Problems with fresh indon maid

doveymum

Member
Hi, I just got another replacement for fresh indon. This is my third replacement ... first English totally cannot make it. Second homesick after one week and wants to go back indon,says work too much tired. Now the third one, I m keeping finger cross... hope she stays and habe the will power to make it. I feel these days all the fresh young maid cannot take hardship, all sleep at 830pm .. feel stress and tired just doing basic household chores... I only ask them sweep,mop and vacumm but vacuum only once a week, wash clothlings, ironing, wash dishes, no cooking yet... fold clothes and wash toilet .. only part and not full regime.. my mum come help me with cooking and take care my son half day sch, 5 yrs old. I hope someone can tell me if my expectations is it realistic or not.My house is like a 4 room, 3 bedroom , 2 toilets... size, not big right, 1 kid, I dun noe why they find the work v tough. I really dun noe how else to reduce the work... I intend to teach cooking after she master housecleaning like one mth later.. I also find indon, diet v different, alot of Chinese food don't eat even curry also say not the same.. don't like the food..eat v v little. .. I dun noe how long they take to adapt... can anyone help n advice? Wat Can I do? I hope she stays if not soon I have tp go mom for interview.. I feel so sad, I didn't even scold or abuse or overwork them, these maid just come and go...
 


Hi Doveymum,

I know what u mean.

My experience wasnt very good too. When I have the first one, she didnt like to cook, and expressed so. D only thing she was good at was washing the toilets. So I had to send her back to agent. 2nd one came but after slightly more den a year, she decided that she has earned enough n so wanna early terminate her contract. 3rd one came n she couldnt follow simple instructions n hubby was fed up with repeating d instructions 2 her dat in d end we sent her back. (We did send her to agent for "counseling". N she claimed that we didnt let her carry our DD which I asked d agent what has dat gotta do with following instructions? If she cant follow simple instructions, how can I let her take care of my DD?) 4th one came but failed her medical and had to be sent back. Now on my 5th maid who has been with us 4 a year plus le..... Keeping my fingers crossed that she would extend her contract when her ends early next year.

My helper wakes up @ 5am and can rest once everything is done for the day. (5 room flat with 2 balconies)
Her chores include:
1) Sweep and Mop
2) Ironing
3) Handwash some clothes (D rest machine wash)
4) Cooking (for DD porridge as well as our meals) and washing up
5) Toilets are washed thrice a week
6) Walk our doggie
7) Cleaning of mirror and feature wall once fortnightly
8) Cleaning of balcony's doors (Daily for the big one and twice a week for the small one)

On top of all the above, I think she still have time for rest or break in between. Cos she could find time 2 play with my DD and relief my mom at times. N cos we install cameras and can monitor her when we r out, and most times it's like she is trying to find things 2 do. So we told her when we are not around and if she has finished her tasks, she can either rest or read her books.
 
Hi many thanks for your sharing. I appreciate, yes going thru these maid issues is a pain. May I noe if yr Curr one is fresh indon too?u no prob with comm ?Sometimes I asked myself is it the problem lies with me, but I really dun think I out to overwork my maid. Two maids one indon and one mynamar finish 2 yrs contract and they had more work as my son was 0 to2 and then 2 to 4, now already cut down alot work like Milk, hand wash etc. U noe, my SIL myanmar maid gotta work until 12am everday and get scolding until cry but she still willing to coNtinye never say want to go back. People why so lucky! Can u share wif me how to help them settledown? Like how to help them overcome stress, homesick , adapting to our expectations etc... but I dun allow off day and HP.. I just want to avoid unnecy problems ..not that I m mean. How to help them overcome the initial period of wanting to give up or chg employer BEC cannot adapt etc.... or think can find better employer by changing? I have prepared time table but my agent say dun show will scare her off if she see it. Ask me slowly slowly increase the work. Now she is 5 days in my house...I only ask her do the minimum basic. really v headache... may I know wat is the salary u pay?I heard indon Sal gonna increase again soon... higher Sal and poorer quality.
 
Mine is from Myanmar, and comm is also an issue. However, there are basic things that I told her when we went to pick her up at d agency, decided that since we are there might as well make use of the opportunity to tell her our expectations in front of the agent.

