what choice would u make?

S

seashells

New member
i am planning to keep a dh..and hav been in a lot of agencies....hav gone thru a lot of applicants....filipinos and indonesians.

just in your opinion,and experiences.....what would u prefer.....are indonesians better or filipinos....and in what way????

may be it will help me make my decision,

thanks:thanks
 
I would choose the person I "clique" with best--the one that my intuition tells me is the best. Having said that, I think there are advantages and disadvantages to choosing between Philippino and Indonesian culture.

I know that the Philippines share a lot in common with the Judeo-Christian roots of Western culture (celebrating Christmas, going to church) and that English is widely used the country and may even be a compulsory course in school. Of course if you're not from a Western country (European, American etc...) this might not even be a big deal to you.

However, I've heard it said that Indonesians are somewhat newer as a group of domestic workers in HK and tend to be less demanding (as far as wages and benefits go) and maybe even harder working overall. I've heard that this is some peoples' experience--that they think Indonesians are more honest.

In the end, choose the one that your "gut feeling" tells you to.
 
I don't think you can say that a specific race is 'more honest' than another .... Phillipino's make up the biggest group of foreign workers in HK by far, Indonesian FDHs are signficantly smaller - therefore people's negative experiences with Philippinos are more commonly heard.

As to being less demanding, it's lack of knowledge as to what is fair in many cases. Some (poor) employers like Indonesians because they don't have the support network in place that Philippino's have because of their greater numbers - e.g. they are easier to take advantage of.

Food might be a good criteria, a few friends of mine with Indonesian helpers simply love their cooking! Otherwise, as MLBW says, choose the person your instincts tell you is right for your family.
 
LeahH said:
I don't think you can say that a specific race is 'more honest' than another .... Phillipino's make up the biggest group of foreign workers in HK by far, Indonesian FDHs are signficantly smaller - therefore people's negative experiences with Philippinos are more commonly heard.

As to being less demanding, it's lack of knowledge as to what is fair in many cases. Some (poor) employers like Indonesians because they don't have the support network in place that Philippino's have because of their greater numbers - e.g. they are easier to take advantage of.

Food might be a good criteria, a few friends of mine with Indonesian helpers simply love their cooking! Otherwise, as MLBW says, choose the person your instincts tell you is right for your family.
Click to expand...

I'm just saying what I've heard from the local population here--not a judgment of my own as I never found an Indonesian or Philippino worker that fit well with our family and instead hired a local Chinese person to help us and loved that arrangement.
 
Whenever I've heard my 'local' friends talking about the 'differences' beetween P and I helpers, it's always come down to two things: pay and work. As in - how little can I pay them, and how hard can I make them work?
Honesty is an individual trait, as is trustworthiness, work ethic and salary demands.

I would look at individuals, rather than the colour of their passport.
 
i would also say go for the individual only as the race doesn;t matter....phillipinas are more informed of their rights so if u need someone more flexible u can hire indonesian/indian helpers....but i ahve heard that philippinas are more efficient since they r trained better.....all said and done i had strated interviewing with a lot of fanfare determined to find the right one....i ended up being interviewed myself sp. by phillipinas and some also rejected my offer though i liked them!!! i finally found a phillipina who was as desperate as me to get hired since her visa was expriring the next day and so started our relationship...like all re'ships we have our ups and downs but have finally learnt hw to work together.....so best of luck!
 
Hi,

It really depends. Some Filipinos are very hard working and so are with some Indonesians. Here is what I think or heard from friends:

1. Most Indonesians do not eat pork because they are Muslims.
2. I've heard from many friends that Indonesians have better work ethic. I think some Filipinos work very hard though. So it really depends. But it's better not to hire a helper who came from an employer that spoiled her.
3. Make sure you let your prospective helper know that you do not want them to borrow money from loan sharks or be a guarantor for their friends.
4. Some Indonesians speak Mandarin. But many don't speak English.
5. Ask the prospective helper if she is flexible with day-offs. (some other days instead of Sunday)
6. Make sure she doesn't smoke. I've passed by the hangouts of the Indonesians in Causeway Bay on a Sunday and the smell of smoke is just horrible.

