All About Full-Time Maids

[peapot]

Hi! I totally agree with baong. Since you do not have any experience in getting a maid before, she may be too experienced for you.


Btw, I recently selected a maid from united channel employement agency in Bukit Timah, any comment about this agency? I was just wondering if its possible to take the maid biodata and pass to another agency to bring her in. Anyone has any idea?

I don’t quite like their service but my mom like this particular maid’s biodata, so I m quite reluctant to change maid. I have placed $50 to confirm this maid but I don’t mind to forgo the $50 to change agency.

[baong]

peapot:

Hi! I totally agree with baong. Since you do not have any experience in getting a maid before, she may be too experienced for you.


Btw, I recently selected a maid from united channel employement agency in Bukit Timah, any comment about this agency? I was just wondering if its possible to take the maid biodata and pass to another agency to bring her in. Anyone has any idea?

I don't quite like their service but my mom like this particular maid's biodata, so I m quite reluctant to change maid. I have placed $50 to confirm this maid but I don't mind to forgo the $50 to change agency.

Hi peapot,

If you are not happy with the service of the agent, I don't see why you should give them business. Actually whether you can get a good maid really depends on your luck and nothing else. I believe everyone(including me ) when selecting a maid would have think/consider/compare not only twice, maybe two hundred times before deciding and felt that we have made the right choice, but sometimes, the maid and our family just can't seem to have a right match. When such cases happened, the agent will come into the picture and to me its very important that they provide good after sales service. If you are not comfortable dealing with them even before you pay them the service charge and the loan, are you really sure this agent can serve you should you have any problem with the maid later on?? Now that you have made the deposit, why not try to run a few more agents and see if you could find another suitable bio as well as an agent you are comfortable dealing with? Relax, try not to rush into a decision

As for your other question, I do know that maid agencies take bios from each other and try to market the bios, coz my agent does that. But problem is you do not know who they work with so unless you are very lucky, to chance upon their partner, I don't think you can bring the same maid in via another agency. But who knows you may be lucky. Like I said, I think you should go to a few more agents and look around a little

Cheers!

[thebusybee]

My MIL just discovered my maid's been meeting an Indian man at the market frequently.


MIL's been suspecting it as our maid will on and off asked for money from ILs to buy things like garlic, onion, as an excuse to leave the house.

Earlier this morning, my MIL saw this man followed them to the market food centre while MIL's with my SIL, my maid and 3 kids. After that my MIL went to the market stall owners to check out, confirmed that people there have seen my maid meeting/talking to this man many times, even when she's walking my son!

Few months back, she claimed she has lost our house keys while on the bus, after some lecturing and telling her the consequences, her story changed and the keys miraculously appeared! We now worry that she had passed the key to this man (apparently he's staying nearby) We intend to change another pad-lock to be safe from now on.

We are planning to talk to her after I get home tonight.

Can anyone advice an effective approach to talk to her? What are the areas we should focus on?

She has not given any trouble so far, we are satisfied with her works and intend to extend her after 2 years. (She's with us since Jan '09)

[Lynn2]

Baong


well said.

Just wonder, what is the difference between we getting the bios via agent send her and view the bios there ourself.

Do you think we are able to see better datas in the agency itself rather they shortlist based on our citeria?thanks


rgds

baong:

peapot:

Hi! I totally agree with baong. Since you do not have any experience in getting a maid before, she may be too experienced for you.

Btw, I recently selected a maid from united channel employement agency in Bukit Timah, any comment about this agency? I was just wondering if its possible to take the maid biodata and pass to another agency to bring her in. Anyone has any idea?

I don't quite like their service but my mom like this particular maid's biodata, so I m quite reluctant to change maid. I have placed $50 to confirm this maid but I don't mind to forgo the $50 to change agency.

Hi peapot,

If you are not happy with the service of the agent, I don't see why you should give them business. Actually whether you can get a good maid really depends on your luck and nothing else. I believe everyone(including me ) when selecting a maid would have think/consider/compare not only twice, maybe two hundred times before deciding and felt that we have made the right choice, but sometimes, the maid and our family just can't seem to have a right match. When such cases happened, the agent will come into the picture and to me its very important that they provide good after sales service. If you are not comfortable dealing with them even before you pay them the service charge and the loan, are you really sure this agent can serve you should you have any problem with the maid later on?? Now that you have made the deposit, why not try to run a few more agents and see if you could find another suitable bio as well as an agent you are comfortable dealing with? Relax, try not to rush into a decision

As for your other question, I do know that maid agencies take bios from each other and try to market the bios, coz my agent does that. But problem is you do not know who they work with so unless you are very lucky, to chance upon their partner, I don't think you can bring the same maid in via another agency. But who knows you may be lucky. Like I said, I think you should go to a few more agents and look around a little

Cheers!

