Maids & Us

There are always 2 sides to a coin.

We employers fear getting a new maid who is unreliable (sneaky, lazy, always falling ill, untruthful, etc.) but have we ever considered their situation? They are standing at an even more vulnerable spot. They can't choose their employers, they are clueless (other than our voices over the phone- some agencies allow phone intereviews) about our background, our personality.

But so many times, I find my friends/colleagues talk about maids as if they are the horror of the worlds. "Nanny" told me about her impossible mother who never lets the maid out of her sight, who unhooks the telephone wire and locks the telephone in a room which the maid has no access. I also kinda recall DDD relating a story about her difficult sister-in-law who instructs her maid to hang specific type of laundry using a specific coloured bamboo pole. Once, a colleague who complained about her maid every other time wanted to retain her when her contract was expiring...that left me puzzled. Then she explained simply why she would rather retain than engage a new one. "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't."

Geez...so who's really the 'devil'? I guess some of us fail to check our reflection in the mirror regularly.