Example of Helper Rules / Schedule
- Thread starter lalila
- Start date
This original post was made a long time ago but I find it interesting so I'd like to reply.
Our life isn't overly complicated so it seems our schedule/rules for our helper aren't too complicated either.
First of all, we hired someone we have grown to adore. She has an amazing, upbeat, can-do attitude about everything, is extremely organized (always looking ahead and keeping us updated) and just a pleasure to work with. So, we found it inappropriate to lay on her a lot of rules. She's a very responsible adult and knows how to behave. In my mind, I treated her as a family member pretty much from the beginning--as if she were a sister or aunt coming to live with us (and I've had both my sister and my mother live with us for extended periods of time over the past two years so I had some experience in this area).
As far as "rules" go here are our expectations:
1. Keep your phone on and with you at all times--keep the line open in case we need to call you. If you miss our call, call us as soon as you can.
2. Keep a house key with you at all times--especially if you go out to the balcony or up to the roof, in case you get locked out.
3. Keep record (receipts) of all spending that we ask you to do for us--return the change and the receipts after your shopping trip.
4. Use the Octopus card we give you (and refill for you) only for travel related to work for us (ferrying our son about, grocery shopping etc.)
5. On Sundays be home before 10:30 pm
Our helper's primary responsibility is look after our 3-year-old son while we work. Here is what her typical Monday-Friday schedule looks like.
6 am (maybe a little later): Wake up, prepare breakfast for herself and get ready for the day. My son usually hops out of bed anywhere from 6:15-7:20 am. She prepares his breakfast and my breakfast (at the beginning of every month, I sit down and spend an evening coming up with a calendar of meals so all she needs to do is look at the copy I've printed for her that hangs in the kitchen to know what is on the menu for the day and the meal--this also directs her grocery shopping for us--and then I provide her with printed recipes of everything we'll be eating--she really helps me by keeping me updated on what we need to stock up on). My husband isn't a big breakfast eater. She may also grab the laundry and go throw a load in the washer (laundry is a daily activity at our house, it seems). She may also go around and water the plants in the house.
7-8 am: Help me feed my son and get him dressed for school and then we all walk down to the bus stop to wait for his bus. She is responsible for making sure his backpack is prepared for the day. We put him on the bus at about 8 am.
8-8:30 am: She walks with me to where I work (about 15 minutes from our home) to help me carry my bag because I'm pregnant and have had back problems in the past and I can use all the help I can get. We have a nice morning chat along the way.
8:30-12 noon: Washing morning dishes or dishes from the night before, vacuum, mop, clean bathrooms, make beds, tidy up. This becomes more of an "upkeep" duty as she does it every day and we're not that messy so there isn't a ton of things to do. Makes sure our bunny rabbit is fed and watered as well as our two kittens. Begins preparing lunch and/or puts materials in the slow cooker for dinner (we're doing more and more slow cooker meals lately). If she didn't have time to complete other chores (starting the laundry, watering plants etc.) earlier she then works on them. Laundry, folding and ironing on some days is a day long process she just works at when she can. If there is marketing to be done (we try to minimize time we go to the market by using Park n' Shop delivery for staple foods and only sending her for things we prefer really fresh and picked out--such as milk, vegetables, fruit, eggs and some meats) she will make a trip by minibus to our nearest little "city" to go shopping or I might have her run an errand to the post office or something.
12 noon: Collects my son from the bus stop. Depending on the day she may then bring him along with his lunch and my lunch in a box back to where I work and we all sit down and eat lunch together. On other days, she gets my son changed out of his kindergarten clothes, feeds him lunch and puts him down for his nap.
1-3/4 pm: While my son is taking his nap she begins to work on dinner preparation or any other small project we may have asked her to do. The afternoons are more low-key for her and honestly, I don't mind if she takes a rest--afterall, keeping up with my son takes a huge amount of energy so if she needs a rest in order to cope with it, I understand. However, she's a pretty busy little bee and if she doesn't have anything to do she'll be in there ironing clothes or organizing a shelf or sewing torn clothing--it's just her nature.
