All About Full-Time Maids

[tamarind]

winth,

I have sent back a few maids before. I usually only give one hour notice. The maid had to pack within one hour and leave for the airport. I know this sounds ruthless, but that time I had babies at home, and I was very worried that the maid would become crazy and do stupid things. I told the maid that we are all migrating to USA and cannot bring her along. The maid had no choice but to pack and leave. Another time, we told the maid that I am going to stay at home to look after the kids, so I cannot afford to keep her. I told her that I wrote her a very good letter of recommendation, she was happy to leave.

I made the mistake of informing a maid 2 weeks in advance. That maid went crazy and started banging things. She threatened to run to the embassy. It was a nightmare. I had treated her well enough, I did not deserve this. After this incident, I gave my maids only one hour notice.

However, if you are sending the maid back to the agency for transfer, you should ask her whether she wants to transfer to a new employer or not. Otherwise she might go crazy at the agency, and she is still your responsibility.


Read this page for more information.

http://singaporemaid.blogspot.com/2007/07/sending-maid-away.html

[ChiefKiasu]

matrix0405:

How strict are you with your maid, for items like having handphones, day-off, talking with neighbours' maids etc?

[Moderator's note: Topics merged]

[matrix0405]

winth:

Hi,


I had bad experience with current maid who is only with me for less than 2 months.

1) She went with me to Shichida for a couple of times (not more than 4 times), and I thot it's inevitable that she will have fellow maids to talk to, so I didn't enforce that she cannot talk to people. (But anyway, don't think they wi In the first place, maids did not even value-add into our daily lives.

This is the perfect guide book for 'bad' maid; my previous maid executed the same procedure. And that's when trouble begins.

[tamarind]

I don’t forbid my maids to talk to other maids. I think that maids are also human, they also need to socialize. If the maid turns bad, there is nothing we can do. Just send her away and get a new maid.


Maids are here to work for us for a salary. They are only our employees. The maid is not our relative working for us for free. She should be treated in the same way as how our boss treats us.

[HappyAvon]

Our Indon maid who has been with us for 2 years will be returning home for good. Our new maid will also be arriving soon and this time round, we are trying out a filipino cos we think that we will not have so much communication problems. We are thinking of installing a CCTV since we do not have someone at home all the time. My hubby is self-employed and so his time is flexible and sometimes he works from home… however my hubby could not afford to be always at home watching our 3 yrs old girl in the afternoon…

Has anyone got a security camera installed at home and how useful is the equipment? Wld appreciate any comments

[ChiefKiasu]

HappyAvon:

Our Indon maid who has been with us for 2 years will be returning home for good...

[Moderator's note: Topics merged.]

[mintcc]

agree, that maids are also human. It’s only natural that they need to talk to others from their home country.


I don’t think the maids will actually not talk to people even if you order them not too anyway, especially to maids of our neighbors or other maids they meet when they are left unsupervised while we accompany or kids for enrichment. I will advise them not to talk to strangers telling them it is dangerous for them as there are a lot of bad people out there. A few months back my maid lent money to the neighbor’s maid and could not get it back as the neighbor sent their maids back …I used it as an example of why she should not lent money to or mixed too much with other maids.

But sometimes, them talking to trustworthy friend’s or relative’s maids might be useful too. One of my ex maids reveal to my relative’s maid that she has a lover in Singapore which confirm our suspicion of her before sending her back to the agent.

[winth]

Sianz man, got to handle all these nonsense... Work and Home life already cannot balance well liao, still got maid problems...


Now, I don't even want to bring her out anymore. Better let her sleep at home and sit around with nothing to do, than imagine all those troubles when we bring her out. Somemore, when we bring her out, it is out of pure goodwill to her.
[quote]I don't think the maids will actually not talk to people even if you order them not too anyway, especially to maids of our neighbors or other maids they meet when they are left unsupervised while we accompany or kids for enrichment.[/quote]I second that, my maid told me that her 'friend' said that her employers are 'stupid', tell her don't talk to other people. But obviously, she didn't even take this as an instruction.
[quote]Has anyone got a security camera installed at home and how useful is the equipment? Wld appreciate any comments[/quote]We bought a Linksys camera, and had this connected to a D-Link router. Different brands, end up got connection problems. We cannot view the video from our laptops from the office. But if we use our laptop from home, we can view it (from home, but what's the point?). And you can always call up their customer support to help. That time I tried to ask, the customer service told me, bec the brands are different, they cannot help as configurations are different.

So from my experience, if your router is D-Link, you should buy a D-Link security camera.

Somemore, this linksys camera spoil liao, after like 2 months. We won't be going through the 'getting camera fixed', since I'm sending maid home soon.

My friend has one from SingTel. For this one, she needs to dial in to view, so there will be connection charges (like per call basis). But it seems quite good and she's happy with it.

[HappyAvon]

Hi Winth, thanks for sharing on the camera thingy. Will check with Singtel on the charges. I agree if you could do away with a maid will be the best soloution to all the headaches and frustrations. However, for my case, I really do not have any helper…my in-laws are all in MSIA and my mum does not have the capabilities of taking care of children. My girl has been in 1/2 day childcare when she was like 22 months.

[winth]

Hi HappyAvon,


You’re most welcome! I think most couples have no choice, then they get a maid. Don’t think anyone likes to have their privacy intruded…

I’m very lucky to have both my parents and in-laws ‘snatching’ to look after my kids. Almost quarrelled with my in-laws when we decided to let my mother look after my kids. Even my father was upset that I chose my mother instead of him.