Most people, when they hear we have domestic staff (aka - a maid and a nanny and two drivers) think we are living a life of luxury. A cushy life. Spoiled, pampered.
I'll be the first to admit that hired help definitely has its advantages. But anyone that thinks it comes without complications is grossly misinformed. To wit:
1) We just moved to a new house. When my wife brought her driver and our maid over for their first look, prior to our moving in, chaos ensued. My wife was standing in the kitchen while her driver and the maid were touring the house and examining the master bedroom. Then our maid screamed. Apparently, our driver saw ghosts in the master bedroom ("don't worry, they are nice ghosts", he assured us). This led our maid to request that we hire her husband to be our gardener so she would not be alone in the house during the day. Instead of hiring her husband, we'll have a blessing performed - both Christian and Muslim, to accommodate the different religions of our staff - to rid the house of ghosts.
2) Our new house is in a neighborhood - Jeruk Purut - that an Indonesian film company made a horror movie about. One of the largest cemeteries in the city is nearby, so it was a great location for a ghost story. To get to our house, our staff will exit the bus at the cemetery. From there, they either walk, or take an "ojek" (motorcycle taxi) to our house. Of course, they refuse to walk, even though the distance is the same from their old bus stop to our old house. They don't want to walk by the cemetery because the hantus (ghosts) will get them. They requested a 'travel allowance' to pay for the ojek from the bus stop to our new house. We either had to give them an additional $20/month or find new staff. We opted for the former.
3) Our third child (a son) is due in July. Like we did with our first son, we'll deliver the new baby in Singapore. Unlike the first time, family is unavailable to go with us. Because we cannot have our current children unattended while I am at the hospital with my wife, and we have no family or friends in Singapore, we're trying to determine the logistics of child care during child birth. Our first choice was to bring our nanny. Of course, she's not an option. Though she has a passport, her former employers still have it and won't give it to her. They paid for it, so they feel they own it. It doesnt' help that she didn't have the necessary paperwork to obtain the passport so they forged it so she could travel with them. Our next choice was our former nanny. Her husband won't allow her to nanny for us full time, but was open to a higher paid, 3 month assignment in Singapore. She has a passport and is ready to go. Unfortunately, the passport is in her cousin's possession. Her cousin, who is also friends with our maid, is upset with her for referring our current nanny (who speaks English) instead of the cousin (who doesn't speak English) when our former nanny resigned. Our maid has also indicated that she will resign if we hire our former nanny for the Singapore trip. We can always bring our current maid, who is interested in the trip, but she doesn't have the energy of our nannies and, we have concerns about who would take care of the house, the laundry and my meals if she is in Singapore and I am in Jakarta. (I know. Many of you are saying "why can't you take care of it?" I can, but it is cultural suicide for me to do so. The same reason we have a maid in the first place.)
When you add domestic staff to your household, your home becomes a business. You lose privacy, you lose familiarity, and you gain drama. In my home I now need to deal with the same issues of personality differences, salary discussions, and performance discussions that I do in the workplace.
To a large degree, it isn't worth it.
I'll be the first to admit that hired help definitely has its advantages. But anyone that thinks it comes without complications is grossly misinformed. To wit:
1) We just moved to a new house. When my wife brought her driver and our maid over for their first look, prior to our moving in, chaos ensued. My wife was standing in the kitchen while her driver and the maid were touring the house and examining the master bedroom. Then our maid screamed. Apparently, our driver saw ghosts in the master bedroom ("don't worry, they are nice ghosts", he assured us). This led our maid to request that we hire her husband to be our gardener so she would not be alone in the house during the day. Instead of hiring her husband, we'll have a blessing performed - both Christian and Muslim, to accommodate the different religions of our staff - to rid the house of ghosts.
2) Our new house is in a neighborhood - Jeruk Purut - that an Indonesian film company made a horror movie about. One of the largest cemeteries in the city is nearby, so it was a great location for a ghost story. To get to our house, our staff will exit the bus at the cemetery. From there, they either walk, or take an "ojek" (motorcycle taxi) to our house. Of course, they refuse to walk, even though the distance is the same from their old bus stop to our old house. They don't want to walk by the cemetery because the hantus (ghosts) will get them. They requested a 'travel allowance' to pay for the ojek from the bus stop to our new house. We either had to give them an additional $20/month or find new staff. We opted for the former.
3) Our third child (a son) is due in July. Like we did with our first son, we'll deliver the new baby in Singapore. Unlike the first time, family is unavailable to go with us. Because we cannot have our current children unattended while I am at the hospital with my wife, and we have no family or friends in Singapore, we're trying to determine the logistics of child care during child birth. Our first choice was to bring our nanny. Of course, she's not an option. Though she has a passport, her former employers still have it and won't give it to her. They paid for it, so they feel they own it. It doesnt' help that she didn't have the necessary paperwork to obtain the passport so they forged it so she could travel with them. Our next choice was our former nanny. Her husband won't allow her to nanny for us full time, but was open to a higher paid, 3 month assignment in Singapore. She has a passport and is ready to go. Unfortunately, the passport is in her cousin's possession. Her cousin, who is also friends with our maid, is upset with her for referring our current nanny (who speaks English) instead of the cousin (who doesn't speak English) when our former nanny resigned. Our maid has also indicated that she will resign if we hire our former nanny for the Singapore trip. We can always bring our current maid, who is interested in the trip, but she doesn't have the energy of our nannies and, we have concerns about who would take care of the house, the laundry and my meals if she is in Singapore and I am in Jakarta. (I know. Many of you are saying "why can't you take care of it?" I can, but it is cultural suicide for me to do so. The same reason we have a maid in the first place.)
When you add domestic staff to your household, your home becomes a business. You lose privacy, you lose familiarity, and you gain drama. In my home I now need to deal with the same issues of personality differences, salary discussions, and performance discussions that I do in the workplace.
To a large degree, it isn't worth it.
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3 comments:
I'll be so happy when we no longer have staff and we take care of everything ourselves again. But you really have no choice here in Jakarta. Everyone has staff even Indonesian families (that aren't poor.) All houses are even built with staff accomidations.
Is a great perk of living here but definitly has it's negatives.
wifey you dont have to explain yourself, if i could find a maid for that price id do it pronto! Thats crazy maid is saying that she will leave, is work that free flowing for them?
hahaha i guess i have a blog and i named myself poster child?...that must have been awhile ago. thats funny.
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