Who would've thought that having too many attendants was a bad thing? We now have a cook, a maid for cleaning, an English speaking chauffeur and a gardener. As a friend of mine rightly pointed out...I now need someone who can manage all 4 of these folks.
I can't deal with so many people on a daily basis. Even giving the cook instructions for the menu of the day seems like a chore :) Jokes aside, it is not easy to manage them, esp. as work ethic, security, trustworthiness etc. could becomes big issues. Everyone around me has maid stories and I am sure it goes both ways. However, we also pay way above market rates and treat them fairly well which may help in retaining the right people.
Privacy, is one BIG reason why we chose not to have live-in attendants. Though we might end up changing our minds over time, esp. as our house comes with living quarters for attendants.
Good, dependable, chauffeurs are hard to find these days. One who interviewed with me wanted a providend fund (which is like a 401k), a yearly bonus, special holiday bonuses through out the year, 8 hour work days and more. Hmmm...I would need to then also hire an HR person and ADP for payroll. While I myself haven't seen a paycheck in a long time :)
The reason one can afford help in India and other developing countries is because of the huge difference in the economic standards of people. The cost of house hold labor is definitely going up however I think there will always be an endless pool of them (from the 1.1 billion) that are affordable by many.
Should the maids and household help be organized in some fashion? ID cards, rights, min. time off etc. Well, that's another topic for another day.
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1 comment:
Great idea about organizing the household help. Its a very long time since I dealt with maids etc in India but I can imagine getting a 2 week notice that a maid is leaving (I would settle for any kind of notice :)), also fixed working hours and timings would be great for both parties.
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