SINGAPORE: An employer took to social media urging domestic helpers to be truthful during their interviews with potential employers.
In an anonymous post to a support group online for domestic helpers and employers, one employer wrote: “Dear helpers looking for an employer, please do not lie in your resume and during the interview. We are aware that agencies provide scripts and standard answers for you to refer to during interviews with prospective employers”.
The woman added that employers were aware that maids wanted to make a living in Singapore so as to better provide for their families and improve their quality of life. She said that employers were aware that this was not an easy task.
“However, when you lie about knowing how to speak English, and end up having communication barriers when you arrive, it causes a lot of headache to employers. We spend money on your air tickets, some pay a hefty sum to agencies, but what we paid for is not what was promised”, she wrote.
She added that helpers should try to educate themselves through videos online to speak better English if they were serious about finding work here. “When you lie and the trust is abused, your employer will be upset and you will find work difficult and stressful. Why go to this extend? Be honest to yourself and your prospective employers, they need your help to reduce their household workload.. not give them additional worries and troubles”, she wrote.
A helper who commented on the post said: “sorry about it even it is scripted or not if you do video call interview you can still differentiate who can understand or speak English even it’s not fluent as long as she can answer correctly to what you’ve been ask. As far as I know when I’m applying here my first employer they do videocall interview to hired me. Though some Asian countries is not fluent in speaking English you should be aware on it. choose and screen wisely”.
An employer who commented agreed and said: “Lying is a huge no for me. It makes me question a person’s integrity and it also compromises trust. I will not keep a helper who lies, much less hire one. Good reminder for the peeps here!”
Earlier this year, a few foreign domestic helpers took to social media to explain the process that goes on prior to them attending interviews with a potential employer. They wrote that they were briefed by the agents on helper interview questions Singapore employers are likely to ask. And they were forced to be compliant and willing to accept all the potential employer’s requests.
In a Facebook group for domestic helpers, an employer asked for tips on interviewing potential maids. She said: “They always say yes and with a smile to everything you ask but things can change once they get here. They are doing everyone a disservice except the middlemen, who force them to be compliant so that the deal gets done faster, leaving the employer with an unwilling maid who has to bear the loan if she gets sent back bc she cant adapt to the job scope”.
“While we do have more control over them and can always threaten to terminate them, there is only so much control that i would bother effecting, because they can seriously sabotage us if we are nasty”, the woman added.
She said that those with babies were especially reluctant to confront their maids lest the helpers lash out at their children. However, she added that this left one with the standard option to terminate helpers they could not work with, but added that it was “so costly and exhausting seriously to have to keep repeating this cycle while the middlemen are the only ones profiting”.