3/4-5 pm: Looks after my son when he gets up from his nap. Prepares a light snack for him or sometimes takes him out for a walk or to a nearby playground. I arrive home from work around 4 pm usually and after I have a nice little sit down on the sofa and gather my strength, I usually take my son off of her hands and go play with him or give him a bath or watch a short cartoon with him. At this time she begins or finishes dinner preparation (depending on how much time is required for the meal--some meals can be thrown together in 20-30 minutes but others she may have been working on for a couple of hours).
6 pm: Dinnertime. We all wash up and eat dinner together. Sometimes she eats with us and at other times she prefers to eat leftovers of rice or something else for dinner. She helps me feed my son and get him tidied up after dinner. After dinner it's pretty much family time so we tend to retreat to our part of the house. At this time we may ask her to assist us by boiling water for tea or if my husband comes home late she may have to reheat food or little things like that but after the dishes are washed and the dining area is tidied her day starts to wind down.
7:30-8 pm: Bedtime. This is when we're helping our son get his teeth brushed for bed. I may ask her to help me. I then read to him and spend some time with him before he sleeps. Because he's growing a lot lately, he may tell me he's hungry and then I'll ask my helper to prepare him a piece of toast or maybe cut up an apple--if my pregnant self is super exhausted by this point, I may ask her to supervise him while he eats. Lights off and then he goes to sleep. After 8 pm, generally our helper is considered "off duty." Once in awhile we may ask her to help us with something later than that.
On Fridays our helper's one other duty is to transport my son to Hong Kong Island to meet up with his grandparents. She usually takes him to Central MTR station and the grandparents collect him there. Sometimes we ask her to go pick him up if he comes back from his overnight with them on Saturdays but since her day off is generally Sundays often we are the ones who go pick him up. All travel is paid for by us.
Sometimes in the evenings she is also responsible for bath time and bedtime for my son if my husband and I have to go out for an appointment or something--we try to keep that to a minimum, though. Some times we will ask her to work on her day off but will reimburse her with extra time off during the week. We have been very liberal with giving her holidays. For example, on Saturdays, if my son isn't home and all the chores are complete, we often tell her early or mid-afternoon, "Take the rest of the day off" so in actuality our helper tends to have a lot of down time. We often give her extra days off (that are not required) around the holidays--especially if we'll be out and about town and she'll just be here at home twiddling her thumbs otherwise.
Our life isn't overly complicated so it seems our schedule/rules for our helper aren't too complicated either.
First of all, we hired someone we have grown to adore. She has an amazing, upbeat, can-do attitude about everything, is extremely organized (always looking ahead and keeping us updated) and just a pleasure to work with. So, we found it inappropriate to lay on her a lot of rules. She's a very responsible adult and knows how to behave. In my mind, I treated her as a family member pretty much from the beginning--as if she were a sister or aunt coming to live with us (and I've had both my sister and my mother live with us for extended periods of time over the past two years so I had some experience in this area).
As far as "rules" go here are our expectations:
1. Keep your phone on and with you at all times--keep the line open in case we need to call you. If you miss our call, call us as soon as you can.
2. Keep a house key with you at all times--especially if you go out to the balcony or up to the roof, in case you get locked out.
3. Keep record (receipts) of all spending that we ask you to do for us--return the change and the receipts after your shopping trip.
4. Use the Octopus card we give you (and refill for you) only for travel related to work for us (ferrying our son about, grocery shopping etc.)
5. On Sundays be home before 10:30 pm
Our helper's primary responsibility is look after our 3-year-old son while we work. Here is what her typical Monday-Friday schedule looks like.
