The thing about domestic helpers (aka maids)...

But in my opinion, from the stories I hear from colleagues, more like legal slaves....

To be frank, I don't employ one probably because I don't earn enough to afford one and luckily my mom (who lives with me, haha!) is willing to help out with the household management. Most of the time I (and my other siblings) contribute financially as and when funds is required. So I haven't experienced the 'luxury' of having someone non-related do all the work 24/7...Or more or less that way. I do, however, have cleaners coming weekly to do the standard household chores over several hours. That, is somewhat affordable.

So I shouldn't complain when other people CAN afford hiring/employing another person to do the whole household administration for them. It's an improvement in quality of life for them, and provides employment for the hired help.

For sheer economic sense, in most instances these hired help are non-local. While Malaysians are still cheaper than many countries (which explains why so much work gets moved here, as well as why I have a job..), labour cost of a Malaysian is unfortunately more expensive than most Malaysian can afford. Hence we go plundering our poorer neighbours. Unfortunately, them being our poorer neighbours, are not as educated as Malaysians. But the rise in Quality of life (and to some extent, better currency), attracts them by the loads.

So many Malaysian families get to play employer, even when they don't own a business but jobs which may have more than 10 bosses who could dictate their work/play hours everyday. The cool part is that since their all foreign labours, aside from the need to either survive through the red tape of employing one or paying off to expedite the process (note: this is merely speculation. I have no proof you can PAY OFF to expedite the process), they have very little 'employer' issues which they have to deal with.

No Annual Leave, Medical Insurance, Accident Insurance, Off Days, Allowances, Sick Days, Promotion, Pay Rise, etc.. They hire them with 1 fixed salary, and that goes on for as long as the 'maid' sticks around. (Ok, some more reasonable employer may give salary increases, but, really, who am I trying to bull?). The 'maid', considering that they 'live in', basically begins work when they wake up and do not stop until they sleep. You can argue they get to rest as and when the chores are done. But if anyone of us working for a proper company is on call 24/7, we're WORKING. Hence so are they. Even if they aren't actually doing work (Not that all of us actually work throughout our 8-9 hours daily either...)

Not only do they not have to deal with all things an employer should be mindful of, because of the amount of financial commitment involved, they also go to an extent to control the lives of these maids. Who they speak with, what they do when they're not at 'work', what they do with their money, how they dress, etc. I can understand that they are merely looking after their own interest; to ensure that the one person they rely on so much to support their 'improved' Quality of life, they need these maids to do nothing but care for their family and households and have no intention on furthering their own interests.

So if you're a foreign maid of a poorer nation than Malaysia employed in Malaysia, you can forget about going out to meet people and new friends, meeting old and known ones, falling in love, getting married, getting laid, having hobbies, personal time, etc... Unless your 'employer' is ok (or in some cases, involved...:p) OR, you have to do it hush hush. As with all secret rendevouz, they rarely become anything good for any party, except maybe...Maybe the parties involved.

So looking from a 3rd party's perspective, I see the hirers as slavers and the hired, slaves. Why so? Because the hirers do not offer the same, or somewhat equal amount of freedom that they have to their hired ones. While the hirer can go about doing all things that we, as human beings, believe is our right, the hired seemed to have signed that right away. When the hired do, at some point decide to do these things (falling in love, getting married, wanting to do something else other than being at 'this employers' beck and call), the hirers cry blue murder and act as though they never had it coming and deserved so much more for all that they've done for the hired.

If all proper companies did that, we'd all be slaves, no? (Ok, for the select few that actually have jobs. Does not apply to does whose job is to employ people. :p)

As I mentioned at the start, all this dawned on me after hearing the many sob stories of my colleagues who do employ maids (I seem to be calling them all sorts of stuff, but they all should mean the same thing). When their maids runaway, or leave, they have all these sob stories to tell. But when you listen to how they actually treat their maids, you'd wonder who in the right mind would have stayed? I mean, yes, the opportunity to work for them is an upgrade of quality of life..But human nature dictates that we will always want better, and other things. These maids are no different. Back where they were maybe they couldn't find enough for 3 meals, so working abroad is godsent. But once they're here, 3 meals isn't quite enough. They will see there is more out there. As much as they may (or may not) appreciate what these employers have done for them (like saving them from the hell hole they were before), it's counts for almost nothing when it's no longer enough. We, appreciate our current bosses/employers for giving us this job. BUT when someone/something better comes, are we going to say no and stick around anyway? (yeah yeah, those who know me would say that I'm one of those who might stay...But I'm not being discussed here...)

NO. AND no one in our right mind would say we are evil and ungrateful (ok, maybe sometimes, but generally speaking....) Yet these maids are thought off as such.

I pity these maids. At the same time I pity the employers as well. Some of them are really nice people. But once they experience the power of being able to dictate a person's life (and they are not kin...), they lose sight that their maids are as much human as they are with the same needs et all, only less fortunate. Treating them any less makes them devils in disguise. If only they'd realise that.

But then again, that's just me seeing from the outside. I'm sure if I were in their shoes I'd probably end up doing the same thing too. Which is why if I can I'd rather not employ a maid (IMHO, having cleaners come periodically doesn't count as they're a service, not employed by me..:p) I now see how appropriate it is when I was a child to help out at home, even when most of my peers were happily playing outside or with their console games.

That's all the rant for the moment.