Once your children grow up and leave home, you will understand how difficult it is to be separated from your loved ones, and you will start to understand how your foreign domestic worker feels, a columnist has written in a Hong Kong paper.
The columnist, who writes on parenting issues, shared her recent experience in Headline Daily about how she felt after her daughter went overseas for studies.
She advised readers to put themselves in their maid’s shoes so that the employer-employee relationship would have a new perspective.
She said her Filipino maid, who had been working for her for six years, suddenly requested a one-month holiday. She agreed to the request without any hesitation because she knew the reason had to do with the maid’s son back in the Philippines.
The domestic worker, who is a widow and also needs to support her parents and brothers, had learned that her son had been skipping school frequently. It made her very worried and she wanted to talk to him in person and solve the problem.
The writer said her domestic worker, like many others in Hong Kong, was not a very good cook, liked loafing and was sometimes bad-tempered, but she was honest and took care of her employer’s daughter very well.
Only able to communicate with her son by phone, instead of taking care of him in person if he is sad or gets sick, is understandably very hard on the maid, the columnist said.
But, she wondered, how many employers in Hong Kong show any empathy for their domestic workers?
The columnist said she knew of a person who lived in a thousand-square-foot apartment but only provided a foldable wooden board, placed above a washing machine in a storage room, for the domestic worker to sleep on.
That domestic worker doesn’t have her own chair, and she is not allowed to sit on her employer’s sofa or a dining-room chair. She must stand when she has her dinner.
The columnist said she would never forget how the maid looked surprised but appreciative when her employer’s friends gave her food during a gathering.
The writer advised employers to try to put themselves in the maid’s shoes, show understanding and care, in order to build a good employment relationship.
You are lucky if you have found a good employer that can understand all your rights and needs as a helper..i cannot understand why there are some employers who treat their helpers like a rubbish
Very well said Ma’am
I’m lucky for having a good employer I’m working with them 22 years up to now
if my children come and visit me here in Hongkong they will stay with me .here in my employers house
This story is open eyes widen for the employers who dont understand their helpers,situation specially in bad times.Instead giving them SYMPATHY they made their helpers more harder.Amongst us Dhelpers not many are having a good relationship,i do hope this matter will.reach out to those employer who have not been good treatment.Well many cases helpers been.maltreated but on.the other hand we still.do.our job for the sake of our famiky way back.in.Philippines..Its time foe achange that Emoyers shpid change the way of treatment for their helpers,for US Dhelpers file a complaints if your employers started to maltreated you HK LABOUR will always help as long as we are in the right position..Do not hesitate to voic e out our rights we are human being to treat like a animal…Thanks GOD im one of the luckiest person having a good employer since year 2005 and plus my 8yrs old son here with me and study as a single MUM its very difficult situation being far from our children..
Thank you, you have a good heart.
Thanks mam for your good heart to small people like us. Yes we just only a maid, but think also how we do workin return. We sacrifice our own family just to have a good future for them. Those employers do good to ur servant as maid do everything as she/he can to make u satisfied to their duties. Hope employers can do read read this article. GOD Bless us all.
Sad to say my employers never allow me to have a longer vacation even i have had talk to them that i needed it so much,they just allow me to go for 12 days,,this coming christmas season i ask them to give me even 20 days for my holiday but they still insist,they said they will think of it first,they are good to me but the only problem is they cant give me a long holiday????????????they never understand the situiation
i wonder how many employers understand what we helper’s feel about being far away from home. only 10% maybe out of 100 is capable of doing this. i knew somebody who said that they like for the helper to work what their money is worth. luke a slave,,shame on her! nobody will last workibg with her. no empathy at all when in fact her family in china is also not well off.
Thank you sir/mam you have a kind of heart gobless you and your family ????????
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Thumbs Up to you Maam????You have a good heart❤
Only very few employer understand the situation of being a helper. Some treated their maid like a slave showing no compassion at all. No respect, no proper accomodation and food and the worst one is one is thinking them always like a thief every time they lost something or things went wrong. They are so very quick to throw the blame on them. We, helpers need some humanly treatment and care also. We deserved to be treated nice and fair. As we take care the family we are working with, we also expect the same!☺☺
TRUE.
God blessed you with a good heart…thank you for thinking our plight of being away from our love ones.
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Thank you mr and mrs TAM
Blessed are those helpers who have a good employers,thanks for your kindness and understanding to our problems as overseas worker,its not easy to think,and to overcome our homesickness especially when the children were to young to leave
thank u so much for understanding our sitwation hope all employers are like have a good heart to as ofw
Thanks goodness,there’s still have few people here in Hong Kong who understand thier maids situation,I admire this person hoping that some employer could read this article he/she wrote and open their mind.Thank you so much.
i hope my employer same as your thought..
I had the best and wonderful employer… they treated me as family member all cares, concerns and understanding from them… i appreciate much… they have a good heart and a real human… besides were just like brother and sisters at home even we meet elsewhere with my friends, they stop and say hello to us and have a short conversation… they happy of what im doing and always say pls and thank you… respect and open communications is the key of our good relationship as employee and employer…. and above all God is with us. So thankful and gteatful to have them.