Helpers' working time

S

sandy0741

Registered User
Hi everyone,

Is there anyone who has got a helper who always wakes up late?
Mine is like this, and I always need to go to her room to wake her up, she usually goes to bed at 11, even earlier than me, when I need to feed my son .She has to wake up at 6, as this is the time my son needs the first feed, but she is never on time, even though i got her an alarm clock, she always says it stopped or she can't hear? anyone got similar experience?
 
Not being able to wake up occasionally cos the alarm did not go off is understandable, always doing it just sounds like she is making an excuse not to wake up. Having said that, my helpers have a slightly longer stretch of sleep/rest than 11pm-6am, in effect with trying to fall asleep and brushing teeth etc, that is probably just 6 hours sleep. Just get her one of those deafening alarm clocks, so that the "I can't hear it" reason can no longer apply. If it still happens, it just means that she is making any excuse not to get up and you may have to consider either letting her have a little bit more sleep or finding another helper who is better.
 
Hi Sandy,
I guess every household is different. But I believe they should rise and rest around the baby's routine. My one goes to bed before 10pm. I have two kids and my hubby and I love to bath them ourselves. So as soon as she cleans up the kitchen and takes the garbage out, her work is finished. Then the next morning, my kids won't wake up until at least 8am(my youngest is 1 year and 4 months old). My helper gets up at 7am every day. She'll have breakfast first and then do some bits and pieces around the living room area. She'll then dress the kids when they're up and feed them breakfast; I always get up at around 9am, but I go to bed at 12 midnight or 1am; and I'm the one getting up to my kids at night.
I would try to make sure she gets at least 8-9 hours sleep, so they can still be very energetic for the second day's work. Just my experience...
 
Yeah, it sounds like your helper needs more rest. Either she needs to go to sleep earlier which may mean making her evening workload less (or her taking the responsibility to be in bed earlier if in the evening she only has free time). Or it may mean that you take the early shift with your child so she can sleep a little longer. Eight hours of sleep is the bare minimum to function and do a good job so between the both of you, it's a good idea to work out a plan that ensures she's getting that much. Helpers are not robots or super-human. If I was in her shoes, going to bed at 11 pm and then having to drag myself out of bed at 6 am (and also I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON) I would also be having a problem getting up. It probably has nothing to do with her hearing the alarm clock. The girl IS TIRED! I would be too! Plus, taking care of a child all day long as well as doing the physical duties of the house is exhausting (I know because I did this full-time without a helper for a year!). So, as long as the alarm is one of those annoying ones that you can't turn off and she has ample rest time, she should be able to train herself to get up.
 
Actually she is in her room at 11, sometimes even earlier as I usually look after my son after I get home and she is off to her own time at around 10 p.m. But since I leave for work at around 6 30, she needs to get up before that to have her breakfast and do the cleaning before my son wakes up usually at 7, so I don't think it's too harsh on her.
 
sandy0741 said:
Actually she is in her room at 11, sometimes even earlier as I usually look after my son after I get home and she is off to her own time at around 10 p.m. But since I leave for work at around 6 30, she needs to get up before that to have her breakfast and do the cleaning before my son wakes up usually at 7, so I don't think it's too harsh on her.
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I know every household is different, in ours, our helpers have hours off before 10pm (earlier if they finish cleaning kitchen after dinner) till 7am when they wake and have breakfast. They start to clean the living room about 7.30am and then prepare milk for the children (3 and 18mon) who wake up 8am.

Just so I am getting it correctly, you go and wake her on or before 6.30am before you go to work? and for the 1/2 hour before your son wakes up, she needs to wash her face, have breakfast, do some cleaning and prepare your son's bottle and stuff? I have no idea how much baby stuff/housework/ironing/groceries shopping etc. she needs to do but if she is busy the whole day doing those till 10/11pm, maybe she needs a little more sleep. If she takes nap whilst the baby does too, then I think she should have enough sleep doing that.
 
How about creating a work schedule for her, allocating her reasonable time to rest/sleep and see if things improve.

I had the same problem with my 1st helper. I was nursing and managed all the night feeds etc. But needed her up by 7am so I can hand over baby after his morning feed and I could go back to sleep for another hour. We eat dinner early and her work is done by 8pm, but she'd stay up till the wee hours of the morning chatting on the phone.
 
