The Maid did it, Again!

My maid run away, the other day! And this is the second time it happen! Seriously, I am getting frustrated by how things are coming about with the maid issue, but I guess the 'maid running away from your home' has become such a standard thing that some of the employment agencies out there put a certain terms and agreement regarding to what extend they are liable if your maid decided to take off.

Everybody knows that getting a maid here ain't cheap nor easy. You have to spend a lot of money and sometimes things doesn't work out. And things hasn't been working out for me for the last two maids.

The first one decided to fall sick on me, she was diagnosed as having extremely high blood pressure, so much so that the local clinic here denied treatment fearing that she may collapsed anytime. The employer (me and my wife) had to take care of her instead of she taking care of us of and this went on for about three months and it was silly. She would sleep in the guest room and we were the ones that had to do the the house chores. We wanted to return her and get our money back but the agent denied any responsibility and adamant with the notion that she got the high blood pressure when she started working for us. What a load of c**p!!

She ran away when we told her the night before that we intend to send her back, I was away with my kinds and found her gone from our home. The guardhouse told me that she had a taxi waiting for her when she aborted from our lives. She took some money and fled, with her passport - however, she 'sms'ed me from Indonesia asking for forgiveness for what she did, as she mentioned that she is seeking treatment there in her hometown in Indonesia. I am equally surprised on how she managed to get back to her village without any assistance whatsoever from us.

The second maid decided to abscond last Tuesday, the day after AidilAdha. She was with us since last June and at first I thought that things are going to work out with this one. My kids like her and she seems to like the kids. The work that she was doing was below our expection but since she could take care of the kids well enough, we turned our blind eyes on her other shortcomings. We treated her well, to a certain extend like a part of the family - even my parents and inlaws also showed similar treatment. I believed that everybody meant well, since we know that being poor is hard enough, so what is wrong with showing some small compassion to a stranger..

She took off in the early part of the day, while I was already at the office. Unlike the first one, she left all of her personal belongings behind, she had only her handphone and purse with her. Her passport is still in my possession. My wife and kids were the ones that detected her disappearence and after checking, did not find anything missing from our home. She simply disappear and left us in a lurch, luckily it is the school holidays and my kid doesnt have to show up in school until January.

Based on these incidents, I have 2 important advices to anyone who is seeking a maid and wanting to keep things under control:

Advice#1: Never ever gives them a handphone, this is the first rule that you must follow. The handphone will allow them to communicate with whomever they want, whereever they want and about whatever they want. The handphone can take precedence over the kids, the house chores, etc etc. If they wishes to talk to their family back home, use your phone. Perhaps you can have that session only on the weekend and limit the call to only about 5 minutes. Once the trust is there after a few months, you can extend the talk-time. Furthermore, make sure that the maid is not making calls on other people's phone, monitor-monitor-monitor! You cannot expect if you don't inspect.

Advice#2: Never give cash to their hands. Do whatever that is necessary to make sure they do not have cash at their disposal. Their monthly fee can be deposited to an account in the bank, which you have control over. Or send back to their family in Indonesia. Or if they say they needed to buy things, you should go and buy those things for them - these things may be minor to you but you may regret them later. Why? Because the money in their hand can do wonders, because money in their hand makes them resourceful, because money in their hand makes them creative, to do things that may adversely impact you and your family. Such as buying an illegal passport from the black market so that they can leave you high and dry, buying prepaid call card to talk to their friend instead of doing their job, or even worse planning to take over your belongings while you are away.

So do yourself a favor, before you get yourself a maid - make sure that you follow these 2 simple advice. Take it from me, I have lost 2 already and I will not make the same mistake on the next one.