I feel for all the employers.
3 years ago, I have hired a Myanmar helper. She was not perfect but she love my girl who was turning 2 when my new helper arrived Singapore. She has good chemistry with my girl and very proactive in her work. She can cook, and learn very fast in cooking new dishes. Unfortunately, she had to return home as her mum had given birth to a new baby brother. No choice but to let her go. Occasionally, we will still keep in touch till this day and she will keep asking how's my girl.
After she left, I hired a Filipino from another agency (APEX in Far East Shopping Center). Unfortunately, my husband claimed she has bad attitude so we decided to send her back to the agency. We contacted the agent who served us in the initial stage but he was too irresponsible. Called and texted him, no reply. When replied, kept saying he was in the meeting and not allowed to read phone. All bullshit excuses.
Luckily, there's was this Filipino guy in the same agency who was willing to solve our problem. In exchanged, he recommended us another totally inexperienced Myanmar helper. It is fine for us to guide her from the scratch. She has been with us for more than 8 months; however, she is still as blur as the initial stage. She likes to sleep, every day sleep more than 8 hours (which is more than her employers); has huge appetite but no strength to do house chores; whenever call or talk to her, she will either walk away when people still talking or never answer. When teach or scold her, she will day dream. Asked her to repeat what we say; she will guess and not paying attention. We always have to tell her what to do such as thorough clean the kitchen once a week. When thorough clean the kitchen, we clean everything and every corner of it. But she didn't. She cleaned the floor and stove but not the sink, wall and fridge. Then I asked her, when she bathed, did she just bath her hair and body but not the legs? She said no. In this case it's the same. When thorough wash, it's everything, just like bathing herself.
When asked her to cook, she would stay in the kitchen for 2.5 hours just to prepare 2 simple dishes with only 3 ingredients per dish. 2.5 hours for preparation not even cooking yet?! In these 8 months, we have to keep repeating our words and her job scope. She works very slow. Sleep a lot. Eat a lot. Never pay attention to her work. Every time, my girl has to repeat her words 5 times to catch her attention her as she always dreaming. Tell lies a lot. She can agree to you anything and everything but no action will be taken.
She was highly paid and doing less. Overall, she only do house chores (mopping and cleaning), exclude laundry and ironing. Take care of my daughter (which I am the one always feed my daughter and pat her to sleep) and feed my pet (2 simple meals a day). Week days, she sleeps at 9PM and wakes up at 6.30AM. Weekends, she sleeps at 12.00AM (as play with my girl) and wakes up at 8.30AM. Is that not enough resting time? She doesn't need to cook everyday. Even she needs to cook, only for my daughter, my mother-in-law and herself. Not very complicated at all. Yet, she seems to be very busy and she has to prepare a banquet.
She is still with us as her mum is very sick and need money to cure. Told her, we do not expect her to be 100% perfect, only 70% is enough. But she only gives her 10%, told her I expect her to give me her 50%; otherwise, she can pack and go home.