Good morning ladies!
Re: helper
I used to have a part time auntie who will come weekly to clean our house, hubby & I adore her to the bits, we have used her for a few years, but we decided to switch to a permanent helper when we were planning for #2. This was after weighing the cost involved which was about $200 diff. Our 1st encounter was a Philio maid. We got her from a maid agency highly recommended by one of the mummies in my previous thread. Her best friend's brother owns the agency. But turned out it was a small counter in a shopping centre. They assigned a maid to us saying how experienced she was etc. Being 1st timer employer, we went along hiring her. The maid came about 1.5mths later, she looked totally diff from the pic we have seen. And she had with 2 huge suitcases. The 1st time she asked when we reached home was which bus to take from our house to Lucky Plaza, and she demanded for a weekly off; and she wanna go on leave the very 1st weekend! I told her that she got no off days during her 1st 6mths and it was listed in her contract. And i also told her that no handphone should be allowed.
The next day was our #1's birthday so was kinda bz, all my friends & relatives were around, and she hid in her own toilent to make phone call. I saw it and signalled her not to use it anymore. But the next moment, she was using it again in the kitchen in front of my brother-in-law's maid. I was so mad but hubby asked me to cool down and talk to her after the party is over.
So after the party, hubby & I sat down with her to talk things out. We told her that she was not allowed to have hp, and no off leave will be given till end of 6mths; and she started to cry and tell all sort of sob stories saying hubby running away and she needed to call home to check. I asked her whether she wanna to work here, if not, we will send her back, and she says she wanna stay and will behave. But the next days, she started walking around our house in her tshirt and short with no Bras on! Hubby was kinda worried as he at times will go back to our house due to his flexible hours and he does not feel comtfortable to have her walking ard without bras. And the following day, people started to call our house tel early in the morning and hang up when we answered the calls. I used the no displayed on the caller id and asked and Philio colleague to call back and turn out to be a philio man answering.
Damn angry, we sent her back to the agency the next day.
Worst of all, the agency didn't want to return us any $$$ but promised to give us a replacement and we have to continue payment the maid's lodging & food till she is being transferred out. During that period, the maid was staying at the agent's house, doing their housework! We waited, from Dec10 till May11 but the agent tried to avoid us, and kept delaying, saying no maid; and wanna us to pay another 1.5k for a new maid's training, which is a sunken cost. I was so pissed and demanded for a refund of the 3.8k if not i called the police or go to CASE, they had no choice but to give me only 1.8k saying that the 2k was the maid's expenses!
We learnt the lesson of going to a small agency and taking up a philio maid. Luckily for us, our part time aunite was willing to help out till we find another maid, but hubby was kinda skeptical abt it. It took me quite a while to convince him to engage maid again, and in Jan 12, we sourced for a few agencies online and decided to go to a big maid agency. We eventually chose Nation, and we told the manager our requirements : No Philio, only Indo, must be >30yrs & married, and able to take care of kids; strictly no off days and no hp! The manager shortlisted a few maids for us to choose, but hubby insisted that we looked thru' their database online, and he chose our current maid. We then asked the manager to arrange for tele interview for the few we had chosen. And in the interview, i told all the maids that no leave & hp are allowed, if they are ok, we will employed them. After talking to all of them, we found that the maid whom hubby has chosen since to be the best fit. So we eventually engaged her. She arrived at our house 09Mar12 and so far so gd, very hardworking, can cookm can speak english, and loves our son. When i told her that i am preggy in May, she was very happy and expressed that she can help since she has helped to take care of a newborn till 4yrs old in her previous contract before she went back to Indo to have children. She has brewed herbal soup during my operation, and cooked some confinement using the confinement cook books which i have bought. So Am quite happy with her.
We will let her call home using our hp twice a month, buy her stuffs eg clothes and undies and toiletries, bring her to buffets or restuarant for meals, we even bring her overseas for holiday.
Hubby & I believe that it is all luck when it comes to choosing a maid, and we also feel that if we treat people nice, the other party will eventually reciprocate.