She has no off day and in her contract it's stated dat she cannot have mobile phone. For this helper that I have currently, I didnt really need to settle her cos I think she has a goal which is to earn enough to buy a house for her mom. (She told my mom that her family is currently renting and so she wanna earn more so she can buy house for her mom)

She tries very hard to please us and doesnt allow herself to make mistakes. D first time she made a mistake n hubby told her what she did wrong, she actually tore off her nail. I noticed her finger was bleeding while we were out 4 dinner and asked her wat happened. N her reply was she wanna remember her mistake so she purposely hurt herself. Of cos we didnt approve wat she did n told her if she does it again, we have no choice but 2 send her back. D most recent incident was she broke a cup which I regularly used, n as I walked into d kitchen, she knelt down n beg 4 forgiveness. I got a shock!! I mean... I just woke up n suddenly she knelt down, I thought wat happen, like she wanna go back or wat..... But no.... all 4 a broken cup. Told her it's okie..... she didnt purposely broke it. Just tell me will do. I was more worried d cup will drop n hurt her..... Hiaz.....

Salary.... Need to get back to u cos hubby is d pay master :rolleyes: N since we think she is quite sensible, when she started asking if she can buy a phone using her salary, we relented 2 her request. But we did set some ground rules on d use of d phone.
 
I see.. thks for sharing. Actually I find mynmar can take more hardship prov the maid really determine to work. Indon more arrogant and lazy. But they pick up faster.. my mom very negative ABT Myanmar say they v stubboRN so no choice gotta take indon. U r lucky to find one has strong will power and seriously want to work that most impt . Indon mostly cannot take scolding and must have lots of sleep. Last time my Myanmar can sleep like 6 to 7 hrs and OK, but indon must have 9hrs sleep. When chided show face Or wanna go back. My mynamar I scold like hell she still want to stay cos the goal is earn money unlike indon give up easily. But prob is Myanmar v hard to find good ones.. some really IQ low until unteachable, hygiene totally zero. Haiz... guess can only pray hard... thks and good luck to u too... hope yr maid will remain good after take HP. That is a worry when we give in they take advantage. But still boils down to character lah... like my new gal.. tell me do already wen I check not clean, Or not done.. yet I have to ctrol cant get angry if not they will want to go back agency...find easier employer.. sigh.
 
Hi Doveymum, Did your maid have previous experience working overseas thus far? So far I had 2 Indon maids. But both of them had previous experience working overseas. The first one had prior experience working in Taiwan and the second one had experience in Saudi Arabia. Taking fresh maids may mean they didn't know what kind of workload to expect. I found these experienced maids are more adept. The kind of workload that they were doing are around the same scope as your maids. Experienced maids I think might have been used to the feeling of homesickness. As for cooking, yes, we did need to teach them again as their cooking style is really different. So I would have to give them the recipes and teach them to cook according to my taste for healthier meals (less salt, oil, etc). hope it helps. Better to get older and more experience maids (maids in the 30S instead of younger ones).
 
Dear all, thks for all yr sharing an inputs. Yes lesson learnt cannot find too young mine all 23 yr old. Their expce is local expce like in Jakarta and java not overseas.. haiz... sometimes I self doubt ans blame myself but thk goodness I have mummies lIke u to share and give support... maid issues can talk until cows come home.... sigh
 
Hi doveymum, can feel you since I also had been in the same boat like your situation. Im indonesian also and hire indo maid. As I understand for young one sometimes they manipulate the age so actually they really still very young abt 17 maybe but they made fake passport become 23 so they can start earn money. Which is very is in indo to do that. Then my 2nd maid I chose ard 30 and had experience from other country. If their experience only local suggest not to hire them since workload in indo totally diff. In indo 1 house can hire 2-3 maids since salary very low less than $100/month/maid and also no levy. So u can imagine how "lazy" they are.
 
Have you tried to choose those that are not too old or the more matured ones? I try to select those with kids so they know how to care for my kids. My indon maid is a first timer in sg, no maid exp elsewhere. She is from v rural Indonesia and 23yo with a son.
Though they cannot speak and express themself well, they do understand English. Indon maids take 3-6months to adjust to sg life if they are first timer in sg.
I can speak a little Malay but not perfect so she either need to understand my broken Malay or her broken English. We got by especially after she understands my temper.
I am pretty short tempered person. If I cannot find something in the house I will ask maid to search it out because the thing cannot walk out of hse. She has to dig it out on the same day for me.
 
