I know this day will come sooner or later. It has been 1 year and 8 months, and finally we found some problems with her that left us wondering if we can still keep her for another 4 more months. Yes, I’m talking about our Indon maid.

For the past 1 year and 8 months, her work performance has been good. Little Edison likes her too, and she is almost indispensable to us. She keeps our house clean and organized, she struggles to feed our fussy eater son without complaining, she even teaches him to read and write. She never wakes up late or pretend sick. In general, she is very hard working.

However, we noticed that her attitude starts to deteriorate recently. When my husband scolded her over her mistakes, she showed us her ‘black face’. She prefers to do things on her own, rather than following our instructions. The worst incident just happened two days ago when Edison had a fall, partly due to her negligence. My husband was terribly mad.

She is our first maid. We don’t have any prior experience on how to handle a maid. During this 1 year and 8 months, we quarreled over maid issues and we began to realize what we have done wrong. Lessons learnt, and we’re not going to repeat them on our second maid.

Here are some of the lessons that we’ve learnt, and I would like to share with my readers here.

1. Don’t be too nice to her
I admit that I’m too nice to her. When I realize that my compassion doesn’t pay off, I was so disappointed. As long as we give her what she deserves, never treat her with extra kindness. When she hardens her heart, she will not remember our kindness. Reality is harsh, we have to accept it.

2. Never treat her like a family member
I had the wrong perception. I used to think that if we treat her like our family member, she will treat us the same way too. I realized that I was so wrong. No matter how we treat her, she is still an outsider. We should treat her like our employee (not our family).

3. Work Schedule and Rules & Regulations on the first day
It is of utmost importance that we spell out her work schedule and rules and regulations on her first day of work. Orientate her, train her and enforce all the regulations. If she has no off-days, make sure that she is aware and agreeable to it.

4. Limit her exposure to other maids
Believe it or not, once she has a chance to mingle with other maids, she is susceptible to negative influences from them. They will start to compare their own employers and even gossip about them.

The above may not apply to all maids but at least 95% of them. I’ll probably visit my maid agency this month and discuss the issue with my agent. She will definitely share with me some insightful tips.

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Possibly Related Posts:

• One Month Update
• The Old vs. The New
• Our New Helper
• Troubled and Why?
• Mother, Maid and Child Relationship