Looking for a new helper / a helper couple

L

Liquorice

Registered User
Hi, does anybody know of any helper couples (i.e. husband/wife) who are looking for a job? Failing that, a good Indonesian or Sri Lankan helper who is trustworthy, dependable, has experience with newborns and is looking for a job?

Would appreciate any leads / good references.

I have tried direct through asiapat for some time now with no luck and the agencies I have approached are not getting back to me.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Hi Liquorice...

There are many great couples who would love to work together. I will ask our driver. You are certain to get many inquiries. Having been through this process, here are a couple of questions you can answer to help people determine if any potential candidates are good possible matches for you...
1)Do you wish the male to have a driver's license?
2) If yes, if he has his Philippines drivers license are you prepared to pay the cost of him taking driving lessons in HK and the HK driving test?
3) Do you want both the male and female to be here in HK already and have previous overseas work experience?
4) What do you want the male to do?

Sorry so many detailed questions, just don't want to waste your time.
dsm
 
Hi Dimsum mum,

Good to hear from you. Hope you're well. Some answers.

1)Do you wish the male to have a driver's license?
2) If yes, if he has his Philippines drivers license are you prepared to pay the cost of him taking driving lessons in HK and the HK driving test?

I would prefer a driving license as this means driving experience. I would bear the cost of lessons/conversion to a HK driving license.

3) Do you want both the male and female to be here in HK already and have previous overseas work experience?

It would be ideal if they were here so that I could meet them but if not I would need to be able to speak to them over the phone and they would need to provide contact details for a (genuine) referee / previous employer I could speak to. I did find one couple (the woman was here, her husband abroad) but it didn't work out because the reference she provided ended up being quite bad. He provided a reference but when I spoke to the person in question it didn't seem quite right - I didn't trust that it was authentic somehow. Previous overseas work experience is not essential.

4) What do you want the male to do?

The man's responsibilities would be initially to look after our dogs, do odd jobs around the house and garden as and when necessary, and clean the swimming pool (which we don't actually have yet but hopefully will one of these days). The woman's role would be to look after the house, the cleaning and the laundry. I am due at the end of November with my first child. I will be studying a lot of the time while I am on maternity leave, and then back to work full time and studying too, so I will need her to take an active role with the baby. Because of this I anticipate that the man will also need to help out with the cleaning of the house. Eventually we will want the man to be a driver too but that is not a priority and may not be for some time.

The only other thing is that I was originally looking for Sri Lankan or Indonesian helpers. I haven't had such a good experience with my current Filipina helper. My current helper is very manipulative and always trying different tricks on me to get more money, get loans, get days off etc. (e.g. lying and saying that she needs to take a day off to go and vote but the polling station is not open on Sunday) and never seems satisfied no matter what we give her (and we have given her a lot). Anyway, many of my friends have recommended other nationalities and claim that they are not so "worldly wise" - i.e. well versed in all the tricks to play. Not sure how true this is.

Ultimately I want genuine people that I can trust and who will do a good job and be dependable.

If you know anybody, would be good to be introduced.

Thanks,

Alex
 
I'm on it. I know several good people to ask. Thanks for the details, hope you don't think I was being too intrusive.
 
sorry, licorice, you cannot tar and feather an entire nationality because of your bad experience with one helper. as for the comments from your friends, they wreak of racism. i'm not saying they intend them to be such, but in actual fact that is what it is.

nationality of candidates should not have anything to do with the job, unless for example, you don't speak english or you require a certain type of food etc.

please don't take my comments the wrong way, they are not meant to disparage you in the least.

good luck with your search. we now have a married couple and so far so good. (both from PH)
 
No, I know. I appreciate that. Not intending to generalise about a nation, and certainly not tar and feathering them; my helper is very nice, just highly manipulative, and I know there are lots of very good Filipina helpers out there.

The comments from other people didn't come across as racist to me, rather observations of characteristics. As I understand it, they were suggesting that culturally women from the Philippines have worked as domestic helpers for a long time, know the business very well, share a lot of tips/stories etc., and are often always trying to get more. Whereas other nationalities that are not so dominant in HK (and other markets with a lot of domestic helpers) and do not have the cultural legacy of dominance in this industry tend to be less experienced.

As I said, I don't see these as racist remarks. I had a friend who is half Sri Lankan interview someone for me in Sri Lanka with a view to bringing him out here. He seemed good but his English was very bad. Her advice was that he would probably make a better employee than somebody whose English was fluent because the latter tend to be more wordly wise and would probably take a job with me and then soon be trying to get another better job elsewhere. She said that in her own company she prefers to hire less experienced people and train them herself for this reason; they tend to be more grateful for what they have and be loyal to the company rather than always aspiring for more. Clearly this is not racism.

Anyway, there may be some truth in it, there may not be. I just wanted to make clear that I wasn't intending to sound racist.
 
thank you, i didn't think you were.

personally, i would HATE to have to completely train two new people. especially if they are new to hk, too. it would double MY workload rather than decrease it!

good luck! i hope you find a couple who suit your family.
 
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