how did you find your maid

[confused]

I am pregnant and due to deliver in May. I want to hire a maid who can help me with the housework and with looking after the baby. Never felt the need for a fulltime maid till now. Am keen on a Sri Lankan maid since she would be familiar with Indian cooking

The question I have is: is it better to transfer a maid who has been working for someone in Singapore (transfer maid in agency-speak) or is it better to hire someone new looking at the resumes from the agency.

The advantages of the first option are that I can actually meet and interview the maid. Also such a maid is likely to be familiar with shopping etc. in Singapore. But the choice seems to be few, since maids come up for transfer only now and then. Another negative is that you never know for sure why the maid is transferring e.g. whether the current employer is unhappy with the maid. With the second option, there seems to be a huge pool available, but it seems to be a risk to hire someone you have never seen or spoken to face-to-face.

As time is fast running out, I am in a complete fix. Could someone who has experience of hiring maid advise me on which method you used to find one, and which method you think is better. Thank you very much in advance. Your advise will be much appreciated.

Any suitable suggestions from expats who are leaving and whose maids are available for transfer are also welcome.

[CIndy]

Since my child was born, I have had two maids in two Asian countries. Both were Filippino and in the age range of 29-32.
The first came to me via a transfer from another expat family who were going home. They gave her rave reviews. She had been in that Asian country for around 3 years. This she was a benefit because she knew her way around, where to shop, comfortable on public transport and hailing a taxi etc (but in Singapore this is easy to adapt to anyway). She had an established group of friends - I won't comment on whether or not that is a good or bad thing, because each individual will view that differently.

When I moved to Singapore and she chose not to make the move with us, I commenced looking for a new maid. I looked up the website Maid Library, saw the resumes, and selected one of the many agencies. This is probably a lottery, but I chose 1-Stop in Furama Hotel. They are good, and have also readily answered any of my questions subsequent to the initial service provided.
I was new to Singapore, and hence went with an agency, having no knowledge of other ways to employ a maid. Originally I requested a transfer maid, ie someone already working in Singapore. The agency recommended against this, as they view the "fresh" ones from the Philippines as having better attitude (maybe this is crap and they just get a better fee this way, not sure, anyway I went with their recommendation. They recommended one particular maid from their "pool" and we had an interview over the phone (she was in Manilla). I don't suppose this is ideal, but she answered all our questions well, and her resume was good, so we selected her even having not met her. The agency took care of the rest, and our maid came to live with us about 2 weeks later. All has gone well since then, she has settled in well, made friends and seems happy. I have no complaints about her whatsoever, so it has been a positive situation so far.

[acb]

I employed my transfer maid through an agency (although I would now be happy to do the paperwork myself). I asked the girls I thought might suit us, who were all still employed and either being released by local families because of the economic downturn or expat families being reassigned elsewhere, if they could ask their existing employer's permission for me to phone them. I felt that gave me more of a "feel" for how happy the previous employer had been and I was  able to ask more than the employer might have wanted to write in a reference. As with taking on any employee, you can do your homework and still be unlucky, but the majority of ladies are good workers - you only tend to hear the horror stories. Good luck with finding the right lady for you.

[mom]

Confused
I was in your situation 3 months ago. My baby was born in Jan and I recruited my maid in late Dec. I moved to Sing only a couple of months ago and I didn't like the idea of an agency as you have no control of the process.

My way was different from the others as I searched for my maid thru an ad on Sat. in the Strait Times. I put down "must-have  employers' reference" (both letter and phone conversation) as my critieria.  I paid $60 for the ad on Sat and generated 50+ calls w/in one day from the maids or even employers who called for their maids. I particular paid attention to those who called by the employers as they must be good to get this kind of support.

Their reasons of leaving were varied..expats going home, employers no longer need them becoz of their grown up child or they can't afford to hire them becoz of the economy.  Anyway, I screened them over the phone thru some basic questions. Then asked those who qualified to my house to have a face-to-face on Sun after spoken with their employers. Those called but w/out an employers' blessing will not be on my list.

I interviewed 15 out of 50 on Sun and found a couple of really good maids with good references from employers.  

The decision of them will then come down to the salary, day off and personality becoz most of them got babysitting and cooking skills.  It was a hard decision to choose as I shortlisted 3 of the best amongst 15.

My maid got 12 years experience with one employer and she took care of my baby very well plus good cooking skill.  She took the initiative to look for work at home as I gave her a list of work to do on her first day. My experience of her is to prepare a list of work you want them to fulfill and go thru with her on her first day at work.

Besides, I went down to Ministry of Manpower myself (on my 9-month's pregnant ) and talked to the officer who're extremely helpful after knowing that I needed this maid urgently.  I got approved to hire my maid thru transfer w/in 2 days while other people may take 7-10 days.  It cost me nothing thru MOM.

The who process costs me only $60 (for the ad) and I hired an excellent maid.

Good luck and let me know if you need further advice on this.

[confused]

Thank you very much for your positive responses. It is encouraging to read of good experiences with maids (after so many horror stories).

