Posted by
ruthie
15 yrs ago
We have a maid who keeps constantly complaining how busy she is (only 2 adults both out at work all day and only one old cat at home).She shouts and keeps saying/taunting 'terminate me terminate me'!? We now discover she has been terminated several times already and believe she is scamming to just get money,as this bad behaviour seems to be a pattern.She keeps threatening to go to Immigration/Labour Dept/Police etc to complain.Goodness knows what she thinks she could complain about,we are clear and courteous and dont overload her, but she has a lousy attitude and is very unpleasant.We cannot afford to just pay her off and want to protect any future employers.She has been in HK many years and knows all the 'dodges' so its difficult to prove her incompetence and wilful neglect.Any advice as to what grounds are reasonable for us to terminate her without notice.Has anyone else had the dreadful experience of a maid threatening all the time? We have been in HK many years so are not naive or unfair!This lady is mentally unhinged so need bullet proof advice please.
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I would email Immigration, explain your problem, and ask their advice, do you know any of her previous employers who would back you up? Immigration should have some record of her terminations and length of employment. She probably backmailed former employers into giving her a reference for another job,
If you can have maybe photographic evidence of jobs not done properly, eg. like thick layers of dust, mould growing, uncleaned windows , etc etc without her knowing you took the photo's maybe this will back up you case.
However if and when you do decide to terminate this lady make sure you have an independant witness there, and get the helper to sign for everything you give her.
Good luck with everything.
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Maybe this will not be bullet proof advice. People are different. ;)
You should sit down with her and tell her what you are not happy with. Warn her that you are unhappy and have been thinking of terminating her. If she does not improve immediately, terminate.
"Any advice as to what grounds are reasonable for us to terminate her without notice."
Pretty simple. You just have to be unhappy with her performance. (Check!) Note that you have to give her one month's notice or (if you let her go immediately) one month's salary, and a trip back to her home. I would terminate immediately in this case. She sounds like a troublemaker anyway.
"However if and when you do decide to terminate this lady make sure you have an independant witness there, and get the helper to sign for everything you give her."
Sound advice.
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Thank goodness there are no kids in the house but its still scarey.She is a devout Jehovas Witness (maybe this has affected her)? we would certainly not keep her if it was not for our old sweet cat who needs feeding every 2 hours.If you hear of any good finish contract maids please do let me know urgently!Many thanks.
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Maybe you can ask her to go to the immigration and labour department and file a complaint? It would be nice to know how she views you.
May you find a better helper next time.
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teme
15 yrs ago
I would go with the advice of contacting the labour department. I had a bad experience with a nutty helper and the government were very helpful in giving me advice. You probably need to give a warning letter, stating why you are not satisfied with her job performance. Also you could try ordering her not to shout at you as you find it offensive.
In my case, I did everything the goverment told me to do, we then fired her on the spot, with no pay or notice, but as required with a ticket home, open for three months as advised. The helper tried, as expected to take us to court, however as we had followed the advice of the labour department she was quickly told she did not have a leg to stand on. And just in case anyone thinks that I am an unfair enployer....this helper left my small child unattended in a playground, and drank every drop of booze that was in my kitchen, (one bottle of brandy and one bottle of sherry), and these were not the reasons for termination.....I found out from a friend who watched my child in the playground about her being left and discovered myself about the absent booze, after she had left!!!
I wish you luck with your situation, stick to what you believe and follow it through.
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Somehow I wish there was a website or database of these types of helpers so everyone would know what they are getting into. We have interviewed so many helpers in the past 3 months, started contracts with a few, one after the other, and ALL have had some serious attitude problem which forced us to terminate at tremendous cost.
Someone said that it is their way of staying in HK, extending their time here so as to land the "dream" job working for a Western employer who pays them more than $5K per month with all the perks. I am sure so many people have been scammed like us. I just wonder how others can get to know about them before they keep screwing others.
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Too bad for you Sanjkash, you haven't found your perfect helper. If you keep sacking those maids, you will be the one to be blacklisted and can't hire one anymore. Ain't that great? Apparently the Philippines embassy have this blacklist for bad employers.
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I think a database of "bad" helpers (whatever that may be) is a bad idea. It would be vulnerable to abuse. Also what is a "bad" helper varies from person to person.
As with everything, the buyer beware.
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i think a database maybe a good idea but it has to include the reasons. whether the reasons listed were valid and /or legitimate to classify them as a bad helper is up to the reader's judgement. as axptguy said the term bad is subjective and varies from person to person.
employers of the same helper who posts to the database would also give the reader a bigger picture of the potential helper's personality, work habits etc before anyone deems them as "bad"
maybe a database of helpers that has criminal records like stealing should be put up instead.
it would be hard though to monitor and police the site, as potentially other helpers (or other employers) who want to "destroy" another helper's reputation could post negative comments there that are not true
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punter... that's my point, if employees can look at the Philippine embassy's database of "bad" employers and have information as to why they should not work with them, why do the employers have to take ALL the risk and cost if something does not work out with an employee simply because they cannot get ANY objective information about the helper from others? Isn't the employer helpless like this - pay all the money, take someone they really know nothing about into their home and to trust them with their children - all the while just praying that the person they have hired is honest and diligent. Is it not a risk?
Agencies usually have a 3 month guarantee so that these problems can be sorted out early on - yes, it's bad luck that sometimes one is not able to find the right person to help domestically, but that does not mean the employer is bad necessarily or there is any problem with the employer. It is just not a good fit - and unfortunately for us there was not a good fit because of the various demands, expectations etc from the helpers which we would not have been comfortable with for 2 years.
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Why agenize over this?
The direct approach is always best.Give her a letter outlining in detail her deficiencies and what you expect of her and giving her in writing 7 days to perform properly (she won't) then terminate her in the proper way. There is no point for ether party to continue what is a lost cause.
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