I need your urgent advice about employing a maid. My wife has
already asked for help here, but we haven't come to a decision
yet.
As you may know, my maid is from Profts Agency Pte (PAP) and has
worked for my family for a long time. Her mother worked for my
wife's parents and did an excellent job, so we had faith in her.
But recently my wife thinks she has become arrogant and
insensitive, and is making some mistakes.
For example:
1) She flooded my kitchen – she told me that the drain
pipe has blocked. Then she assured me that it is very rare and
won’t happen again in the near future. Guess what? It flooded again
within a year! But last year, when I won 4D, my wife told me that
it is very rare and won't happen again in the near future. Guess
what? I won again within a year! So I feel like giving my maid the
benefit of the doubt.
However, just as I won the second
4D, upon returning home with my prized money, the drain pipe
flooded again. To my horror, my maid opened the gates for two
foreigners who claimed to be plumbers, which are actually
burgulars in disguise and my home was ransacked, and I
have lose more than what I had won in 4D. When I asked my maid why
she opened the doors to these people without verifying their
identities first, she says that as long as it is a foreigner, they
are bound to do things better and cheaper, and simply shrugged off
the responsibility. I was so angry but I can't reduce her pay,
because that she threaten me that my house will be in danger if I
cut her pay.
2) She didn’t close a window and one of my terrier dogs escaped.
My wife and I were so worried because he is the one who likes to
bite people most. Fortunately my maid made good friends with my
neighbour's maid, since it was the latter who finally found the dog
and gave him back to us. If not, maybe they would have kept my
prize terrier. My wife is a dog lover and actually I am surprised
that none of the other dogs have escaped before this.
However after this incident, I was
so embarrssed that my bunglow is already so well known for such a
careless yet irresponsible maid. I've became a laughing stock of
the whole neighbourhood. Many of my neighbours advise me to
sack the maid because she don't have the heart to look after the
dog well and also says that I am stupid to hire such an expensive
maid that doesn't do much and shrug responsibilities while they
paid their maids more reasonably and yet have lesser frustrations
while living in first class bunglows.
Other maids who claimed to be her
good friends, actually complained to me quietly why is she paid so
much, yet do so little, while they work so hard, yet the amount is
equals to the market rate. They asked me whether I can hire all of
them with the same pay as hers. I rebutted them: "No! I don't
have that money to hire so many of you. But if you all are
willingly to serve me, I can pay all of you the monthly pay which
is equal to hers alone, one month salary." Why not? With the kind
of pay she is getting, I can hire 10 or even 20 maids to do the
same job efficiently.
But my maid has also done alot of good things for me. For
example:
1) She introduced some of her friends to do my house's
maintenance work. (I bought my super big bungalow with my 4D
money.) I have to give them food and a bed while they are working
for me, but they really help to keep costs down. With the savings,
I went to G&S Jewellery and bought a diamond ring for my wife!
I also bought two D24 durians, my wife's favourite food.
However after a few months of
working in my house, some of them ran away with some of my
belongings and one of them even had the audacity to stole
the diamond ring I bought for my wife. In the end, I lost a
lot of money paying these people food and loggings for the past
years and they ran away just like that.
Some even went back to their
homeland and complained that I treat them badly and Singaporeans
are not honest people. The rest demanded a higher pay as the times
go by, claiming they need more money because of higher GST, food
prices and transport fares. My maid also take the chance to
threaten me again to raise her pay else my home will be in danger.
I wondered if she is the maid of the house or I am the maid
instead.
I am extremely upset because not
only she mislead two bogus plumbers to rob my house, now she wants
to gang up with other foreign workers to "rob" my money. And I am
still trying to recover the losses of the last burglary.
2) Most of the time, she cleans my house very well. I have won
the "Cleanest Bungalow" award 10 years in a row and the "No Chewing
Gum Litter" award since 1992. Just last year, I won the "Your
Ornate Garden" competition, which was held for the very first time.
The prize money may not have been big, in fact I spent lots of my
4D money on beautifying my garden, but at least I've made
history!
Recently, the neighbourhood
committee who awarded me the previous awards came to my house to
access my garden to determine whether I should win the "Your Ornate
Garden" prize again. I looked at my garden and was disheartened by
it. Not only did the recent floods due to my maid's negligence, had
destroyed the garden, it is also filled with litter thrown by the
foreign workers introduced by my maid. Worst the grass patch was
littered with food, beer bottles and newspapers, which were left by
some of them who likes to rest on the grass patch and chit
chat at night.
I told the committee to forget it.
As he walked around my house, there is litter everywhere, and
although my house banned chewing gum years back, the foreign
talents like to spit around the house, not only it is dirty and
ugly, but it is unhygenic as well. The committee guy joked with me: "So should I
award you the most spitted house in this neighbourhood?" Trying to
hide the shame behind me, I replied: "All thanks to my
maid."
The time with this maid has flown, and there've been both good
and bad things. My wife insisted that we go to some of the other
maid agencies to interview some of the maids there. Problem is,
they don't seem to be much good.
However looking back on how
much embarressment and troubles that my maid had given to me and my
family in just a few years, I think that probably trying someone
new at least gives me a new hope from all these predicaments in
future.
1) Workhard Pte (WP). They showed me their star maid, who has
degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford! But she has been working
in another country for 30 years, I don't know if she even speaks my
language, let alone know how to do a maid's work.
However as I hear her speak after
I told her about my maid problems, she seems to understand what I
am going through and give me some suitable solutions to solve them.
I have never seen such a proactive maid. My current maid
just shrug the responsibility instead of coming up a suitable
solution. I am amazed that although she worked for another
country for a long time, but she clearly understands what Singapore
employers want. And she is adaptable and
flexible.
2) Super Personnel Pte (SPP). Again, I asked for their star
maid, who has been working since 1984. So experienced right? But
she suffered a stroke a few years back, and she talks really
slowly. I'm not sure if she's too old to be a maid.
But from her past records, she
seems to have a fighting spirit and is sincere about her job.
Although that she is old, but she has never change another employer
since 1984. And she will do her best in everything despite her age.
Thinking back of the time I went to Profts Agency Pte (PAP) many
months back, most of the old maids looked pretty arrogant
because they claim to have more experience and boost how
capable they are. But one of them spilled a cup of tea on
me and say it is my fault to sit so far away.
But for this maid, slow but
sincere, consistent and have the zeal to work.
Respect.
3) New Solutions Pte (NSP). Their maid looks so young, I really
think she's underage. How much experience does she have? I don't
really want to hire someone who has no idea what to do.
However hearing from what
she says about herself and what can she contribute to me as my maid
in the house, she seems to be able to communicate to me clearly on
what I am expected of her and what a maid should really do to give
the best for her employer. I am amazed by her words she said from
her heart.
This was so different to the young
maid that I had talked to in Profts Agency Pte (PAP) yesterday. She
looks very young and inexperienced. And I wondered how she get the
LV purse she is holding if she is a maid. When I asked her what can
she contibute as a maid, her face went blank, stomped her feet and
says "I don't know what to say". I was shocked by her outburst. Am
I hiring a maid or a schoolgirl? Am I in the wrong maid
agency?
So, do you think I should sack my current maid and try out a new
one? My current maid may be expensive, but she claims she know what
she's doing, however in the end, she only thinks that what she is
doing is right herself. She never had a thought of what I am
feeling and what actually I want.
Looking at the other agencies, they are sincere, not pretendious
and lazy and also cheaper. What should I do?
