Maid Woes

[PeteC]

Good girl from Issan. Husband works in Rayong factory, little 3 year old son. All live with the man's Mom locally. Worked for us for over a year. Suddenly husband started to get off work at 1700 but not home until late evening. Maid started to check up and in her haste slid on sand on her MC and bruised up and off work for 3 days. Comes back, crying all day, everyday. Husband still in same late night routine. Husband finally announced he has another woman. Mom supports him and tells the wife to head on out back to Issan, but leave the boy. More crying and apparently plotting. We pay her monthly wage on the 13th and her Dad apparently sends some money from Issan. Last Thursday shows up for work with the lad, resigns on the spot, and tells us she told the husband and his Mom the boy had a cold so not taking him to nursery school that day, but to work with her. She departs in tears, parked her motorcycle at the bus station (the husband is making the payments), got on a bus and whisked herself and her son to Issan and into the protection of her family.

Next morning all hell breaks loose here. Husband and Mom here at the house screaming we harboured her and helped plot her escape blah, blah, blah. First time I've actually seen my wife get really jai laun. They refused to leave without an explanation and information, wife called her BIL policeman, they came with lights on and wife actually pressed charges on them for trespassing. She let them stay in the clink for the day and then called and dropped the charges. Their pics are now at the main security gate not to be allowed entry here.

Moral of the story, when you hire a maid, it's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get! Pete

[Terry]

Not just a maid Pete, ANY Thai staff.

An old friend of mine once said - If you are hiring Thai staff, make sure they are deaf, dumb and blind and have no family attached - you might then get reliability without the 'add ons'.

OK - somewhat harsh, but you cannot judge the Thai labour relations issues by the normally accepted 'Farang' standards.

We are living in a different society.

[Spitfire]

An all too familiar type of story Pete, usual Thai man philandering and then tries to shift the blame when it goes tits-up. Yep, that's it, blame the foreigner as usual even though you were good enough to provide a job for her to help support herself and kid plus the useless piece of shite she was with.

Good on your Mrs for standing her ground and calling the cops, they were trying it on. However, it's to be expected when hiring casual work Thai staff that they have lots of baggage and are probably in a crappy situation.

Maybe try an older maid next time, younger Thai females are nothing but problems.

[PeteC]

We've had two older maids SF and they're terrible IMO. Too set in their ways i.e., things go where they want them and not where they were. The place looked totally rearranged everyday with one of them. They're also too slow and the day ends and everything is not finished. The wife and I are now the maids, we've renamed ourselves Alice and Myrtle for that purpose.

However, wife just diagnosed with the swine flu yesterday as have the two kids belonging to our next door neighbor, so the place will just remain dirty until recovery as I assume daughter and I will be down with it shortly. I thought that stuff was gone. Pete

[margaretcarnes]

An all too familiar type of story Pete, usual Thai man philandering and then tries to shift the blame when it goes tits-up. Yep, that's it, blame the foreigner as usual even though you were good enough to provide a job for her to help support herself and kid plus the useless piece of shite she was with.

Good on your Mrs for standing her ground and calling the cops, they were trying it on. However, it's to be expected when hiring casual work Thai staff that they have lots of baggage and are probably in a crappy situation.

Maybe try an older maid next time, younger Thai females are nothing but problems.

Ah yes - but if the foreigner hadn't been there - and hadn't hired the maid - this would never have happened.... Thai Logic.

[hhfarang]

Same here with all Thai staff... way too much drama in their lives. Have had problems with three gardeners and three housekeepers... never found a totally reliable one.

[crazy88]

We took on a maid from a friends agency. I cannot complain. She took on board all of our little quirks within a few visits. She does a full morning on the house, cooks everybody lunch and then tidies the garden. Every other week her 2 sons come with her, clean the windows and lemon oil the kitchen. She also rings and asks if we need anything the night before she comes and runs around after she has finished work paying our car/phone/electric bills etc. All the maids I have seen from this company have, with a little training, been excellent. The boss makes random spot checks and encourages feedback on performance on a regular basis.

Crazy 88

[PeteC]

I wish we had any kind of cleaning agency in or near the little burg we're in. They had those kind of companies in Pattaya and we used them there. An entire crew would show up twice a week and the entire place including garden and pool would be pristine in 4 hours. No hassle, no drama, no dealing with personal problems. Where we are now you have to deal with the freelance individual and you're never sure what you have for the first few weeks.

I look back at life in the West and few have maids there, I never did. The house never seemed to get as dirty as here and people wear shoes inside there. Maybe because wall to wall carpet hid much of the dirt, maybe more wind and fallow fields here generating more dust. You go a few days here without wet mopping the tile floors and you can feel the dust/grit when walking in your bare feet. Plumbing fixtures get more dirty quickly as well I guess because of the quality of the water.

