Pet pieves in black and white

Some insight requested. My 1st helper starts in a few weeks and I want to start her off and maintain a steady flow of communication. I was wondering from the experienced folk, if when your helper started did you feel the need to write down a small list of things that would instantly end in termination or of list of do's and don'ts? If you did not, if you had to do it all over again would you? I want to reiforce and ensure that no kindness is taken for a weakness. It seems like other obstacles that employers have had could have been solved by a more direct approach (perhaps- something written down or a standard procedure written out). These are different for different people and are no annotated in the Helpers' handbook. It is easy to say that common sense provails, but there are so many intrepretations. What does the Asia-Expat crew think?

Make a list! What you consider to be common sense is not really that common.


Give her a cleaning schedule

Explain / show her how you want things to be done. If you want the tops of the doors cleaned, tell her.

Explain that if there is a problem to discuss it with you and make any assumptions.

Explain what you will and will not accept. Hours, friends in your house, talking on the phone or using your phone. Watching TV in your living room during working hours. Looking at dishes to make sure they are truly clean before putting them away...

Common sense is truly not as common as you think it is, and what might have been acceptable to her former employer, may not be acceptable to you.

Absolutely agree - write down everything, attach it to her contract and explain it is part of her contract with you. NEVER trust to common sense. You can always change things later if you feel you've been too strict about something but it's not fair to do it the other way. And the cleaning products - unbelievable! My helper uses 2 litres of fabric softener a week (2 adults, one baby whose clothes aren't meant to have it anyway) - a litre of washing up liquid, gallons of floor cleaner, Cif, bleach - AND the house is still dirty. Fantastic. :(


Next time I will explain more at the start - everyone advised me this beofre I hired a helper, but oh no, I knew better...