All About Maids

In today’s busy world, hiring a domestic helper is probably the best way to reduce our workloads and to regain some time for ourselves. Out of ten working mothers, I would say eight of them have a domestic helper at home. The challenge here is to find a competent, reliable and trustworthy helper. It is not easy at all!

 

A good helper eases our responsibilities at home, but if treated improperly, she can be a time-bomb too. Having said that, bringing a complete stranger into our house is no simple task. Besides the lack of privacy, we need to know what to expect from each other and how to deal with the daily conflicts.

 

I hired my first helper in April last year. She has been working for me for more than a year now. So far, her work performance has been satisfactory. I don’t have any major complaints so far. Helper is just like a learner driver to me. Small mistakes will result in point deductions. Big mistake will cause an immediate failure, and she will get a one-way ticket to Jakarta.

 

All working class people need sick leave and vacation. The same goes to domestic helper. Although some of them do not have any off-days (as agreed in their contracts), please do give them a short break at work every once in a while. After all, they are human being too.

 

We should be prepared to have less privacy with a live-in helper. She will be handling our dirty laundries, under garments, bras etc. We have to keep our important documents and valuables safely. I will nag my husband if I see his pay slip and wallet lying around the house.

 

This is very important. On her first day of work, I gave her a set of house rules to follow. A work schedule on daily, weekly and monthly basis was set. She plans her own time to complete her works. I don’t micro-manage her. She prefers it this way too, rather than being told what to do everyday. No difference than a robot.  

Last but not least, we can definitely expect much more free time with our family, along with a glistening clean home if we know the tricks of managing our domestic helpers.