Pros and cons of fresh helper?

Off topic, but are these 16 year old Indonesian helpers the same Southeast Asian teenagers that can be seen smoking (and sometimes drinking) in Victoria Park on weekends?

Hi Mrs Miggins... Hope you & baby are both doing well.

I have just gone through 3 months of looking for the ' right ' helper & have to say that ' NONE' told me that they expected a higher salary than the minimum. In fact, none even discussed salary. It seemed to be just understood that I would pay what was required.

I am trying to figure out why your DH discuss higher salaries with you.

Are you coming across too soft? Are you informing them that you will be providing a lot of luxuries to them at the 1st interview itself. When I say luxuries...I mean the usual DH gets a wardrobe, maybe a room to themselves & a fan. If you are providing them a lot more than that maybe they believe you can afford to pay a much higher salary too.

Whatever you provide your DH is what you would like too, but maybe they dont need to know it all till they sign a contract. It would a pleasant surprise to them & they would already bound by contract.

A fresh DH is always a risk, especially if they have no experience in another country. With your new baby, do you want to go through the very basic process of training, etc & then deal with how they do with the job or get homesick?

Whatever you decide, all the best. I have been through 3 months of relentless interviewing, I am hoping the one I have now is going to be worth it. She seems to be so far & that is good....

Don't underestimate the training involved in hiring someone straight from home and who has never been a helper before. They likely come from a very different socio-economic background, and as a new helper, will likely not be familiar with many things we take for granted. Home appliances for example.


You won't be teaching her how you like your clothes ironed, you'll be teaching how to use a washer and dryer, how to separate laundry items, how to distinguish those items that need hand washing or dry cleaning, and then teach ironing. You'll have favorite clothes ruined. This will go on for much longer than you expect.


You'll of course give them your favorite recipes to make it easy. Of course, lessons on the stove and oven follow as they've only ever cooked on a single element gas burner. Come Sunday you'l need to cook something yourself and of course you'll find out all your non-stick pans are ruined. Of course it will take months before the two of you have worked out how the kitchen functions.


The examples can go on and on. Not the fault of the new-to-helping helper, but she will need to learn almost everything in taking care of your house.


Ahhh, the new baby! Your new helper has experience with taking care of her sister's child (or whomever). Now the cultural differences start to appear, and she has absolutely no idea what you want or need or expect because she has never worked for an expat. You want your slightly ill baby to have a sponge bath before bed, but oh no ma'am the baby can't get wet if he/she is sick. You have to go out and baby needs medicine, better be absolutely sure she knows what 1ml is. Baby is hurt and may or may not need emergency care, you're out and she can't reach you on your cell phone... will she get the emergency care or worry that the bill may be extremely high (compared to her salary) and doesn't know if she should spend the money as the baby may be okay. These examples aren't intended to slight helpers, but are concerns I'd have with someone who has never been a helper before.


I personally would not hire a helper from her native country with zero experience. It will be a full-time job training, and will have many frustrating times. You get a helper to help you, not to create additional work. There are far too many experienced helpers both in HK and Manila, there should be no need to go this route. We moved from Manila to HK last year. Our helpers came with us from Manila and first time working abroad. We knew numerous great helpers that would've come with us if they had the opportunity. Our helpers worked with other expats prior to us. They required very little in general training, more in how we wanted little things done. Thay are absolutely wonderful and have become almost part of our family (not necessarily a good idea but it works for us).


It's also not as straightforward to hire a helper from her native country as you might think. The paperwork can take six weeks or longer, and some consulates insist on using an agency. How do you find a helper from Manila or wherever? How do you interview? What happens if she gets here and you feel you made a mistake? If you have answers for these questions and can wait six weeks or longer, finding an experienced helper in Manila may work out well. You may also want to be aware that it is much more common in Manila to have multiple helpers, and the helpers may specialize. The maid cleans, the cook cooks, the laundry girl does laundry, the ya-ya takes care of the baby. This is probably more true with wealthy Filipino families than with expats. Find out what experience they have; how many helpers in the household may give you an indication of how well they will do as an all-around helper.


Do you and your baby go to expat playgroups, parks, outings, even the doctors office. Do your friends have helpers? Keep your eye out for someone you feel is a great helper. Expats come and go, the helpers stay. If you keep your eyes open, there's a really good chance you'll find a helper with an employer leaving soon. Grab her before someone else does. You can of course also ask one of these great helpers if she can recommend someone. It helps if her employer is very close to you as there is less chance she will recommend someone that may not be up to her standards.


Good luck!

Hi Mrs. Miggins,

I know it is difficult searching for a new helper. Just to provide another perspective, I actually think 4500/month is a small price to pay for an experienced person who will provide at least 60 hours a week of work. Let's face it: in a Western country we would be paying triple that or more!


While our current helper never discussed salary with me, I made it clear that of course I would provide what she had already been receiving for the last 6 years or so-it seemed fair to me, and I felt she was the right person and didn't want her to accept another position.

To Mrs Miggins, we got our helper direct from the Phillippines, via her sister. Her sister worked for friends of ours, and she was having to send her money home each month to support her sister's family (3 kids), so when we said we were looking for a new helper and did she know anyone, she asked if we would consider her sister so she could come out here and support her own children. She did all the paperwork. When our helper arrived, we weren't sure at first as she seemed so quiet, but we soon got used to each other. We had a few ruined items of clothing, but no more than with our previous helper who had several years working in HK. In some respects it worked better having someone new to HK. She has 3 kids of her own so I knew she could cope with the babysitting. Maybe there would be some cultural differences, but you only need to tell them if they're doing something you don't like. She has now been with us 3 1/2 years.

Our friends also got their helpers straight from their home country; the first worked out so well that when they were looking for a second, they took her sister as well. They had to do some minor training/instruction but all worked (and works) out very well.


When we arrived in HK, those friends advised us to go fresh as well. We almost did though some computer glich rendered the resume we were getting from the Phillipines (one of my relatives is from there and highly recommended someone that we interviewed over the phone, etc...still have her in mind if you would like to chat with her. resume and a list of questions I sent to her re: the job, etc., and her answers.) arrived late...by a few days. We found our helper here on AsiaXpat.


We wanted to either go fresh, have someone with only a few years in HK, or, have someone fresh to a 'western' family. The thing we felt would be common among people from these three categories was we thought that chances were (and we'd have to meet them to see) that they were not as into canaiving for more and more money...that they'd hear the prospective job responsibilites and think seriously about them instead of jumping for a chance to play a bargaining game and not take the actual work seriously. We especially thought the fresh to HK and fresh to 'western' might appreciate the job more. This of course is all generally-speaking, but it seemed to be right in all the people we met. To boot, very few people that we met said they made more than the minimum; and anyone who said they did said they were fine with minimum too. Our helper is a very good one. She too has ruined...or colored pink...two pairs of jeans, despite the fact that she has over a handful of years doing DH work in HK. We did send her to first aid classes. Will do other kitchen/hygiene classes as good ones become available, just to fine tune, etc. Can't hurt.

Remember that it's possible that the helpers aren't being 100% honest about their current/last salary (mine wasn't, for example).