SINGAPORE — A foreign domestic helper frustrated with her working conditions took to social media asking other maids for advice.
“These past few days, the eldest son keeps bothering me by insulting like I am stupid, I can’t speak english well sometimes he will say “shut up” to me if I say the things he should not say or he will say “so?” “I don’t care” etc”, she wrote.
In an anonymous post to Facebook group FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the maid wrote that she had been working in that particular household for three months now, where her employer had two children. The children were six and ten years old.
The helper also added that the boy would kick her, throw things at her and sometimes even use his body to deliberately bump into her. She wrote that when she told her employer about the situation, the boy was quiet for a few days before resuming his bad behaviour.
“he said i should just go home and they will find a better helper. I am also a human who can feel being insulted and also even tho I am only a helper, I deserve to be treated respectively, right?” the maid wrote.
Other helpers who commented on the post wrote that the maid should try a softer approach to reach out to the boy. They also wrote that children are usually wary of new people coming into their houses. Others also urged her to speak to her employers once again and explain the situation to them clearly.
Here’s what they said:
Last year, in yet another case of a foreign domestic worker stuck in a rather abusive and unpleasant working environment, the helper in question tried to ask for a transfer but was denied so by her employers unless she compensated them for the remaining days of her contract.
In a Facebook post to a group for helpers called FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the helper wrote on March 5 that she wanted the opinions of other employers and helpers in the group. She shared that she had been working with her employer for almost four years and would finish her second contract in three months’ time.
She explained that for the past three years, there had been a lot of conflict between herself and the members of her employer’s family, especially their children. Whenever she would tell them nicely to eat faster, finish their homework or stop watching television, they would rudely tell her that it was none of her business.
The helper, who remained anonymous in her post, wrote that they would tell her that she was lousy, stupid, and damned. Frustrated and upset, she would complain to her employer, the kids’ mother, who would tell her not to take their words too seriously and brush off the situation.
When the helper then asked for a transfer at that point, her employer said that she still had a year left in her contract and that they would not allow her to do so.