6 am (maybe a little later): Wake up, prepare breakfast for herself and get ready for the day. My son usually hops out of bed anywhere from 6:15-7:20 am. She prepares his breakfast and my breakfast (at the beginning of every month, I sit down and spend an evening coming up with a calendar of meals so all she needs to do is look at the copy I've printed for her that hangs in the kitchen to know what is on the menu for the day and the meal--this also directs her grocery shopping for us--and then I provide her with printed recipes of everything we'll be eating--she really helps me by keeping me updated on what we need to stock up on). My husband isn't a big breakfast eater. She may also grab the laundry and go throw a load in the washer (laundry is a daily activity at our house, it seems). She may also go around and water the plants in the house.
7-8 am: Help me feed my son and get him dressed for school and then we all walk down to the bus stop to wait for his bus. She is responsible for making sure his backpack is prepared for the day. We put him on the bus at about 8 am.
8-8:30 am: She walks with me to where I work (about 15 minutes from our home) to help me carry my bag because I'm pregnant and have had back problems in the past and I can use all the help I can get. We have a nice morning chat along the way.
8:30-12 noon: Washing morning dishes or dishes from the night before, vacuum, mop, clean bathrooms, make beds, tidy up. This becomes more of an "upkeep" duty as she does it every day and we're not that messy so there isn't a ton of things to do. Makes sure our bunny rabbit is fed and watered as well as our two kittens. Begins preparing lunch and/or puts materials in the slow cooker for dinner (we're doing more and more slow cooker meals lately). If she didn't have time to complete other chores (starting the laundry, watering plants etc.) earlier she then works on them. Laundry, folding and ironing on some days is a day long process she just works at when she can. If there is marketing to be done (we try to minimize time we go to the market by using Park n' Shop delivery for staple foods and only sending her for things we prefer really fresh and picked out--such as milk, vegetables, fruit, eggs and some meats) she will make a trip by minibus to our nearest little "city" to go shopping or I might have her run an errand to the post office or something.
12 noon: Collects my son from the bus stop. Depending on the day she may then bring him along with his lunch and my lunch in a box back to where I work and we all sit down and eat lunch together. On other days, she gets my son changed out of his kindergarten clothes, feeds him lunch and puts him down for his nap.
1-3/4 pm: While my son is taking his nap she begins to work on dinner preparation or any other small project we may have asked her to do. The afternoons are more low-key for her and honestly, I don't mind if she takes a rest--afterall, keeping up with my son takes a huge amount of energy so if she needs a rest in order to cope with it, I understand. However, she's a pretty busy little bee and if she doesn't have anything to do she'll be in there ironing clothes or organizing a shelf or sewing torn clothing--it's just her nature.
3/4-5 pm: Looks after my son when he gets up from his nap. Prepares a light snack for him or sometimes takes him out for a walk or to a nearby playground. I arrive home from work around 4 pm usually and after I have a nice little sit down on the sofa and gather my strength, I usually take my son off of her hands and go play with him or give him a bath or watch a short cartoon with him. At this time she begins or finishes dinner preparation (depending on how much time is required for the meal--some meals can be thrown together in 20-30 minutes but others she may have been working on for a couple of hours).
6 pm: Dinnertime. We all wash up and eat dinner together. Sometimes she eats with us and at other times she prefers to eat leftovers of rice or something else for dinner. She helps me feed my son and get him tidied up after dinner. After dinner it's pretty much family time so we tend to retreat to our part of the house. At this time we may ask her to assist us by boiling water for tea or if my husband comes home late she may have to reheat food or little things like that but after the dishes are washed and the dining area is tidied her day starts to wind down.
7:30-8 pm: Bedtime. This is when we're helping our son get his teeth brushed for bed. I may ask her to help me. I then read to him and spend some time with him before he sleeps. Because he's growing a lot lately, he may tell me he's hungry and then I'll ask my helper to prepare him a piece of toast or maybe cut up an apple--if my pregnant self is super exhausted by this point, I may ask her to supervise him while he eats. Lights off and then he goes to sleep. After 8 pm, generally our helper is considered "off duty." Once in awhile we may ask her to help us with something later than that.
