We hired a maid, ya! ..then she quit

I've joined a handful of social networking sites, mostly on facebook, to "meet" other expats, and moms with toddlers. It's incredible how nice and outgoing people are here. The minute I joined they started sending me suggestions for things, and links to helpful sites. It has really made the transition seamless.

Most people have a live-in maid here. Mostly because the cost is next to none.. but I'm sure also for the convenience of having a live-in maid / cook / babysitter / etc. When I looked for housing online before we got here I noticed all the postings had a +1 next to the number of bedrooms. Strange. Now I know why - this is the maid's "room." I'm not exaggerating when I say this room is the size of a walk-in pantry. The maid's "bathroom" is a toilette with a shower head over it and one can barely turn around in it. Picture airplane lavatory...

Apparently the battle for a good maid here is pretty fierce, and if one of the "good" maids becomes available, all the moms are in a frenzy over who gets her. One of the mom's FB groups call the rest the "Maid Mafia" and it lists pictures and stories of bad maids so other people won't hire them. Some of the posts are scary, but some are pretty funny too.

I put an ad out for a part-time maid, and my criteria was a bit stiff... especially after reading all of those stories. One of the mom's I met on FB recommended her maid (Lisa), who also watches her son, and has been employed by their family for almost two years. Sounds like a winner!

We invited Lisa over Saturday for an interview and liked her. We offered her the job, after a bit of haggling over the pay, she left happy (so we thought) and would arrive to work Monday morning as promised. However, Sunday night I get a text saying she quits. Huh?? I asked her why and to give us an opportunity to understand what she needed and maybe we could work something out. She wanted a raise (of course) and for us to pay her transportation everyday. Welcome to Malaysia! As an employer I guess it's our job to not only pay them for working, but also pay them to COME TO WORK. Good grief. We settled on an arrangement.. again.. and (we think) all parties are happy.

I guess we'll see when the sun rises on her first day - stay tuned!