A Maid Rant

I don’t usually rant but since this is a blog and what’s the use if you don’t rant isn’t it? This is another maid story. I don’t have a live-in maid but I use an agent for someone to come clean the house and iron once a week. The reason why I use them is that they are cheap, only RM35 for 5 hour job. The only thing is I have to pick her up and drop her off but since she lives close by, I don’t mind.

I usually pick S up at 8. For the morning session, the half-day shift is from 8 am to 1 pm. I’m not particular so sometimes, actually all the time, I let her go by 12:30pm. I will even give an additional RM5 for her makan (lunch) cos the RM35 is pocketed whole by the agent. Aren’t I generous?

That’s the problem. When you are too generous, they tend to take your nicety for granted. I don’t usually watch her when she does her work. If I am downstairs, I will go up to check once in a while. Unfortunately for me, that isn’t enough. I learned lately, I have to LOOK at her 24/7 when she’s doing her work. Isn’t that just a waste of time? I might as well do it myself if I am going to spend the entire 5 hours having to stare at her to ensure she’s doing her work.

The reason why I insist on S every Friday is that for one, she has cleaned my house before and two, she’s an experienced cleaner. So, I made sure they reserve S for me. S used to be very thorough and I don’t have to do much supervising. I tell her where and what to do and she’s smart enough to make sure she gets it done and even do other stuff I don’t tell her.

Lately, her attitude changed. She wants to finish her work quickly. I am all for efficiency but come on? 30 minutes upstairs including the bathroom? Not that my house is very big, I only have one freaking bed in the whole house but I am very positive that it takes more than 10 minutes just to vacuum the entire upstairs. Needless to say when I checked, she never really vacuum, dust everywhere especially under the bed. She just turns on the vacuum supposedly for me to hear and leaves it on for 5 minutes or so, turn off again, I hear dragging and turn on again for another 5 minutes.

I have done housework. I know what “vacuuming” sounds like. I don’t have to actually see you NOT doing it to know you are NOT doing it. There’s actually more but if I were to go through every detail, I won’t finish this post.

This has happened a few times lately and I have told her, emphasized more like it that she has to do this and that properly. Then, she’s not my maid and even if she is my maid, what can I do really? Strike her? Starve her? I mean, we are dealing with another grown human being. There’s nothing much I can do seriously.

S’s lackadaisical attitude towards her job resulted from the fact that she found herself a boyfriend. Well, she told me about the boyfriend thingy and I just put 2 and 2 together. I did complain to the agent (by the way, the agent is a lady who is damn business savvy, she lets her own maid run the maid co-ordination. Fun ain’t it?) and I told her that I didn’t want to use S anymore but not like they can make things better. I’m sure my complaints will fall on deaf ears. Who am I kidding? For RM35 and a maid herself who is running the show, I seriously doubt they are going ISO-whatever to satisfy their ‘customers’. I am not too beat up over it since I don’t lose much as she is not a full-time maid plus, I can get a replacement almost immediately. I can’t say the same for people who have full-time maids living with them and having to go through these things.

I have decided and Hubby also agreed that we should try out Merry Maids. A more professional cleaning service co. Heard some positive stuffs about them. Well, me try first before I say anything further or if anyone has tried them, please feel free to let me know. They are slightly more expensive but sometimes, RM10 more is worth saving you the headache if they are as good as claimed.