Singapore Expats

I am relocating to Singapore with my family in the new year, and having three young children, we are planning to hire a maid. A lot of comments on this and other forums seem to be about things having gone wrong, and I was interested in hearing how people found maids they were happy with. Is it a matter of luck, personal recommendations, realistic expectations or clever interviewing? Thank you in advance for any tips!

villagewife wrote:I am relocating to Singapore with my family in the new year, and having three young children, we are planning to hire a maid. A lot of comments on this and other forums seem to be about things having gone wrong, and I was interested in hearing how people found maids they were happy with. Is it a matter of luck, personal recommendations, realistic expectations or clever interviewing? Thank you in advance for any tips!

Luck, lots of it. Good to one person may not be to others
Compromise and draw the line before getting on board.
Treat them with humanity but do not shower them with luxury

Often one man's luck is another man's horror story. As you are dealing with human to human interaction and not human to machine interaction, there is this thing called personality to deal with. Both parties have their own personallities and often they clash and ruin what could otherwise be a good working relationship. This is not always the case, but I'd be almost willing to bet that it's the case in 65% of the cases.

Maybe BOTH employer & employee should be made to take personality assessment test?

How did you find a maid you're happy with?

Compare her to the wife

when I could afford a maid, my first one, was really trouble-free

Second one, abused my leniency

Third one, well, not gonna go into the details.

Now I am 'maidless' and not that I can afford now... and I am a happy camper ..

All of them were transfer maids, and the respective agencies vouched for their work ethics and good conduct ..

Well, and my sticking around some maid agencies, who are my friends, each agent has their yard-stick to qualfiy the maid and employer ..

most, just look at the $ sign and say "yes, yes, the best you can have" and three months later, the maid runs away claiming homseickness, or abuse (mostly simple things like asked to wash the car, take the dog for a walk - and pick up the poo, or walk up early morning .. or ... simply influenced by the neighbour's maid who works for an expat and only works 5 days, for twice the pay etc. etc.)

At my friend's agency, while I am not going to mention them or promote them, I have seen them refusing to entertain transfer maids, as they can easily see through the maid's stories, and deem them to be a bigger headache to the next employer, I have also seen them refuse to entertain employers, who seem dodgy ..

One guy walked in with his wife, and was asking to see the biodatas. My friend had a chat, and then told the nice couple that they will be notified once they have biodatas ..

When the couple left, my friend says "this couple could get me more headache than the money I earn .. "

And she is spot on .. in one of the agencies with ZERO demerit points at MOM site ... as she dos due deligence for both, maid AND employer ..

Not many agents are like that ...

http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/service ... Points.pdf

http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/Pages/Pr ... listid=146 also has some info, on the responsibility of the Agency.

Thank you for all the replies. Does it make any difference whether you have a transfer maid or not?

villagewife wrote:Thank you for all the replies. Does it make any difference whether you have a transfer maid or not?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no

transfer maids are already seasoned in Singapore, so no homesick ... and oriented in Singapore and used to the food here .. (despite many residents here swearing that the food here in the hawker center is great, not everybody gets used to it so fast .. )

New maids (I am going to earn the wrath of many here for saying it .. ) are 'unspoilt' and 'uninfluenced' and hence, may get influenced .. or not

Like in any human to human interaction, it depends on personalities involved.

Lots of luck on finding the gem called a perfect maid! I've heard such a thing exists.....

ecureilx wrote:

villagewife wrote:Thank you for all the replies. Does it make any difference whether you have a transfer maid or not?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no

transfer maids are already seasoned in Singapore, so no homesick ... and oriented in Singapore and used to the food here .. (despite many residents here swearing that the food here in the hawker center is great, not everybody gets used to it so fast .. )

New maids (I am going to earn the wrath of many here for saying it .. ) are 'unspoilt' and 'uninfluenced' and hence, may get influenced .. or not

The only wrath you are going to earn is for being a mush-mouthed.

it totally depends on the luck....

Referral if you have the time. Many bad stories out there, really a lot, but as our own helper put it, sometimes the helper is bad, sometimes the employer is bad.

So far the best ones are through word of mouth from friends you can TRUST, if you find your chum has the perfect maid that maid normally hangs out with like minded helpers so worth asking them.

You get what you pay for, pay peanuts get monkeys, I know some helpers on $900+ those are the good ones and they know it too so charge a premium.

I picked 15 girls from Orchard Towers and entered them into a mud wrestling and wet t-shirt contest. The winner was chosen based on who managed to get their t-shirt the cleanest afterwards.

You will never know a person until you live with them.

During the interview you are free to ask question. If you have the ability to read a persons mind, DO IT !

Experienced maid knows a lot and i mean a lot.

New ones are yes sir/ma'am t o try to impress you, but more often its tricky to deal with specially if they are not familiar with the culture.
Your life style maybe new to them and they might face difficulty adapting to it. So you end up teaching her everything and that cost you a lot of time and patience.

Remember, maids are not machine so dont expect them to be on the go 24/7. Ask them to rest if you see them sweating thier butt off. A little kindness goes a long way.

I heard a employer offered tea for her maid when she just arrived, they live happily till the employer have to leave for Netherland.

The one who being told not to eat the apple didnt stay long .

I have heard good things about and agency called G&A Services. They only deal with transfer maids, so you are more likely to find someone who has experience with expat families. I found my helper through a singapore Facebook forum. There are always lots of listings from families who are leaving, and want to find a new employer for their helper. It's worth joining these forums: Singapore Expat Wives, East Coast Mums Support Group. They are both great places for listing questions, and searching for topics already canvassed. If you do find a helper privately, and need help with the employment visa, check out Lorraine at WP Processing. She did my helper's EP and was great.