Need advice on terminating helper

I'm honestly pretty surprised with the suggestion that it's inhumane to ask your helper to leave on the same day. I worked in banking sector for 7 years before becoming a full time mom and it is a common practice to do this, as well as in many other professions. Hence, why is that not the case with a domestic helper? She has only worked for us for 5 months, so i dont really know how she would react to the termination. I decided to tell her in advance but getting my mom to come over to help supervise the termination and moving process.
 
i guess the difference in hk is that while someone in the banking sector can legally remain in hk until their visa expires & look for new work (cannot undertake it until new sponsorship is arranged), helpers get 14 days to remain.
 
I personally know a lot of DH here in HK. You'll be surprised, most of them prefer to be given 1-month salary in lieu of notice. This extra money is important to them as most have little or no savings at all.
For your case, my advise is that since you mentioned that it would be hard for you to hide packing without raising suspicion, give her a notice that you are terminating her services because you are being relocated but still give her additional 1-month salary on top of what you need to pay her legally (since giving her 1-month in lieu is your original plan). I think she would be very grateful if you do this and treat your family better than ever.
 
We've done something similar to what kaikosmom has suggested before, given one month's notice and then offered a discretionary payment of one month's salary subject to maintaining performance until the last day of employment. Our helper was grateful for this I think and worked hard until her last day.
 
they CAN just pay the employee out... however, not sure if that type of behaviour is called for in this situation.

personally, i would ONLY do that if i thought my children's well-being was in jeopardy. i don't think that would be the case due to my relocation. i would say that most helpers are reasonable people, just as most employers are reasonable. if you are being relocated, i don't think that a helper would hold that against you.
 
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