The search is on for someone new. Until then it's roll up our sleeves time. I've got to go hose down the living room now. Pete

[margaretcarnes]

You're quite right about the level of dirt problem Pete. Fans - when used - cause much of the problem blowing dust etc around. The water itself used to wash floors is already dirty when it comes out of the tap. Wet rooms develop a slimy coating on all tiled surfaces and need regular descaling - tiles soon become slippery and dangerous. Vents in walls above kitchen appliances let in all manner of muck and insects - despite mosquito net coverings.
Yes the western habit of carpeting certainly does hide a huge amount of dirt - and it's only when you have lived somewhere like Thailand that you realise just how bad that can be. I've realised that to be really clean a carpet would need to be shampood every week - totally impractical of course. So despite maid problems it's still better to be able to wash a floor (or turn a blind eye?)

[Name Taken]

An all too familiar type of story Pete, usual Thai man philandering and then tries to shift the blame when it goes tits-up. Yep, that's it, blame the foreigner as usual even though you were good enough to provide a job for her to help support herself and kid plus the useless piece of shite she was with.

Good on your Mrs for standing her ground and calling the cops, they were trying it on. However, it's to be expected when hiring casual work Thai staff that they have lots of baggage and are probably in a crappy situation.

Maybe try an older maid next time, younger Thai females are nothing but problems.

Ah yes - but if the foreigner hadn't been there - and hadn't hired the maid - this would never have happened.... Thai Logic.

It really is a shame that foreigners living in Thailand have to constantly keep their guard up to avoid being ripped off, scammed, assaulted by a dozen thais or even killed.

[E-Dork]

Name Taken waffled on about.....

It really is a shame that foreigners living in Thailand have to constantly keep their guard up to avoid being ripped off, scammed,

I have never in over 20 years been either 'ripped off' or 'scammed' ( bar the 'odd' 10 baht added on to prices here and there, worry about that and you really are sad ). I find that, if you can speak Thai, you will never have any problem with these issues. Thai people appreciate the fact that you obviously submerged yourself enough in their culture to learn their language.
If you have been here many years and you still can't speak conversational Thai then you are the same as a tourist, in their eyes, basically so end up being stitched up on things. If you can't be bothered to learn their language why SHOULD they appreciate or respect you and give you normal deals. Turn the situation around..... and how would you deal with it.

[hhfarang]

That's all well and good E-Dork, but I've tried and my alcohol soaked 61 year old brain just can't comprehend a complex tonal language like Thai. I can get by with the pleasantries, directions, shopping, and ordering food, but conversational I'm not and don't believe I ever could be.

[E-Dork]

That's a fair enough reply HHFarang. If I tried to learn another language now myself it would be difficult also.

The prior comment was really aimed at members of our expat community who don't even give learning Thai a shot and rarely rub shoulders with Thai folk. You know the ones..... step down binthabaht and have a look. Most of those guys are with farangs, only speak to farangs (Thai ladies of the night excluded) and only have friends who are... you guessed it... farangs.

In England now they are enforcing the rule in which you must have a basic command of the language before entering the country (tourists aside). We seem to forget this. How many of the expat community would need kicking out of Thailand if suddenly everybody had to pass a Thai exam (if it was a written exam I'd be royally stuffed!) to be permitted a visa.

The English public 'spit' on those that do not bother to learn our language when working in our country. Yet some here seem to be so 'above' Thailand that they needn't bother with the language, then feel all sorry for themselves when they get ripped off.

[TypicallyTropical]

That's all well and good E-Dork, but I've tried and my alcohol soaked 61 year old brain just can't comprehend a complex tonal language like Thai. I can get by with the pleasantries, directions, shopping, and ordering food, but conversational I'm not and don't believe I ever could be.

I have to agree with this. I'm an old fart, or make that old farang, and after learning three other languages during the years of my life my brain just gave up. (I already forgot two of those languages except a few words!) I married a beautiful Taiwanese girl and all I was able to learn in Taiwanese during the past five years is "I Love You!" I don't think I could manage to lear more in Thai either!

[Arcadian]

[quote="E-Dork"]That's a fair enough reply HHFarang. If I tried to learn another language now myself it would be difficult also.

In England now they are enforcing the rule in which you must have a basic command of the language before entering the country (tourists aside). We seem to forget this. How many of the expat community would need kicking out of Thailand if suddenly everybody had to pass a Thai exam (if it was a written exam I'd be royally stuffed!) to be permitted a visa.

The difference being, of course, that ex-pats bring a bit of wealth to Thailand and cannot claim anything back, whilst immigrants to the UK are MAINLY there to take from the UK without any prior contribution.