Urgent: in a diemma. please share your suggestion

she said that the employeers took her passport and "documents" for 2 years and alsp kept her mobile phone. so she could not talk to her family and kids. They wanted her to conintue after the 1st contract and when she refused, they refused to give her some decent reference letter and also refused to talk to the future employers.

Now pls give your views on this story too. i know anything is possible but just wanted your views on this.
i was thinking that if she has been so bad, they would not have kept her for 2 years? unless she did something which was revealed towards the end of those 2 yearss...............
 
Not meaning to sound like a broken record, but I have heard that particular story (and many more) many times over. Truth is Filipino maids have a very well-organised support network in Hong Kong, and I would struggle to believe that she would have allowed her past employers to keep her documents AND has not used a mobile phone (although many helpers have more than one phone) for the entire two years.

Most employers also recognise the fact that it is futile to keep the helper's mobile in order to stop her from chatting away during work hours (what other reason can there be for keeping someone's phone?), as phones are so cheap these days. Which further discredits the helper's story.

Just my two cents.
 
Hi there, yes I saw her from there and interviewed her from that website only. i have called a few more from there and only few show up for interviews (most want "western" employers, some dont want kids).
 
We also hired our helper without employer references and in fact she was terminated but after 3years (so completed one contract). Basically we did it on a friend's recommendation (her own helper is friends with her and they took her in when she was abruptly terminated.)

Honestly there was a risk but we weighed the positives (friend's character reference, her experience and her sensible responses during her phone interview with us) against the negatives (the lack of employer ref and the summary dismissal) and decided to go with our instincts - which was that we liked her.

Anyway we've been most happy with her, and really glad we took the risk. That said, completely agree with Howard that you need to go with your instincts. Also our household is relatively simple (one small child, I work p/t so can take on childcare during the week, plus I can shop/cook myself). Depending on how demanding your household is re. helper duties, this will impact on your needs/expectations of your chosen helper.
 
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WHOEVER you hire, you're going to be taking a risk. Just go with your gut feeling. I don't think that you REALLY know 100% sure who is going to be a great helper until you've been working as a team for a month or two at least. One helper might be fantastic for you, but horrible for someone else (so maybe she might not have glowing references). Also the other way around - someone might have been wonderful with their previous employer but it will be chaos with you.

I hired our helper based on the recommendation of a friend. I trust this friend and they trust her, so my opinion was that trust is the most important thing, and that recommendation was much better than the recommendation from an unknown previous employer. I didn't even call her previous employers, although she gave me their numbers.

Our helper is not a "perfect fit" for our family, I often wish she was more assertive - although for many other families, her quiet nature might be a good thing. What she DOES do well, she does very well. She's great with my kids, and she's extremely trustworthy. She's not the GREATEST cook, she's fairly good at cleaning, although she sometimes misses things. But we took a gamble and it more or less paid off. I'm glad we hired her because she is very good at the important things :)
 
What's your intuition telling you ? you felt good with her ? I agree that no every one can get along with every one... it could work with you as it didn't work for her former employer. Maybe you'll have to make a few efforts and make sure she understands what you want.
I've interviewed a few helpers, and right at the time I was opening the door, I knew if it would be ok or not, with our without references.
Maybe you'll be very satisfied, or just ok but not too bad, or it will be a bad experience, but at least you tried !
 
Hi All,

just an update: I have signed someone from philippines and now have to wait for her to come here.
the girl i found in here in HK (the one without an employer reference), made up new stories and I have decided not to cosider her anymore.
despite the myterious background, i did belive her and wanted to give her a chance. this is what she did.
I called her on thursday to speak and told her I am fine signing the contract. She told me her last visa is on Monday (18th april) however her profile said its on 2nd May.
Then she told me she would goto immigration on friday morning to check what documents she needed and to check her visa status. she was no update on friday.
then on monday, i asked her to come so that we can sign the contract. she said she would first goto immigration (again) to find out the list of documents neededv and will then come to sign the contract. she came at 3pm and told me that the immigration will close at 4 pm and she needed some more documents (my address proof etc).
then on tuesday morning i handed the documents to her and signed the contract. she went to immigration and called me that the officer told her that her visa has run out (although she had told me on friday that she got it extended till may2 ). now yesterdya till 5 pm she was supposedly at immigration and was extending her visa.
i was so frustrated with all this, i called her to return all my documents and then signed up someone from philipines
 
yeah starbucks2 is right - my mother did exactly that and the experience was SO bad that the helper did not even complete her probation period...shouldn't say this but I believe there is ALWAYS a hidden problem if you can't speak with the previous employer
 
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