff, if required.

So I went with my gutfeel that it was all a bluff. Did I do right?

[winth]

Hi Andaiz,


Gutfeel here says that she’s lying too.

[lifestylelink]

lifestylelink:

My agent has a Chinese Speaking candidate from Myanmar. Anyone interested to get the CV can PM me. I would love to keep her for myself, but my current maid is leaving only in November and she cannot wait that long.

Dear KSPs,
Just to let you know that the Chinese speaking Maid from Myanmar is taken. Thanks for the overwhelming response. :celebrate:

Anyone else interested will have to pre-order. Reason is that there are not many chinese speaking Myanmar girls, wanting to come to Singapore. Like Indonesian Chinese, they are \"more wealthy\" than the typical Myanmar citizens. The other thing is that it is also not easy for them to get passport approval, they need \"connection\".

If you are interested in maids from Philippines and Indonesia, my agent also have lah. Unlike other maid agency, she specialises in foreign workers placement. My referral gets extra perks. PM me with the details on job scope, maid country of origin preferred, family structure, house type and I'll get agent to do a maid-matching for you. :idea:

Also indicate if it is for immediate placement (1-2 months) or forward placement (2-3 months onwards).

[thebusybee]

Andaiz:

Has anyone's maid asked for a pay advance?

My transfer maid asked for pay advance before, which she was genuinely poor as she worked 10mths w/o pay (the agency deducted 2 more months of her pay after rejected from the 1st employer due to communication problem, she doesn't know English at all)

She worked for me after serving the 2nd employer for about a year, which only draw about 2 months of pay. I pitied her at first to help her thru' difficult times by advance her pay once.

Same as her previous employer, I do not allow her to hold cash, except for sanitary and phone card top ups ($10-$20 once a month)

Every month nearing her pay day, her husband/family member/s will call her up to send money home. It only came to my attention recently that it's a norm that the family will quote 'someone ill/died, needs to repay loans' as 'excuses', i gave her benefit of doubts, since those are her money. I'd been telling/teaching her to keep more money to herself when return home after contract.

After few times of sending money home (sometimes just 1-2 hundred, paying $12 extra service fees which I told her not worth paying the extras), I lay the cards down other than educating her on managing her hard-earn money. I told her I need to keep 2 months of her salary in case of her sudden needs to quit or some thing happened back home that requires her to go home, as a guarantee for me.