For my helper, the work she does is just cleaning and looking after my son, who is already 2 and 1/2. My mom is there to do the cooking and buying of groceries. So what she needs to do before sleeping is cleaning in the kitchen. My son already has me there to look after. But she usually works very slowly and even a blouse or shirt take her at least an hour to finish ironing, though she irons well, which I do appreciate her for this, but her slowness tend to delay everything. Even after I told her to get ready to sleep on or before 10, she would go to the kitchen to cook her noodles, which she would spend around 1/2 hr in it. ( She already had her full dinner before) but I dont mind about this, maybe she justs gets hungry very often.
My son goes to sleep in the afternoon, so I allow her to take a short nap at that time. But what she will do is to talk on the phone with her friends, so I dont think I am being unreasonable with her. Even if I allocate a time for her to reast, she would prefer to do other things, so it's just her habit to sleep late and go to bed late!
 
sandy0741 said:
For my helper, the work she does is just cleaning and looking after my son, who is already 2 and 1/2. My mom is there to do the cooking and buying of groceries. So what she needs to do before sleeping is cleaning in the kitchen. My son already has me there to look after. But she usually works very slowly and even a blouse or shirt take her at least an hour to finish ironing, though she irons well, which I do appreciate her for this, but her slowness tend to delay everything. Even after I told her to get ready to sleep on or before 10, she would go to the kitchen to cook her noodles, which she would spend around 1/2 hr in it. ( She already had her full dinner before) but I dont mind about this, maybe she justs gets hungry very often.
My son goes to sleep in the afternoon, so I allow her to take a short nap at that time. But what she will do is to talk on the phone with her friends, so I dont think I am being unreasonable with her. Even if I allocate a time for her to reast, she would prefer to do other things, so it's just her habit to sleep late and go to bed late!
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Hi Sandy,
I think you are being quite reasonable here. She should be able to get up earlier if she's allowed to sleep before 10. Chatting till very late is not an excuse for not being able to get up in the morning, esp. if she can take a short nap with the baby during the day. I think you should have a talk with her and point this out to her. We all have to adapt to our working environment/condition, like you for example you have to go to work at 6:30 then you have to organise your rest etc to make it to work at that time; so does she, ie. rest earlier and get up earlier...
Hope you can work something out sooner. I don't think you should put up with this for too long...
 
My helper starts at 7:30am and we had a couple of occasions where she came out of her room 15-20 minutes late with no apology for her lateness. My husband had a stern word with her and said that we would dock money from her each time she was late starting and that in any job, lateness is not acceptable. She now is back on track and up and about at 7:30am - money is their life and as she sends back most of her salary to her family in the Philippines every month, she couldn't justify losing a $ of it.
Try this with your helper perhaps? if she doesn't change, then I think you may need to go down the route of finding a helper who is more committed to their job. Good Luck!
 
Have you really deducted money from her salary? And is it allowed? I also thought of doing it before, but just thought it is not allowed! anyone got any ideas on it?
 
At least she got scared, but no matter what i said to mine, she will just say yes, sorry, but the next day it's just the same thing again.
 
HK2008 is right, you shouldn't really have to put up with this. You can only warn/give chances to some people a limited no. of times and then realise that they just fail to meet your expectations on work attitude/priority or competence.

Don't think you can legally dock her salary though if she is regularly late.
 
Well that is another debate which I don't really agree with - she has entered a contract to work for you so you and she has broken that contract so why shouldn't you be able to dock money - you pay her at the end of the day! Anyway - I think maybe her heart isn't in it and if she is continuing like this, perhaps she is waiting for you to terminate her contract rather than her breaking it - I think you would be better off that way!
 
I have already decided to terminate her contract, and I'm now looking for another one, she just seems more and more weird to me. Yesterday, she was wearing sleevless blouse, and I saw her top part of her left arms having very big purple marks, it's just like someone has been hit or beaten. I asked her what had happened and she just told me she didn't know either. It's just so weird.
 
I am an alarmist, I would terminate her immediately and pay her payment in lieu of notice. She sounds like she has an idea of your plans anyway, and already starting to act strange. Too many horrific stories out there with regards to helpers being given notice or final warning and not treating the children they look after nicely. She may not be one, but since you are dissatisfied with her work and planning to terminate her soon, better be safe than sorry.
 
What can I do to ensure I am protected, with those marks she made on her body, I just think she might be planning to do something against me if i terminate her. I have heard stories about maids who wish to stay longer in HK would make charges against their boss out of no reason.
 
Did you hire her thru an agent? I would tell your agent that she has been acting really strange with the bruises and make it appear that you are keeping her but am worried about her. Hopefully, they will have some clever way to sort it out, cos they must have seen so many cases like this.

I guess you can also speed it up on your terms, call the police and tell them she has been acting strange with self-inflicted bruises and you are going to fire her and you fear she may do something dangerous, then when they arrive, fire her in their presence. That way,if she is planning no good, she would not have the time to prepare, if she is not, then it's ok too.

Not very clever ideas, I am afraid.
 
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