[icycandies]

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie in terms of hiring maid.

My main concern now is that I have no extra room to let the maid sleep in. I stayed with my parent in law and my sister in law in a 5 bedroom. The 3 bedroom are all occupied. There is no way my teenager sister in law is going to share her room with the maid.

I have check with the agency, and understand that MOM ruling don’t really allow maids to sleep in the living room. Is this a real concern? I have my 2nd baby coming along in march, so I really need help.

[baong]

Hi Lynn2,


I don’t exactly get your question… But normally this is what I do. If the agency is new to me, I’ll definitely make a trip personally to the agency to see :

1. If there are a lot of transfer maids sitting around/busy doing ‘cleaning’ in the agency. Its not a good sign if there are a lot of transfer maids sitting around, cause its shows that the agency probably did not do a careful job to match the maids to their clients. Pretend that you wanted to get a transfer maid and count how many are there. If there are more than 3, I usually walk out of the agency after a polite talk.

2. Talk to the agent. Well, do you feel you have been served? Did the agent bother to ask you what you need the maid for? If I am not comfortable talking to the agent or I feel that I have not been ‘served’, I usually walk out as well. Make sure the agent is really aware about your needs and make a short-list of their bios for your consideration.

3. Ask if they/someone from their company travel personally to the country to short list the maid for their agency. If they do not do that and say that they rely on their counter parts to provide them the maids’ info. I will walk out too, as I feel that these kind of agencies do not deserve my money. See they don’t even bother to evaluate the maids that they are marketing, do you think they are serious in helping their clients?

Yes alot of stuffs are online now and its really convenient to click and view and make a phone call to purchase but there are still certain things that I think cannot be replace by the virtual way.

As for the selecting of maids, if the agency fits the above 3 criteria, I usually rely on their recommendation/short listed bios for my decision. I hope I help answer your question.

Hi icycandies,

Actually I am not aware about this room for maid rule. But if MOM doesn’t allow that then I guess you are taking a risk if you let your domestic helper sleep in the living room. What if MOM found out about it?

[peapot]

Hi Baong,


I took your advice and went around insearch of more bio-datas. Still searching…

Icycandies,

Actually I don’t think you need to tell anyone about the sleeping arrangement. Its not that you "intentionally" let her sleep in the living room but is restraint by the lack of space. If the maid is happy working for you, I don’t think she will go to MOM. You can try explaining it to the maid and let her be mentally prepared.

To be honest, I have a similar problem. I wanted to install a spy camera in my daughter’s room and this is also the same room that my maid sleeps in. I too worry the maid may turn around and says that my husband is a peeping tom.

[mrswongtuition]

peapot:

To be honest, I have a similar problem. I wanted to install a spy camera in my daughter's room and this is also the same room that my maid sleeps in. I too worry the maid may turn around and says that my husband is a peeping tom.

I have CCTVs all over my house.

My agent's advise: get it in BLACK & WHITE that there IS a camera in that room to monitor your baby & it is not to invade your maid's privacy. She's not allowed to change in the room. Get it translated into Bahasa Indonesia also & ask your maid to sign before she starts work, preferably at the agency with their staff as witness.

[tamarind]

icycandies:

Hi everyone,

I am a newbie in terms of hiring maid.

My main concern now is that I have no extra room to let the maid sleep in. I stayed with my parent in law and my sister in law in a 5 bedroom. The 3 bedroom are all occupied. There is no way my teenager sister in law is going to share her room with the maid.

I have check with the agency, and understand that MOM ruling don't really allow maids to sleep in the living room. Is this a real concern? I have my 2nd baby coming along in march, so I really need help.

There is a change in the Security Bond conditions :
http://singaporemaid.blogspot.com/2009/10/change-in-security-bond-conditions.html

That we should provide acceptable housing to them.


MOM did not really say that maids cannot sleep in the living room. The keyword is \"acceptable\". I suppose it is up to the maid to decide whether it is acceptable. Speak to the maid first and make sure that she is OK with the arrangement, and may be you can give her some incentives to make it up to her. Do you have a bomb shelter ? If you make sure that it is well ventilated, then it may be acceptable too. If you are going to move to your own place in the future, you can also tell her that it is a temporary arrangement.

[icycandies]

Thanks baong, peapot and tamarind.


My hse wont be ready until 2 more yrs, by then I am not sure if she will be still wait us. The plus point is I will be handling the toddler and the newborn on my own at night and she can have a good rest sleeping in the living room. I can lights out for her when the time to rest had come.

Will definately stress on this when I interview the maid.