Friday, May 4, 2012

Maid Stories

We finally hired a part time maid, and she's been working for us 3 weeks now. She's great - fast, efficient, thorough, speaks English, plays with Madison, etc. I actually think Madison likes her b/c her name is Lisa and she's Asian, so she somewhat resembles her Hispanic nanny from Dallas, whose name is Eloisa. Haha. 

We share Lisa with another family (who referred her to us), and they're only request was to make her leave our house on time, as she is always late for work there. Our strategy is - if she has a steady morning job with us that would ensure she stays on schedule for her next family. Time management here closely resembles the South American philosophy... "when I arrive is when I am there." So a "start time" of 8:00am actually means the maid will show up around 8:30am, and one should be happy she showed up at all. Okay... a bit of a learning curve for me.

Lisa was cleaning out a bucket in the laundry room sink and somehow hit the faucet and it cracked half-way off from the pipe and started spraying water everywhere. I was sitting at the kitchen bar working on my laptop when I hear "oh ma'am! some-ting happened in here!"  I run in and see water spraying everywhere!  I run over and put pressure on the faucet to keep it somewhat connected to the pipe to minimize the spray, while instructing her to run and get my phone.  Since it's time for her to go I tell her to go ahead and leave and I'll have maintenance come fix the faucet, and not to worry about it - accidents happen. 

Picture this - I'm covered in water and holding the pipe to the wall, while holding my phone between my ear & shoulder yelling "emergency" to the maintenance man (he speaks limited English), and the maid comes back in the room to ask for a raise. I wanted to yell "seriously?! you just broke our pipe and the laundry room is flooding!" I had already generously rounded up her pay for the week, so I tried to calmly explain that, then urged her to hurry so she could get to the other family's house on time.  She smiles and says "okay ma'am, thank you" then leaves.

The maintenance guys come and shut off the water, then start working to repair the wall. I later sent Lisa a text letting her know not to worry about the faucet, and I think she's doing a great job working for us.. just in case she felt guilty (she's a bit sensitive). The following day I get a text from Lisa saying she quits because she found another job paying more money so she won't be coming back to work. Oh joy...  

There's a facebook page solely dedicated to maid stories here, where one can find pictures/stories of "bad" maids, post help-wanted ads, ask questions about legality, etc.. It's been really helpful for me, and I'm quickly realizing there's a war going on between maids and their employers. The maids will take a job, but if it's "too much work" they'll quit and try out another family; and the employers aren't helping the situation - "maid poaching" is a common practice so it's not unusual for a maid to leave you for your friend, who is paying them RM1 or RM2 more an hour  (which is only $.30-.60!!!).  I've never seen anything like it! Loyalty is non-existent! And not just that.. the thing that gets me is the maids don't even give their current employer a chance to counter-offer; they just quit and move on. 

The good news is I just interviewed 2 new maids today and hired one who works for a family across the street, which is the ideal situation as transportation to/from isn't an issue. I called the family to ensure they were okay with her working for us (as not to "poach" her) and explained what hours I required. They were very cool about it and had wonderful things to say about her, so hopefully I've found a "winner!" 


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