Wow... 3 to 6 mths... so long. Mine only one week no wonder the stress n challenges we r facing... I must persevere... hope she improve overvtime. Its hard to balance BTW not overly be strict and not too lenient. .. treat too nice they take advantage... too strICT they want to leave... yest ask my maid howz the work she said hard job but its OK. Dun noe wat she mean...if only basic housework hard job, I dun noe how ... already cut down and slow down, standard also lower down... now only doing 50% of the real job scope.. childcare n cooking didn't touch yet... Haiz cross my finger
 
i also encountering with fresh maid but experienced in other countries. As i need one who knows how to take care toddlers, I choose those with kids. Before she accept the job, already told her is take care kids, do housework. At night, she needs take care my son. She agreed. I understand waking up at night to feed my son of 3 yrs old can be tiring, so i allowed her to take nap in the day. But after working for 1 wk, come tell me my kids don't like her, too many work to do, too tired cos need take care kid at night. She wants transfer. Then after few days, tell me she die die want transfer b'cos she miss her child and want work in houses with no kids, just do basic household work. I am really lost at words.

did our govt gave them a impression that working in SG will be relaxing, can just change change employer whenever they like? I am not sure if there is any penalty to the helper for changing employer. But for sure is employer need to pay more just because helper want transfer.
 
Hi mosterlim mummy

These maid when they want the job everything can can. Bio also fake one. But no commitment and unappreciatve afTer u take them. I go out for 5 hours she no initiative see where dirty clean, where messy pack.. jUST sit n wait... somemore forget wash toilet n got cheek tell wash Tmr... I control.. breathe in breathe out everyday. Myanmar angry can scold, indon u can't scold them. Picky with food too. By 830pm eyes close half way.. wanna sleep very lazy. .. sigh.. no wonder people say must close two eyes. Mine is only do housework in four room flat also can say hard job, no need take Care children, my boy 5 yrs go sch almost full day... sigh. Wish u good luck find better one..I ustd they chg employer pay agent additional two mths loan but these people theybdun care. Seem in SIP the trainer tell them not happy just chg employer.. we poor employer.. some more indon maid Sal gonna increase... sigh
 
I did consider Indon maid when I first started out looking.... Den DH n I decided we shld decide if we really wan Indon n if so y....
Den as we sat n discuss....
1) Experience, whether maid has experience (especially in SG)
2) Married
3) Nationality

We decided dat we didnt wan an experience maid as they may have a certain way of doing housework le and not open 2 changes. Married, preferred not married den wont have d issue of kids or hubby issue. Nationality, we felt dat Indon can b quite "street smart" n since we r new 2 this, we may not b able to "handle" them. We also priorities y we r employing her... main purpose was 2 house keep n not 2 take care of our DD. So no experience wif kids wasnt a concern 4 us.

Even wif d above elimination, it wasnt an easy path, but at least d current one is quite responsible. She wld clean n mop whenever we r out without us telling her wat 2 do. However, when we want certain things 2 b done, we wld just let her know wat needed 2 b done, n she wld do it. Of cos d initial 4 mths were spent training her... telling her how things shld b done.
 
All they want is minimal work and good salary. Totally cannor take hardship.. is this the gen Y?? Haiz

coz the benefits in HK is much better in SG. most of them just want to gain experience in Singapore then go other places to earn money...
HK maid pay is more than 1K per month. 1 weekend off and still gt annual leave.

singapore is more desperate as in they willing to take in inexperience maid and train them on the job...
for other countries, they would prefer experience maid with min supervision
 
Can any mummies care to share how to train or mge the maid if teach her, explain, demo, she know how it but when u not there to watch her do, she start oMIT the steps. Wash toilet 10 steps become 5steps.. 20 min become 5 min... when she do herself. Mop floor ask her put watwr in basin in front od me will do it. When I don't see.. just use one cloth without basin, without rinsing... mop the whole floor. When u qn she fumble ... quilty.. know wat she shld do but try to short cut... like that how to teach huh? I ctrol , didn't scream, but inside so angry until cannot sleep.. end up I have to redo myself!!!!!
 
