Posted by
Josie Jump
17 yrs ago
My new maid has been working for us for 1.5 mths. Although we don't give her a curfew on her rest day but she has been returning home early when we are having our dinner at 7ish and expecting dinner to be served for her. She usually leaves home around 9am on her rest day. We have told her to come back later but she still chooses to come home early just in time for dinner instead of spending time with her family and friends. At first, we thought she was being careful with her cash by eating in but from her bagful of shopping she brings home each week, I doubt that is the case. Although we don't mind as yet but would like to know if her coming home early will get me into trouble in the future. Also do I have to provide her evening meal on her rest days. My previous 2 maids always ate out before returning home. Constructive advice pls.
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No you don't need to provide food for her on her rest day and if you would like her to give you some space you could request that she either go to her room or stay out later as you would like to enjoy dinner as a family on that one day. It would be better to clear this up now as the longer it goes on the harder it will be to change things.
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Actually Moppet you need to be a bit more detailed in your statement. You don't need to provide food on her rest day IF she has a food allowance, other than that you are actually still responsible!
There is no law that makes maids leave the house just as there is not one that states she has to stay on a Saturday night for example. So you have to make sure she understands what your expectations are.
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evildeeds, do you have something that states that as i have never seen it mentioned before.
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Moppet, I think the rules are quite clear on this. You employ a DH and she lives in your house and you have a choice. You either supply food or provide an allowance. If you provide food then that is a 7 days a week arrangement, she lives there so is entitled. Of course she may not want to. That's her choice. There was something about this on another site whereas the employer did not provide food on the day off and actually that was their undoing when they terminated their maid.
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I guess it's something I've never come across or really thought about before as our helpers have always been welcome to help themselves when they want. However providing food doersn't mean that the josie jump needs to have her sat at the table with them being served on. They could very easily ask her to eat later or make something and take it with ther.
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Of course, that why I mentioned she needs to make her DH understand what her expectations are. I'd feel the same, I would want a Sunday with my family only. She has to make her DH aware of that and also make her aware that she can eat when the family are finished or take to her room.
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our helper also comes home some sundays early however she doesnt expect me to hv cooked for her. she just helps herself to whatever she feels like...mostly its something very simple,light like noodles, sandwich or eggs! i dont hv a prob with that as long as i dont hv to cook for her like i said! and we usually eat in our den on sundays which initially i would notice her hovering around so i once politely said ' we're ok dont worry in case i need something i will call u....go and relax.' im not sure if she felt obligated to help around cos we hv v young kids (1.5 and 3), or if she thought she could hv dinner with us but by saying this she just started mking her own food and tking it into her room and i wouldnt see her thereafter unless i called out for her which was v rare but there have been once or twice when my husband has been out of town when i hv needed help with someone to watch kids while i cleared dishes or just keep an eye on them! i dont see any harm in them eating at home on their days off provided they not expecting u to cook/serve them!
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Thank you all for your replies.
We have spoken to her on numerous occasions to come back later and that she isn't obliged to eat our food on her rest days if she didn't like what we eat (she's a rice eater but we eat roast or steaks on Sundays which she's not keen) but she still eats our food. Even on National Day, we told her to enjoy the firework display yet she still chose to come home for dinner expecting food on the plate for her. It is not like she's coming home early every odd Sunday, it's been every Sunday including the public holidays. She can't cook so expects us to cook for her on her rest days. We have asked her to eat elsewhere yet she still prefers to eat in the same room as us as she wants to watch TV at the same time. I think I will tell her to eat later as suggested.
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Josie Jump i think you may just need to be strong with her and inform her you don't want her to eat with you on Sundays and you would like her to eat either before you or once you are all done. Also inform her that she is to prepare something for herself or have something before she comes home as you have enough to do cooking for the family.
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like i always say..
if politeness doesnt work... be plain blunt!!! some people dont get it if you are not blunt..
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I think food allowance is the best way to sort this out once and for all - steaks and roast is just way to expensive for an extra person and she does not seem to like it anyway so JJ just tell her you would like to give her allowance and she eats her own stuff from them on. Our helpers actually prefer this set up rather than eating our food... But I would make it a bit more of course than the min of $300 - how can one live on that? we give our two helpers $1,000 and $700. Hope this helps...
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actully helper is part our our famley till she have a contract we give our house key many more thing in her hand when we out for job she is the one who take care house if we give her food in her nest day how much we lose money ???? nothing beside if helper come home early that is to good because many helper they don't want to return home early there for if we treat them as a our famley member in our absent she take care our proportey in safe condition.
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sorry Iconnect I did not get much of it but we get on great with my helpers but I need space with my family, esp at dinners, so you can still treat them with respect and very well but dont have to spend every waking hour with them.
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HK$300 for food allowance for the whole month is really impossible. Is it ok for you to pay HK$50 to HK$100 each time for her to have dinner outside on her rest day, so that you can enjoy the dinner on Sundays and she will not expect to be served.
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