May
23
2008
First encounter with Maid
After waited for long, in fact quite desperate now, the agent told me that my chosen maid will arrive tonight. After the medical check up, I should be able to collect her somewhere mid of next week. Just hope she will pass all the medical check without having much problem.
QQ is excited to welcome this Kakak, but it puts me a bit uneasy since this is the first time I hire a maid. Although dear Jaz gave me a duty roaster, there are so many questions going in my mind, how I should position myself when deal with her.
- Should I be warm to her and treat her like my sister?
- Should I put position myself as her employer and be strict to her on the very first day?
- Should I make her busy throughout the whole day now so that she will not feel overburden when the twins arrive?
Oh, what else should I prepare or do now?
hmm….be strict but greet her with a smile….tell her your requirements and what you’d expect from her….and tell her if anything must ask u…don’t assume, don’t pandai pandai…and don’t keep quiet oni…cause if find out u lagi mad :). then show her around the house…go thru the time table and walk thru the places..
then bring her buy her barang barang…and tell her, this one all i buy for u…so u must work for me well. kinda like play psychology game with them hehe
good luck…lemme know if got any prob ok…will try to help
My take, don’t have high expectations on them. You probably will be happier if you do tat.
You have to monitor her from time to time at initial stage, as they might apply their indonesia mindset when work for you. My maid very stupid and dirty when the time she just started to work at my house, now already improve better after i educate her the correct way of cleaning house and take care of my son but sometime she is still stupid, i won’t give her face and scold her up side down! I’m sure she don’t like me so I plan to install CCTV at my house in case she put poison into my food or torture my son….
be strict and firm with her first. monitor her before u want to be her friend.
hi, first time commenting here. firstly, congratulations on your twins - think it has been sometime since i last read your blog. ur the first mommy blogger i know going through this, that is having twins and i’m really at awe here as i’m pregnant with no. 2 and i cannot imagine having twins as i’m already always so tired. so i totally respect what you are going through.
secondly, interesting to note that alot of mommies online are looking into getting a maid (mostly first timers) and i’m one of them. i’m waiting for mine to come as well and hopefully i will be getting one end of june. so here’s wishing a smooth journey with your maid - i will come back to read your updates as i would like to hear your experience not just with your maid but with your twins too. take care!
Business before friendship
You are paying her mmoney after all
hmm i would think try to b strict wif her b4 u b nice, can b nice but i think to certain extend, if too nice im afraid she will not listen to u, else one of u have to play the bad person role, u can b nice n ur hubby b the bad one, if anything u r not happy about ask ur hubby to tell her off
yeah, you need to guide her for the first few weeks or maybe months, everything you instruct her to do, must be monitored and re-checked to make sure they are well done.
i was like u with many questions pop up when i first had maid. Just brief your maid what is your requirement. Do explain to them from A to Z but you have to ask her to repeat what you said to make sure they really understand. Sometimes whatever we tell them, they just nodded their head and say, “Yes, Madam!” whatever also “Yes, Madam!”. To me communication is very important, i will ask my maid to repeat what I tell her earlier coz I do not want later ask them what happen. They will just answer you ‘Tak tau, tak tau’. This is my experience just to share wif u.
must be strict. she must know u r the BOSS and she is the staff. just recall back when you are workign last time..how the company treat the staff…this is how u treat the maid. of course when she does good, u praise her or give her bonus un-annouced. bonus can be like a new pair of slippers, bra. is it indonesian? try to avoid giving money…
tell and show her what to do. because by showing..she know exactly yr expectation.
anything..can email me..
good luck..
tell her the rules and regulations and dont expect too much. u hv to guide and teach her what she does every day even though if a maid has working experience.
take her to a clinic for another round of medical checkup. my SIL brought her maid for medical check up on her own expenses and found out that maid has hep B. dont share the toilet bowl the she will be using first until medical check up result is out. a fren told me that lots of maids hv dont know what disease liao, sorry, cant recall the name, but its something like STD. so dont share toilet bowl first.
what I do when I have a new helper is observe on the first day. Maybe you can instruct her too on what you expect of her. If you like her, eventually you’ll be warm to her.
Don’t treat her too nice. Be stern. Most importantly, keep her occupied. Never tell her she can have rest in between work, rest to them translates nap/sleep. My aunty told her maid from the very beginning that she can rest for a while in the afternoon, so happened when her lady boss needs her to do something, she said “you ingat saya robot ka? saya letih, mahu rehat!”
Oops, forgot something,
A love link tag for you here, http://babyshern.blogspot.com/2008/05/friends-around-world.html
have fun tagging along.
