SINGAPORE — An employer was frustrated with her maid because the latter wanted to go to bed at night around 10.30 pm, despite getting more than 4 hours of rest in the afternoon.
In a post to Facebook group FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the employer asked others: “What time does your domestic helper wakes (sic) up and what time do you allow them to sleep”.
She added that she told her helper to wake up at 8 am in the morning on weekdays and at 9 am in the morning on weekends. “She gets to rest anytime from 3pm to 730pm in the afternoon if there’s nothing much to do. 730pm onwards I may or may not ask her to cook dinner since I stay alone”, she wrote. The employer added that her maid would always go to sleep around 10.30 pm.
“I’m quite frustrated . I told her many times that if afternoon there’s nothing much to do, she cannot sleep so early at 1030pm”, the employer added in her post.
Her post was met with incredulity and shock from many helpers in the group, who said that the time her maid went to sleep was a personal matter. Others also said that if her employer did not need her after 10.30 pm, there was no harm in her going to rest. All that mattered was that she did her job well, they added.
Last year, a foreign domestic worker asked to sleep in the bomb shelter of her employer’s condominium wrote that she was “totally upset” by this.
In an anonymous post to Facebook group FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the maid wrote that they had just moved into the condominium that her employers rented. She said she was given the bomb shelter as her own room, with a curtain installed over the door.
The maid added that because of a lack of ventilation in the bomb shelter, she needed to leave the door open all the time.
“My door only cover up with curtain, I feel like I got no privacy”, she wrote.
Other domestic helpers who commented on the post wrote that she was very entitled and should be thankful that she got her own space in the house.
Yet another maid last year turned to post her woes on social media after she found that the family she was working for was not giving her enough rest or privacy.
In a post to a help group for foreign domestic workers in Singapore, one Ms S wrote that she was very patient with her working situation.
She explained that she was required to work from 8 am to 12:30 am, with most of her work only ending at that time.
She wrote that she slept in the corner of the kitchen, with her bed placed there.
In her post, Ms S added that she could not sleep well because often, as she lay on her bed, the family still came to the kitchen, and she was disturbed.
While it was unclear if them being in the kitchen disturbed her sleep or if they came to the kitchen to wake her up, she was unsure how to handle the situation and asked other foreign domestic helpers for advice as to what to do.
Many who commented on her post were upset by her situation. They said that she should report the situation to the Ministry of Manpower since she did not even have 9 hours of sleep. Others suggested that she speak to her employers or approach her agent.
In the comments section, the helper replied that she had already tried asking her agent for help with the situation and added that the agent did not assist her. She wrote that, as a result, she was planning to go back to her home country.
