My new helper decided to quit after 1 week after I paid all her expenses

Hi

I recently employed a domestic helper direct from the Phil. and she came for one week and suddenly quit on me because of her emotional and homesick problems.


It is extremely difficult because I paid all the expenses such as: levy, agency fee, airfare to and fro and her insurance plus other little bills.


I asked her to try and give a few more days and even prayed and comfort her in all the ways I could, but she was just thinking about herself. The day she left I had no one to look after my kids and she just walked out without even waiting for me to get someone else.


She didn't seems to have any problems with my treatment because she did mentioned that I'm nice person to her and she thanked me for comforting her. She told her in-laws that she doesn't know what had happened to her but yet was too prideful to ask for forgiveness.


Now all this money is gone down the drain and the government do not protect employers in these things. Both the levy and insurance will not be refunded because we have decided not to take any helpers at the moment.


For those new employers please be careful! though, I'm not implying that all helpers are the same. I'm a Christian and I am willling to give changes as many times as possible but yet this has opened my eyes that people can do these things without caring about who suffers the consequences as long as its not them.

I feel sorry for your situation, but it is far less common than employers abusing their domestic helpers.


What I have learned from hiring a helper in the past couple of months is that I would never hire someone sight unseen, with or without help from an agency. There are good helpers and bad ones. And, surprisingly, I interviewed more good ones than bad ones.



If you decide to hire a helper again, I would consider hiring one that is already working in Hong Kong.

Evandnie, dont worry its not your lost, she is the one who lost a lot of opportunities to be able to work here Hong Kong, bec as far as we all know a lot of them are looking for a job and a chance to work in Hong Kong, so dont you worry if you are too nice then nice one will come your way, just have to give time for it. Good Luck for the new one.(if ever you hire one again)

Sorry to hear for what happen to you.

Incase you need a temporary helper pls.

email brechabau@yahoo.com.

Dear Everyone,

Thank you all for your support and advice. They are very much appreciated. Abby78, I know you are exactly right in all that you said she is actually the one who lost the opportunity.


What makes me sad though, is that before I hired her my previous helper called me cried and begged me to take her back as she is having a hard time with her new employer but I chose to give this new girl a change mainly because her inlaws seems to be nice helpers and I believe it was God's will for her to come stay with us.


Now, I really feel sorry I didn't give someone else the opportunity who really needs a job. Her excused was " I missed my family very much and I want to go home to my daughter" I said to her, but on the phone when I spoke to you "you said that you are ready to leave your family for the 2 years, then she kept quiet.


My husband is furious about the whole ordeal and he doesn't want me to take another helper for the time being so thats why I know the levy won't be able to transfered.


Thanks and Blessings,

I agree sian,not very nice to comment like that!

We've deleted the unacceptable comments and banned one person.


Sorry I missed these - in future if you see such rubbish on any of our forums please contact me http://www.asiaxpat.com/mediakit/contact.shtm

I have a similar problem. I was determined not to be a harsh employer. My "new" helper who I knew before I hired, has debt problems. I work at night, and have all sorts of "friends" phoning her constantly during the day to demand money, leaving her in tears. If I tell them not to phone they just phone every five minutes and then hang up. she now refuses to answer the phone, which means I can't phone home and ask her to do something. She resigned her last job, had to go home to comply with the law - I paid her flight, her agency fees, her registration tax, and her salary because of course she was battling. She came back halfway through a month, I paid her a full salary for that month. She borrowed 1.600 from me. This was before I found out that she owed thousands to all and sundry. She had asked me to let her spend the night out if her husband came to Hong Kong. I said yes, in fact, let him stay with her if she wanted. This was afterall her husband, and my flat was her home. (This was before I found out about the thousands in missing jewellery). Then her husband "suddenly" divorced her. Much time off and time spent comforting and advising. Loads more morning phone calls (even though she has her own cellphone.) I found out later that she had been cheating on him. That the man coming to town is her lover. So I swiftly retracted my offer of having him over. It's taken a while to get her into cleaning the way I like (just cleaning would do) to know how to cook my western food, shop for the stuff I want, etc etc. She's been here three months. It turns out the man coming to see her - this weekend - intends to marry her and whisk her off to Dubai!!! She'll "send me the money". Right, and I can nail jello to the cieling with a hammer. Again, it's not just the money she owes but the expense and inconvenience of getting her here in the first place.

It is not easy to have a helper. You want to be nice but they take advantage of you, then you lay down the rules and they call you a "bully". My elderly parents have a helper and their money keeps going missing. Yes, this is their fault for not locking it up (but elderly tends to be forgetful)... they didn't want to blame the helper as they kind of liked her, so they blamed the dogs.

So far we have had great success in hiring local help. We posted a wanted ad free in the labour department web page and we have had several highly qualified Hong Kong residents respond. We chose one and she has been great. We lost the full time (dinner dishes) value, but we gained a legal live out with no levy and no extra expense of a live in. As for part time we had a service during the interim (after our last FDH) that also worked well, but was a bit expensive (around 70/hr). I think since SARS the affordability and availability of hiring locally has improved.