Can any mummies care to share how to train or mge the maid if teach her, explain, demo, she know how it but when u not there to watch her do, she start oMIT the steps. Wash toilet 10 steps become 5steps.. 20 min become 5 min... when she do herself. Mop floor ask her put watwr in basin in front od me will do it. When I don't see.. just use one cloth without basin, without rinsing... mop the whole floor. When u qn she fumble ... quilty.. know wat she shld do but try to short cut... like that how to teach huh? I ctrol , didn't scream, but inside so angry until cannot sleep.. end up I have to redo myself!!!!!
My agent taught me make the maid repeat everything we said. To make sure she understand.

But they are lazy n will take shortcuts. Sometimes I make her redo in front of me. If left out something, do it even when it's late at night.

I am quite scared she asked for transfer. But gotta act we can easily change or do without maid. Else Waste $, waste time n effort to retrain. Kids n ourselves need time to adjust to a new stranger again. Dare not scold too fiercely also.
 
Hi doveymum, thats very common . Mine also like that. So she can play with phone after that. She will say all done maam so I can play woth phone. Huhuhu...what to say. Now not only close 1 eye but 2 eyes..salary + levy + tired inside
 
I see... so we poor employer all in same plight... I thot, I did not explain well and dun noe how to teach or wat... I felt frustrated ,somemore I do up a SOP show all the steps for her paste in toilet, cos she refuse to wrITE down in book, I dun noe if she dun noe how to write or lazy write. But now that I hear that its common... I feel shld not blame myself.. yet at the same time felt v discourage... why I put so much hardwork to teach she still don't appreciate?!

Thks novita mummy for sharing its good to hear from u as an Indon employer, if not I thot its BEC we Singapore employer expectation too hiGH or unrealistic or cannot talk indon Lang so they don't follow and don't show respect. I m surprise yr indon maid dare treat you like that too.. thot she will more respect to employer who comes from same country... more chemistry.

Purplewhit mummy... I same as u .. angry but dare not scold as scare she ask for trf.. ya now I will try ask her redo, not fair she sleep early and I help do her job, cannot take it... toilet so smelly like public toilet say wash oredi!!! Stain wif my boy poo poo n urine as he is learning...and I can't scold him.

Nowadays we employer at the Mercy of our maid... really a laughing stock....Haiz... sigh... how to condition them?????? Really feel like crying... pay money yet suck blood.
Last time my prev maid never do 5 min work and sit there rest and rot one.... at least they will pretend take cloth clean here clean there...

Haiz... lucky got mummies here to give each other support... Thks for lending your shoulders to cry on ... and yr listening ears.... is it no choice and have to accept their nonsense if we scare to keep chging ?
 
MAy i know if MYanmar is well known to be forgetful? Im hoping im not dealing with a helper who is good at acting blur.. my helper looks so genuinely sweet but we are qutie surprised how easily they can forget their stuff. hope some mommies here will enligten me. thank you.
 
Mommy yuffie, they said better avoid myanmar maid as their english really poor. Worst than indon. So language will be a barrier for us. Yes they are more obedient and genuine compare phil . At least they wont go ard with bangla guys . But depends to individual again. And is it true myanmar salary is the cheapest than phil and indon ?
 
Hi yuffie mummy, Myanmar maids really super blur n forgetful one. I had 3 Myanmar maid only one make it complete 2 yrs. The other 2 send back in one mth cannor make it totally, one was a trf and steal my baby food to eat n also steal our food too.don't get the one live near infon side, they r v v stubborn. The other one that made it , initially also really blur takes long time to teach , need alot patient but the good thing is u scold them they won't get angry like indon n Pinoy. U ask them redo, they will do it. They r slightly more hardworking n dare not act blur... mostly is really blur unlike indon act blur to avoid work.
 
Yes Myanmar salary cheapest in town $460 without off day for fresh Myanmar maid can get. Indon at least $520 fresh with no off day.
 
Everything boils down to luck but you can be pretty sure that Indon maids hygiene is not good.