On Fridays our helper's one other duty is to transport my son to Hong Kong Island to meet up with his grandparents. She usually takes him to Central MTR station and the grandparents collect him there. Sometimes we ask her to go pick him up if he comes back from his overnight with them on Saturdays but since her day off is generally Sundays often we are the ones who go pick him up. All travel is paid for by us.
Sometimes in the evenings she is also responsible for bath time and bedtime for my son if my husband and I have to go out for an appointment or something--we try to keep that to a minimum, though. Some times we will ask her to work on her day off but will reimburse her with extra time off during the week. We have been very liberal with giving her holidays. For example, on Saturdays, if my son isn't home and all the chores are complete, we often tell her early or mid-afternoon, "Take the rest of the day off" so in actuality our helper tends to have a lot of down time. We often give her extra days off (that are not required) around the holidays--especially if we'll be out and about town and she'll just be here at home twiddling her thumbs otherwise.
i am surprised so many people have actually given their helpers schedule. my friend got into trouble (nearly until she threathened to call the police) by her ex-helper because when she terminated her, the helper took the schedule my sister had drawn up and threathened to sue her for exploiting her! Yes, it was a 10 hour work day (7-9pm) but she has 3 helpers and they get paid $5000 each! anyhow, be careful - now, my friend gives the children's schedule to the helper, which is in fact the helpers schedule, but there's nothing in black and white that says its the "helpers" schedule rather it states "Andrew's schueld" etc.
Yeah, we haven't written an official schedule down for her. She just knows what's going on and this is how our lives run. She organizes her own schedule mostly but she knows what needs to get accomplished--she's just "with it." We have a list of things that need to be accomplished during a week but no time frames on there (i.e. schedule).
And honestly, I think it's pretty easy to spot a person who is going to try to sue you pretty early on. (At least in my experience). We are really blessed to have a person working for us who would never pull that sort of "I'm going to sue you" thing.
She broke a lamp on accident a few weeks ago and she came to me in like fear and trembling hoping I wouldn't be angry and offering to replace it with money from her salary. It really wasn't a big deal to me so of course we didn't require her to do anything. She is just grateful to have a good job with a good employer and tells me of horror stories that her friends tell her about their employers--children allowed to hit the helper, never getting a break during the day, getting yelled at, not allowed to eat with the family--the list is endless. So, even though she has a lot of down time during the day--I mean, even naptime if she wants it--she prefers to work extra hard.
We're really grateful to work with her and the respectful relationship is mutual.
And honestly, I think it's pretty easy to spot a person who is going to try to sue you pretty early on. (At least in my experience). We are really blessed to have a person working for us who would never pull that sort of "I'm going to sue you" thing.
She broke a lamp on accident a few weeks ago and she came to me in like fear and trembling hoping I wouldn't be angry and offering to replace it with money from her salary. It really wasn't a big deal to me so of course we didn't require her to do anything. She is just grateful to have a good job with a good employer and tells me of horror stories that her friends tell her about their employers--children allowed to hit the helper, never getting a break during the day, getting yelled at, not allowed to eat with the family--the list is endless. So, even though she has a lot of down time during the day--I mean, even naptime if she wants it--she prefers to work extra hard.
We're really grateful to work with her and the respectful relationship is mutual.
TheQuasimother
Registered User
I have friends who make their helper work from 6:30 - 9:30 (or even later). They are all working parents i.e. both are working. I think it's quite the norm in HK in households where both parents work. They all have a schedule.
The only stipulation the government has for us, employers, and we would be in trouble if we didn't follow it, is that it is compulsory for a helper to get 24 hours off for every 7 days that they have worked. Otherwise, it is not illegal to make them work 10-12 hour days! Helper has gotten HK mixed up with another country!
So unless your friend's helper was not getting her off day, the helper had no case. Especially when she's paid that much! We see helpers working from 6 til late (10-11ish) all the time in the local neighbourhoods we've lived in.
We have a guidebook and in it, it does encourage employers to give their DH employees a schedule.
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She was SO worried!