SINGAPORE — A foreign domestic helper working in Singapore for about eight years took to social media complaining about her employer’s mother.
In a Facebook post to group FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the maid wrote that her employer had an elderly mother. Referring to her employer’s mother as ‘grandma’, the helper wrote that her employer and her family moved to Australia, transferring her contract to grandma.
The maid added that she extended her contract last November but said she was unhappy working for her former employer’s mother. In her post, she asked netizens if it would be a problem should she want to return to her home country of Indonesia for a few months and then come back to Singapore in April to work under a new employer.
She asked netizens for advice on the matter and for thoughts on how she could handle her situation.
Here’s what they said:
Earlier this month, an employer was frustrated with her maid because she 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 on weekdays and 9 am 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.