All About Full-Time Maids

[Anna Ng]

my second one also a transfer maid. We interview her face to face, told her clearly her’s roles in front of the agent. After a week she requested for transfer as she don like children. In this case, how can i apply so called "maid management" to her as what CLX stated?

[SMH FOREST]

tigger88:

How to not blind hire? Most of the time we do not get to see the maid face to face to conduct interviews. We choose maids based on bio data, even if we have a chance to interview them over the phone, there is no guarantee what the maid initially agreed to do or said have experience for certain job scope etc will be true. Isn't this a tikam?

Exactly!! When i wrote to MOM for feedback about my ex maid, who wanted to go back agency after a day at my place... MOM said the same thing. Recommend that we interview face to face. I replied, asking them how is that possible for new maids?? Again, no further replies...

I am not very optimistic about our system anymore judging by the response from the people who set our policies!

[SMH FOREST]

Anna Ng:

my second one also a transfer maid. We interview her face to face, told her clearly her's roles in front of the agent. After a week she requested for transfer as she don like children. In this case, how can i apply so called \"maid management\" to her as what CLX stated?

Same for my case... took a transfer fili maid... interviewed her face to face and told her that her main chores are housework, but she'll need to help manage my kid when we get ready for work etc. Came for a week, she had ZERO interaction with my kid... end up i was rushing and late for work that week... when I confronted her why she didn't even try to talk or smile at my kid... she cried, fussed, and wanted to go back to agency... saying she cannot handle my kid. Are such characters of the helper \"detectable\", available in their past history, so that we wouldn't blind hire???

Think most of us who have been thru \"bad\" cases, will know the answer very very well.

[nms1]

SMH FOREST:

Anna Ng:

my second one also a transfer maid. We interview her face to face, told her clearly her's roles in front of the agent. After a week she requested for transfer as she don like children. In this case, how can i apply so called \"maid management\" to her as what CLX stated?

Same for my case... took a transfer fili maid... interviewed her face to face and told her that her main chores are housework, but she'll need to help manage my kid when we get ready for work etc. Came for a week, she had ZERO interaction with my kid... end up i was rushing and late for work that week... when I confronted her why she didn't even try to talk or smile at my kid... she cried, fussed, and wanted to go back to agency... saying she cannot handle my kid. Are such characters of the helper \"detectable\", available in their past history, so that we wouldn't blind hire???

Think most of us who have been thru \"bad\" cases, will know the answer very very well.

Just interested - did you have your children with you when you interviewed them? I've have always done that and although they can put it on if they want, if you see zero interaction with the children then you know to reject them. My daughter is actually very good at picking!

[cool_hi]

Yup! I also brought BOTH my kids, 2yr old son & 5yr old girl to agency together, with hubby & my mum, & after we interviewed the maids, while we clarify certain issues with agent,we will try & my mum will help us observe how the maid handle/mingle with our kids..from basic things like how they carry them/talk to them etc, can roughly gauge whether ok or not..& whether our kids feel at ease with them or not..

but of course, if the maid can really act very well, we can also be fooled la,but I think it's better than nothing lor.. hope what I share is helpful
Good luck!!

[Chu Liu Xiang]

Anna Ng:

my second one also a transfer maid. We interview her face to face, told her clearly her's roles in front of the agent. After a week she requested for transfer as she don like children. In this case, how can i apply so called \"maid management\" to her as what CLX stated?

In this case you've not even properly select your maid. First step was wrong so after that things don't work out

:boogie:

[SMH FOREST]

Thanks nms1 and cool_hi!!


That was the first time i took a transfer maid... and i didnt know better! In the past, recommendations i've got was to get fresh maids and not transfer ones. In any case, after that failed incident with transfer maid, ppl have told me to do just what you had recommended... i hope i dont have to do this again anytime soon, since the current maid is the replacement of that transfer maid... it's been a month+... we're ironing out issues and training her still... :xedfingers:

[Anna Ng]

Chu Liu Xiang:

Anna Ng:

my second one also a transfer maid. We interview her face to face, told her clearly her's roles in front of the agent. After a week she requested for transfer as she don like children. In this case, how can i apply so called \"maid management\" to her as what CLX stated?

In this case you've not even properly select your maid. First step was wrong so after that things don't work out

:boogie:

This statement is unfair to me. FYI, last week this 2nd maid was checking with my nanny whether i still wants her back or not. She is now working with other employer and she claimed that working with me is much more better.

Maybe you can share with us how to select a maid, i really hope can learn the correct methods and i think lots of mummy here also keen to learn from you, IF IT IS WORKING. Perhaps a proper SOP from you. Thanks

[Chu Liu Xiang]

Hi hquek


very complicated what you say. So far, I've hired 3. the shortest one has stayed is 1 year +. The longest? 5 years. We don't train the maids much - my mum is in charge of showing them what is to be done. maids have a lot of flexibility in what they choose to do so long as basics are done (floor mopping, clothes washing).

I don't think I'm enlightened, I don't think I'm very good at selecting...in fact all 3 were picked by the agent and I bought into her sales talk. The only thing I can say is that I was lucky. pure and simple. Somehow I managed to hire maids that were interested in working.

I think your agent helped a lot rather than pure luck

I see from here stories about maids who are more keen in meeting friends, lovers, getting other jobs - anything other than the domestic work they were hired for.

That's why initial proper selection plays a very important part

Shares yes, one can analyse past history and performance - and those items have been audited by professionals. But for maids? the past history a prospective employer gets is what the maid (or rather the agency) chooses to portray. For example, my first maid was supposed to have moderate skills in cooking...well, if we had depended on her to cook, I think we would all have starved to death...or died of cancer eating all the burnt stuff (we did let her try). She was also supposed to have looked after young children. After I saw her pinch my barely two-weeks-old DS1's peeing organ to clean the underside (it's not child abuse, just her mode of handling), I decided that thereafter she only have to clean the house and not my kids.

I'm giving an analogy only not an exact mirror of maid hiring. My intent is to show that one (most) has to work very hard to get the right hire. BTW, supposing is not good enough to get the job done

I get the feel prospective employers would like for someone to be able to pick out the wheat from the chaff. Since you seem to be so wise, perhaps you may like to offer maid selection services? Biz idea?

Not so fast but conducting courses on maid hiring and management seems to be in the pipeline

[nms1]

We have probably been lucky as I have had 4 transfer maids - one came from a friend and the other 3 we selected after interview - and they have all been great. Unfortunately 2 of them left to go to Canada so we’ve had to change a few times.


One key in interviews is to ask scenario based questions e.g. don’t just ask "what dishes can you cook?". Ask that then when she claims to be able to cook chicken curry, ask her to explain how to do it.

If you have a baby ask how she would prepare milk or bathe the child. If you have your mother or m-i-l in the house, ask how she will handle it if you ask her to do something one way then the m-i-l says the opposite. They are all very good at agreeing with you if you ask whether they can do something or not.

I usually also ask what their current working day is like - what time they get up, what they do, how they organise their work (i.e. are they given a schedule or do they do themselves).

I usually ask my daughter to ask one question (she’s P1 now but has done it since Nursery!) - it’s usually a silly question but it’s good to see how they respond.