am I being mean?

geiboyi, i think you missed the point here. as i've explained, she needs to watch the kids, so i "have to give her time to eat". there's no mention here about paying our helper. i thought it's illegal to underpay one's helper. and i sure don't want to spend time in jail. in fact, i tend to overpay them. when they do a good job, they have bonus at the end of a month/year. and not to count those endless redpackets of 100s of dollars they get when we have visitors over for dinner, someone's birthday, her birthday, her children's birthday, chinese new year.......baby's 1st month birthday, & the list goes on.....

well, u know what, one day, the helper let my daughter drank 3 litres of water, so i don't know whether to trust her to be hungry....
 
I do pay my maid the minimum wage plus gratuities etc. But I believe that overseas maids do not have a high salary because if they did, low-income people in Hong Kong could start applying for their jobs and overseas maids would not be necessary. You hear about local people in Hong Kong paid HK$4000-HK$6000 and they have to pay for their own accommodation/food etc.
 
somebodyfamous, i know it's scary. i asked her, "why did you give her so much water?" (one time we gave her water in the bottle, and she loved it & think it was fun, so i told the helper, it's ok to give her water in the bottle....and then one day this episode of 3 litres) helper answered, "because she was crying!" in her reguar high pitched arguing voice.
 
Geiboyi, just because some people complain about their maids doesn't mean they treat the maids badly or underpay them. Please don't make assumptions like that (of course I am aware there are underpaid DHs out there). We can complain about our bosses, our partners, friends, in laws, parents, employees but cannot vent about our maids? And if we do, does that automatically make us bad employers who don't treat the maids fairly?
 
Oh my god! I think you should consider changing your helper! I would scold mine if she did that, nicely scold but scold nevertheless.
 
sky123 - you point out that there are people in Hong Kong who earn $4000-6000 who have to pay for their own accomodation/food.
I hardly think you can compare the skills of a street cleaner with the often well educated, clean, responsible, English speaking helpers most people seem to have.
 
I think you will find that not all helpers are well-educated, clean or speak English and I think you are being very discriminatory in saying that street cleaners are not clean or responsible. I do believe that street cleaners do speak fluent Cantonese which would obviously be most useful in Hong Kong!
 
LOL, my helper is neither well educated nor speak english well no rresponsible..... does it mean i can underpay her???? LOL
 
I think joannek that the alarm bells (for me) would ring not at her lack of hygiene or disregard for common sense need for nutrition in order to do a good job. But, there is such a thing as "water poisoning"... 3L of water on a child is not something I would overlook. My bub's safety and well-being is of utmost importance... i would have given her the one month's notice. Of course, to each his own and I'm not one to wait for something worse to happen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

About this archive

This is an archive of over 20 years of GeoBaby and GeoSchools knowledge and discussions, kept online as a read-only reference.

Back
Top