Maids these days

Perhaps unwilling to allow Madam Patricia Koh to enjoy all the glory, Straits Times Forum letter writer Lim Guan Wee weighs in on The Trouble With Maids These Days:

I have gambled and lost money with two errant maids and an irresponsible agency. My first maid made use of me to extend her stay in Singapore. She was a transfer maid the agency highly recommended to me.

As it was my first time hiring a maid, I foolishly accepted her without investigating the real reason she had stopped working for her previous employer. To my horror, besides failing in her duties to look after my mother, she asked for a transfer after she had fulfilled her two months.

To add insult to injury, she had secretly applied to a new agent. So she had made use of the old agent and me to tide over the two months. In the short span of two months, she also managed to network with other Indonesian maids in the neighbourhood to recruit them to sign up with her new agent. [...]

The two maids belong to the savvier generation of street-smart maids and are highly networked. Their mantra is: 'Not happy? Transfer'.

I mean, it's just appalling, isn't it? The way they behave, it's like they think they're ordinary employees, people or something, looking around for the best deal, and the work placement and agency relationship that suits them best. Instead of compliant slaves unable to exercise any options, having to accept anything we throw at them. If only they could go back to being desperate and without recourse - ignorant of their rights and too frightened to stand up for their own interests. It was so much better when everyone knew their place.