I keep my maid’s hp and only give it to her at night after her work is done and she hands it back to me before 11pm. It was going well until about a month ago when I noticed her work performance slowing down a lot, more toilet breaks and longer time to do her business, and taking forever to iron. I think these are the general signs of a maid with a hp. I walked into her room today and caught her with her new hp (she was using it and ironing at the same time). She knows from day 1 that she is not allowed to keep one on her own. I had a lot of problems with my first maid using her hp as I didn’t set any rules and she would talk until 2-3am at night and broke a lot of my things (broke through 2 irons, 5 teapots, many cups, lots more other things) and was constantly tired during the day. She worked for me for almost 4 years and in the end I transferred her as her attitude was getting really bad. After she left I always set rules with hp usage.


So with this current maid, I took her new hp back and reminded her that she is not to keep a hp on her own. I told her she can use it every night and even during the day but must ask me for it. I told her I want to keep the relationship and not have to wonder what she is doing when her work performance is slower than normal one day over the next. Gut feeling she might ask for a transfer without being able to "keep" her hp or simply buy another one…

It is not easy to enforce the rule and most will break it - having their hp at night after work is simply not good enough. She is my fourth maid and my two previous maids before her broke the rule and I end up giving in to them because I was too tired to keep on training a new maid and to end up hearing them wanting to transfer because of the same old problem - not being able to keep their own hp. I will probably give in to my current maid and let her keep her hp as I can already foresee what is going to happen - she will leave without one. But for sure rules must be set. Only use it during lunch break and after work is done at night. But if she is still not happy with those rules and cross the limit, then I am happy to transfer her.