It's really difficult to generalize. I have a Filipino helper and she is good enough. She may not be smart but so be it. She is honest and works ok. Of course sometimes she may not do her job properly (mood swings, personal problems) but those I just let it pass. Please note however that I am totally not picky with regards to food and I dont look for dusts (which I am sure I'll find if I look) around. The only thing that really annoyed me was when the loan sharks kept on calling my house everyday. The problem is solved now so we are back to normal.
On the other hand, I've got a friend who has an Indonesian helper. He has a 1 year old baby and boy she really does take care of her well. Their family has no complaints about her. My complain though is that when they come over, I'd have to have food without pork because of the their maid.

Hope this helps.
 
when i asked about who is better,i didnt mean about their origin or colour????

I obviously meant about ur experiences with ur past helpers.....!!!!Thats all.


:gl:
 
Thanku all so much for ur replies....

And there is still one more thing that i would like to ask here........would u consider a maid that has terminated her contract?????i was shocked to see (both filipinos and indonesians) so many of them their with their broken contracts.....and if u asked them their employers ref or number,obviously they refuse....!!

i somehow think its better to hire one with the finished contract....what about u????



:thanks
 
We terminated our helper of 8 years cos she drove away 3 helpers had last straw was when she had a physical fight with 4th helper we hired. However, we still gave her pretty good references over the phone to potential employers, cos apart from not getting along with anther helper, she was quite good. We did not mention anything about the fist fight, but warned that she could not really get along with another helper.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that unless the helper really is terrible and terminated, I would still give an ok reference. So, I would definitely ask for references. Think you'd be able to tell if it's been deliberately made to sound bad out of spite.
 
Re terminated DH, I agree with MeowMeow, if the DH passes your interview but is planning to terminate, find out both sides of the story.

Since we have a dog, prior to having our baby, we use to walk the dog each night together and of course, hang out with other neighbourhood dogs who were being walked by their helpers. Most of the helpers we met were lovely and friendly, however, there were cases where helpers wanted to terminate and it wasn't necessarily their fault.

I have heard horror stories like employers not paying their helpers on time and expecting helpers to pay for groceries, yet still owe the helper 2 - 4 months pay! I think this is a good reason to terminate if you are supporting a family in the Philippines and only making $3500 a month. I have also heard stories of local families who give their helpers $300 food allowance and expect the helpers to feed themselves 3 meals a day for a month. That's only $10 a day! That's a big ask! There are also families who buy the groceries and do not allow the helper to go out and buy groceries but only supply the helper with dinner. What is the helper suppose to do for breakfast & lunch if there is nothing in the house?

Granted alot of this is communication and there are probably many other examples of issues, you should always ask to get both sides of the story and not assume that there is an issue with the helper.

When interviewing helpers, I chose not to use an agency but focus on recommendations and helpers whose contracts were about to finish. Even with this, you need to ask them why their contract is not being renewed and also ask their previous employers. You may find that after the 4th year, local employers do not want to keep the helper as they would then need to pay long service.

Work out what your key criteria are (ours was really the baby first, keeping areas where the baby would be clean and then cooking, the dog etc). We also wanted newborn experience, doggie experience, someone with common sense and someone who spoke and understood English. If someone cannot understand what you say then they won't really know what they need to do and vice versa.

We asked everyone to fill in a basic application form (to ensure that they could read & write, which you need when it comes to giving your kids medicines etc), created a list of 20+ questions to ask everyone ranging from basic home security questions to real life situations that could occur (eg. if someone rang the buzzer but no one is expected, do you let them in? or if the baby takes the dogs toys, what would you do?). There isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer for some of these questions but it is important that a) they understand the question and b) they have an answer that is somewhat common sense. You would be amazed how many people could not answer our questions. Given my husband & i both work, we really needed to ensure that we could trust our newborn at home with this person.

At the end of the day, communication is key and finding someone who meets your needs. If you can't find anyone, just keep looking until you do but when you find that person, you may need to move fast because if they are good, they are likely going to be hired by someone very quickly!

Good luck!
 
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