Mom, your method sounds very effective. Just a question – were there any sri lankan/indian maids among those who responded to your ad? My current thinking is that it is usually the filipinas who are savvy enough to go through the classifieds.

[helpful]

confused:

method (#3) is hiring a maid yourself without going through an agency.

many maids are leaving ads on cold storage notice***; that way you screen the maid yourself and save the agency fees.
imo, the agencies don't really do any great job with the training, interviews and screening process anyways.
the choices they offer are normally rejects they try to foist off to unsuspecting newbie employers.

the risk is that you don't get a replacement if she doesn't work out but replacements don't come free anyways.
the agencies normally levy a fee and the transition period can be pretty expensive too because you have to pay $15-$20 daily rates (as least in my experience) until your transfer is approved.

[JD]

I found my maid through a friends maid. I mentioned I was looking for a maid. My friend asked her maid to enquire at church the following Sunday and she came back with a phone number.
We interviewed the maid and we were more than happy with her. She has been with us since Feb 2000.
She has been a big help both with our dog and our baby (at the time of interview we didn't know she was coming!) She hasn't given us any bother. She is in her 40's and active in her church so I don't have to concern myself with her running off and getting pregnant or out nightclubbing and coming home drunk. Her last empoyers and myself did the transfer paperwork ourselves which involved two very quick trips to M.O.M and saved us a lot of cash.
Maids like to transfer between families without agents involvement as they also have to pay the agency lots of money. They may end up having hardly any money in the first couple of months as they are paying off their agency fees.

Good Luck with your search. Yes, there are lots of folks who have maid horror stories to tell you. Unfortunately you never get to hear from those of us who have trustworthy, reliable help that don't give us any bother but make our lives a whole lot easier and pleasant.
Have a look at the notice*** or ask friends maids if they know of anyone. Most maids aren't likely to reccomend a bad maid to friends of thier employer as it will look bad for them and cause them problems.

[mom]

confused
yes...I got calls from Sri Lankan and Indian maids but 80% are Philippina. I have to say that though there're lots of terrible stories about hiring a bad maid, they may not be 100% Philippina.  I met a no. of good candidates who're Philippina, they got good reference from the employers. I don't trust the letter ref. only as I insist to talk to their existing employers, then you realize how good of this maid.

I agree with HELPFUL and JD, there're many ways to search for a maid depending on how urgent you would need her to start.

In my case, I had no time & engergy to walk around supermarkets to look at maids' ads plus I didn't know anybody here. Therefore, I went straight to put up an ad.

Good luck again

[Happywidagency]

I've tried getting my own maid scouring the notice ***, getting recommendations from maid and everything. Twice fell flat on face. The first I got at supermarket, called employer who gave glowing reference. But the employer lied just to get rid of maid. Yes she can cook, but she was rude as hell - which is why her employer wanted her out. She had to give her a glowing reference otherwise the maid could not find a job. I felt cheated. So now I realise people give glowing ref for their own selfish reason.

I could do unto others so I gave her two weeks, but no reference. Got rid of her without having to lie.

Next time tried asking a girl who recommended her cousin. Well, again I was took. So I just clicked on the agency that advertised on this web site (intermares) and found many useful hints so that when I interviewed the maids, I at least was not so easy to fool. Finally I decided to go with intermares and I am happy. I was money well spent.

[Buffy]

I employed my maid by advertising on the cold storage notice board and then went through a process similar to Mom..also doing the transfer myself (heavily preggers at the time)
however a few words of advice since the original poster seeems to be in a similar situation

if this is your first child and you are away from family/friends etc try to prepare the household arrangements so that your maid will not be an additional problem

Although it was great having someone clean our house etc our maid had very little experience of newborns and breast feeding!(she had heaps of experience with older kids) Because our baby arrived 3 weeks earlier than expected I had NO time to train our maid before I came home from the hospital. The sleep depravation was terrible...and trying to patiently teach a maid at this time was a big problem...she eventually was a great help but there were many things that she could have done that would have reduced my difficulties if only those first few months had been better organised...I am talking about things like making sure the new mother is FED, given drinks when feeding, that groceries and meals are organised before hand (if husband had taken this initiative that would have been good but like many expats...he had to travel at this time)
Make use of the time before the baby arrives to think about getting organised with instructions for the maid that include things like hygiene and sanitation rules,responsiblity for emptying nappy bins, changing baby linen (how to wash special baby items)...how to sterilize bottles (if and when you bottle feed) how to handle frozen breast milk, talk to other mothers to find out how a "mothers-help" can help (I know one maid who produced fruit smoothies at feed times without ever being asked...completely on her own initiative...on the other hand it never occurred to my maid to even bring a glass of water to me but once the need was explained- no problem except that I had PND and couldn't think straight enough to ask her). I think there are classes that your maid can attend ( eg at Mother & Child) . I also gave my maid my baby care books to read and at each new stage explained what the reasons were for the various things we did that differed from practices of other cultures.We learned a lot together!

to be honest I didn't even let my maid hold my baby until she was 2 months old.It just wasn't something I thought of doing because caring for the baby was my job not the maids.

All the best!