Bad attitude

I need some advice please. We have a helper whose visa is expiring a few days before X'mas. We employed her in January this year so she's just in her 1st year. Initially she was fine; however as months went by we noticed she has bad attitude and temperaments. She is quite often moody in the sense, you see a sour face in the morning; answerig abruptly when asked questions or told to do something. We have spoken to her and asked her why she is like that and she answers "That's me". In fact I had posted in another thread also about her losing and damaging items. We put it down to her dis-interest in working for us. So we asked her if she is interested to continue etc or she might be happier working elsewhere and she said she wanted to continue.


Her attitude has changed slightly as we know she wants to remain in HK. In fact everytime after we spoke to her, her attitude and temperaments improves for a while then its back to square one.


We are now wondering if we want to continue another year with her and to put up with this since we are considering terminating this current contract and signing a new one whereby we need not have to pay the government levy of $400.


Can we terminate her? Can we give the reasons of no change in attitude and temperaments etc? She is Indonesian so does anyone also know how much air fare we need to pay for a flight back to Indonesia? I am also paranoid that if we give her 1 month notice I don't know what she will do ... since she is very close to one of my dogs! It's silly I know but I do not want to lose my dog!

Of course you can terminate her contract! Either by giving one month’s notice or one month’s wages in lieu of notice so pay her and get her out ASAP. Depending on the reason for termination Immigration may consider not allowing her to stay and get a new job or even letting you hire in the future if you are seen as constantly unreasonsble so why not just say something like 'Incompatibility between employer and employee'

Be warned however you must get everything ready just in case she decides to lodge a complaint with the Labor Dept. (FDH have two weeks to find a new job or leave but if they have an upcoming tribunal they can stay longer so a few unscrupulous lodge complaints to stay longer and/or try to get more $).

Look on the web as HK government publishes guides to hiring a FDH, payments due to the FDH is due upon dismissal etc. And get her to sign for payments received and that she has recieved everything owing to her or if she won't have a non family witness there and/or send registered letter to her. you must contact immigration ans she should as well - call or better visit ID to find out details of what to do.

You must pay for ticket to travel to her home by the most direct route (one way no need for return) and pay her food allowance whilst traveling as per government rules - where is her place of origin in the contract? Indonesia is a big place and if she is from say Sumatra you cannot just pay for a plane to Jakarta.

I would terminate her and give her a month's wage in lieu of notice without a blink of an eye. Our helper terminated the contract early herself and decided she would work the month's notice. It has been hell on earth. I can sympathise with you living through the attitude. I swear if looks could kill I would be dead a thousand times over this month. But it is not just the attitude. Ours just started refusing point blank to do work by saying with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders "if I get time" or "I forgot" when asked to do something that was clearly stated in writing as something that was required from her as a weekly task. And she did one very dangerous thing which I initially wrote off as a shocking accident, but given what I know now , I have suspicions it may have been deliberate. And now she is putting us through the ringer over the termination payment. But you can read that whole sorry saga on another thread. Just, and I am repeating wonderful advice from kind people who read this forum, be very careful - dot every "i" and cross every "t" and document everything. Good luck with it.

Personally I would pay the month's wage and get her out. We don't tolerate that behaviour from our children, why on earth should we tolerate it from an employee. If she doesn't like her job, then leave!


However, if you feel concerned about the backlash from her, perhaps you could do the 3 written warnings over the course of the next few weeks. At least that way, there will be grounds for dismissal and limits her grounds for complaint. Just ensure she countersigns the letter. Have a month's wage in your pocket just in case she refuses and if she does, give her the money, tell her to pack her bags. Note down on the letter that she refused to sign the letter and contact the ID. Just to be on the safe side, have someone with you as witness.


Good Luck

it really amazes me how the helper just change overnight once the contract is terminated. thats just so crazy - dont they want good references! doesnt she care that her reference will be totally damaged by her attitude in that last month! really, is it worth it - any helpers our there who can explain that one to me please?

Here here Idsllvn - I thought I was employing someone to keep my house clean -not a a real life Dr jeckyll and Mr Hyde.

Idsyllvn -

Lots of helpers get a job without a reference!! I terminated a bad helper in May and she's sent me a text message since saying she's still in HK (I don't think she was lying, as she was implying she wanted her old job back). I guess what happens is that some people are really desperate for a DH and they have to take someone who looks good in the interview even though they have no reference / a poor reference.

Fact is many employers don't check references - I mean many don't actually call and speak to the past employer. How do you know who wrote a written ref and does it really tell that much if there is one? And beware of 'my employer has left HK so can't be contacted'.

Any FDH employed by me must provide me contact numbers for their last employer or they don't get employed. Also I insist upon an actual address on the contract not just 'Manila' or 'Jakarta'; if they have not shown an address I want to know why and what they are hiding.

phew! i must have been lucky - both of my helper's previous employers were contactable - even tho one was back in UK already - i still managed to call her.. i cant understand how one can hire a DH without speaking to previous employers...