My maid even threw food on the floor and said will clean up later. *horror* This cultural difference thing i do understand but they don't. We have always emphasize on cleanliness and told her the floor must be clean as my baby crawls around yet she can still do that. It's more like most don't think and have no common sense....

Even when I told her several times that the standard here is higher than Indonesia and she must be clean, she is still a dirty person IMO. The latest thing is mould found in my baby bottle. I was so pissed! Mould!!!
 
Hi, anyone here can help to ask your indon maid to help me translate my helper's FB messages? It's full of slang so i vant really understand what she's saying.
 
Not sure what u wanna translate, but I have a staff who is fr Indonesia. U may wanna PM me d msg n I can get her 2 translate?
 
hi all, can I get your opinion? I am hiring a fresh new indo maid for the 1st time. She just arrived and I wanted to go through her belongings with her. She did surrender her hp to me but I actually discovered that she has another hp in her secret compartment in her handbag. Today is only her 2nd day in my house. I tried to ask her how many hp she has. She insists she only got 1 hp and is given to me. I have not exposed her yet and told my agent that she is not honest. What should I do next?
 
Maybe she wants to be able to contact her family members more readily? And since already lied, just continue to lie. Is she a transfer maid? If she is, she'll prob knows the ways to get around.

If new maid, sit her down and talk to her properly and ask her why she needs 1 phone at all times. Try to find a solution like putting it on dining table n when she wants to use in day for urgent purpose, at least it is not behind ur back etc.

BTW, how often do u allow her to use hp? Daily at night? Some would need to contact their loved ones as it can get really lonely for them here.
 
i would confront her with the hidden hp. and ask her if no hp can work anot. esp if agent has reminded them the no hp rule. it's better to keep the terms strict at the start n loosen them when she shows willingness to work n learn. to me hp, off days is negotiatiable once she proves she can handle job scope n loneliness for the first x (u decide how many) months. i gave my maid a 10 dollar calling card after she completed 1 month with me as her first reward.
 
She is fresh never work overseas before. Yesterday was her 1st day of employment with me. I gave her my house rules and 1st rule stated no off day no hp. Ok, I know it's tough but at least she needs to prove to me that she can work properly with me before I can give her off day or hp to use. My 1st impression with her is she is not honest.
 
Actually, she seems dishonest. Bring it up to agent then but you'll probably need to find a new maid if you cannot trust her.

I do know some maids are afraid to tell us things so they hide. So to be fair, ask her abt the hp and why does she need it etc before you take any actions.
 
mistycloud & timmerin, thanks for your advise. I did feedback to agent and they spoke to her. Turned out that she said the handphone is spoiled and cannot be used. So she didn't think of surrendering it to me. Yday her agent brought her to MOM for SIP program and when she came back, she ask for my hp saying "trans..." Then i ask her is it transfer??? Gave me a shock for a moment then turned out that she wants to translate her bahasa indo words to English to me. She did ask me if she needs to surrender the spoiled hp to me so I told her no need. Anyway she haven't got her work permit yet and I don't think she can buy any calling card yet. My hb says give her another chance since this is her first time coming overseas to work. We have very serious language communication barrier but I am ok because I have not delivered my twins yet plus my son seems to like her a lot. So I will probably see how things goes for now.
 
Yes, their language level is very low. My maid still doesn't really get me sometimes and she has been here for 1 year already.

Some will be eager to learn but some just can't be bothered and she just understand the daily things. If something tougher, I have to use google translate to be sure she gets it.

Have to be super patient... And if you have twins, you must communicate to her that it is important for her to lean English but ultimately, it boils down to luck. Get her a language book to earn too. But it didn't work on mine...
 
MistyCloud, thanks for your advice! 1 year and your helper still cant understand you? Goosh.... I need to rely on my hp google translate a lot man. She requested to call home yesterday and I did allow her because it was Haji although she only worked 1 week for me. But by yesterday night, she ask for me to add her kakak (sister) facebook as she has an older sister in Taiwan married to a Thai. My family members all told me better not to cos we all can tell she will request for use on facebook eventually. However I must say after a week observation, she seems quite hardworking and she is trying hard to study English every night since I let her rest early. Was surprised she made such request for FB.
 

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