These are very complicated questions.. Depends on the maid also.. both ways not only you.. hmm…
Based on my experience with 7 maids, be firm and not overly friendly with your maid. At times, you can chat with her and be chummy with her. As soon as you sense that she is trying to climb over your head, nip the bud immediately. Dont give her too much free time, she will hv lots of ideas up her sleeve.
Wow… you have lots of great tips from the above blogger friends!!
Business before friendship indeed, since your paying her it’s strictly buisness.
My sis has new maid recently, and what I learn is: From day 1, you should inform her what is her job task, and what you expect from her…..
I got my 1st maid when I had Bryan. I told her up-front what were her job duties, but left it pretty much to her on how she got it done. I also closed one-eye sometimes…cannot be too fussy lor else you’ll get high blood pressure. I’m thankful that she’s extending for another year with me. At the same time, I treat her like a human being. Quite poor thing also lah, they are so far away from their family. Show some compassion and it shall be returned
Good luck!
i’m having my 3rd maid now & i’m improving with each new maid coming on board as i learnt my lesson in
dealing with them too!! while i agree not to be over freindly with the maid, i like to share with u that it’s
important & significant not to sour the relationship too! Afterall, u & your kids will have to face her most of
d time…for at least 2 years!
My mom always reminded me again & again that we must ‘made’ her like (if not love) our kids so that our kids
will not be harm….isn’t that above everything else? i must confessed that i’m not a good master…if not bcoz
of the presence of my good mom…things wouldn’t have worked so well!
she always ’scared’ me by saying things like:
” u dun make her ‘dendam’ so much until she throws yr kids off the balcony ” and i tend to get shiver hearing
that….so our family NEVER treat the maid bad! My mom treat her well….like any human being, takes care of
feeling but make sure be firm with her duties….if chores needed to be done, means it should be!
i like paik ling’s comment !
i like to believe ppl who is treated well will more likely to feel more happy….always need to compromise,
tolerate, ‘talk’, close one eye at times, lower your expectation & etc etc…..the list can go on………..
Good luck to you !!
Don’t expect too much from them, else you will be pissed off. Glad to know that you will have a helper soon all ready to welcome the newborn
war…everyone give you good tips…
I no experience so cannot give you any…but wish you the best ok?
i think its always a mistake to make them feel so embraced at first encounter. They take it as a licence to go ahead with even forbidden things. In my 8 years of encounters with maids, all of them are like that. (maids nowadays are not the same as those back in 1989)
I would be firm and polite and expect the same as her. All the friendly chats that my SIL has with her maid just doesnt work for me. They just take advantage of it to take shortcuts in their house chores and child minding.
I always think “my way” of doing things is the best way and the cleanest way and rather than to monitor the maid over this and that over one single chore, i just tell them to do the chore it my way.
Duty roster? Can share with me? I also have no experience at all with maids so any tips,can send to me?
Tell her wat r her daily chores. But when it comes to details, tell her bit by bit, prioritise. They cannot absorb so many things at 1 time. It’s good to give her a notebook n pen. So if she can write, she can jot down for future ref.
Don’t assume she knows. Just a few examples : Tell her how to wash ur rice pot/wok (esp those non-stick type). Tell her not to throw ‘things’ into the toilet bowl.
Chk on her work every now n then. Make sure the food she prep is clean enuff or the kitchen utensils r washed thoroughly after use. Oso chk on the floor/toilet. If not clean enuff, tell her so that she can improve.
When my maid 1st came, I kept telling her to ask me when she’s not sure. If she’s not sure n she did it wrong, I wouldn’t like it. I’d rather she ask me a few times than get it wrong.
Good luck with the training!
thank you so much for all the tips. They are, REALLY helpful!!
Shooi, I sent an email to you.
chin nee,
i guess u have enuf advice frm the long lists of bloggers’ feedbck. I was blessed to have a very capable maid when i had my twins. Set the rules frm the very beginning, use duty roster, use mini cards instructions in every corner of the house to remind her about simple duties like how to operate washing machine, how to use cooker, when to take “sampah out”, etc. Dont take for granted she knws even the most common sense stuff u’ll be surprise she may not knw. MY maid uses floor rag to wipe table, she doesnt knw who to use mop but cloth, she doesnt knw meat has to be kept in the fridge., etc. Treat her with rspect, try make her feel at home and always invite her to speak up her problems. Hope that helps.
Renet,
U mean to say creating something like simple SOP? That is a brilliant idea!
Hi,
Is my first time getting a maid. Can you share the Duty roster with me?