All About Full-Time Maids

[hquek]

and smh_forest, her monthly salary is due to her, and that’s that. Anything extra IS extra - if she earned it becos of her good attitude, good work, that’s great. But my take is that she will have to show she deserves it.


Don’t think you are shortchanging her, you are definitely not.

[Admummy]

smh_forrest,

Your experiences sound so familiar to me..mine also everytime bring her out, sure talk to other maid (despite being reminded)... sama sama on the phone calls..she used up the $10 calling card by spending two hours on one call..we also out of goodwill sponsor calling card even though she just joined my family less than a month at that time..she even cheeky said deduct from her pay when we explained to her how she should use the card wisely..her pay now is only $20 monthly ( due to her loan)...Yah when ask her to do things like clean fan.. she will say \"difficult\", not even attempting to try..hai..really blood boil with her sometimes but every time make me angry and scold her then feel apologetic...afterall she is so young and poor thing to come here alone...now I pray no.3 quickly grow up and I will not rely on maid anymore..then the expenses on the maid will transformed to my pocket money..think of all the money save...

[Admummy]

LKVM:

I sometimes feel shall we really not allow them to talk to other maids?

True I also feel is it too harsh but after hearing stories abt maids who turn \"bad\" after chatting with other maid.. I dare not risk...

[hquek]

i think it’s impossible for them not to talk to their friends - if we go overseas to work for sometime, I’m sure we would want to find friends to talk to?


I can’t communicate with them, and won’t stop them from chatting up others - will draw line at inviting pp in. My first one was more shy, but it was very funny to see her and other maids looking at each other, shy smile, winking perhaps. A bit like those old-style movies. And I thought she didn’t have friends here, after a while, my mum told me that she was spending a lot of time hanging the clothes (we had a mobile hanger to be placed on the floor). Turns out she made friends with the maid next door and would chat with her.

For 2nd one, i actually encouraged her to talk to the neighbour’s maid downstairs. was a bit concerned she may go crazy with no one to talk to. As long as work is done, i close my eyes. Of course, I did tell her that if she bring pp home, and things are lost, all fingers will be on her.

[Admummy]

Let me clarify myself…stories like this maid got to know other maids (due to opportunity to chat with others since m’am not around to spot check), steal her m’am belonging and hide them with her new found "friend" (the other maid), in return that party get some commission…this partnership continued until discovered by the other maid’s m’am when doing spring cleaning…or maid comparing salary allowances benefits and then come back buay song and give attitude problems… So all these can be avoided in the first place…

[hquek]

hi admummy,


oh! sorry, I took the wrong train. Anyway, I do take steps to avoid letting her meet more pp; eg, I don’t bring the maid out much after the first one. I definitely won’t bring her to friend’s/relative places becos then they have all the time to chit chat and compare. I’m fine if they just exchange glances.

on the changing of things, yes, I reckon there is that risk. It’s a bit hard to avoid becos many a time, we are not at home. Our place has an electronic lock and my maid has no clue what the pin number is, neither does she have the key. If there is fire, she can run out easily. but once out, she can’t come in without pin/key.

[hquek]

My friend’s maid used to be alright with her work - take care of kids, household chores. but after she brought her maid to her friends’ places, the maid chatted with the others and started to ask for day off, etc. She was still a good worker by any other means, but from this, I learnt it’s best to keep her at home than bring her along to such parties.

[nms1]

I think we do have to allow them some interaction with other people; just imagine if you weren’t allowed to talk to anyone apart from your boss!


My current maid is pretty sensible and will say hello to the maids either side of us but limits it to brief chats. She knows & is friends with the maids of our friends who she has met when they’ve come to our house or at gatherings outside. I don’t have a problem with this and I think it’s good for her. I also know that she is paid reasonably well and is treated at least as well, if not better, than them so I don’t have any worries there.

[hquek]

hi nms1, means we can’t allow our maids to talk to yours then. hee hee hee.


(joking only)

[Admummy]

hquek:

hi admummy, oh! sorry, I took the wrong train.

haha you so cute... no problem, we are just sharing experiences in this forum here, different people got different ways of doing things, no hard and fast rule one lah...cheers...