Maid says her day off is only from 9am to 4pm as she’s required to come back and work at 5pm

SINGAPORE: A domestic helper who still had to work after 5 pm on her day off took to social media asking others for advice.

In an anonymous post to a support group for domestic helpers and employers alike, the maid wrote that she had been working with her employer for four years and nine months. She added that while she got two Sundays off a month, she was only free between 9 am and 4 pm and had to work after 5 pm.

The maid added that on July 29 this year, she was hospitalised for four months of severe anaemia and continuous bleeding. She was hospitalised on a Saturday and returned to her employers’ home by Monday on light duty. However, she wrote that she constantly had fever and headaches and thus asked her employer to send her back home.

Her employer did not want to send her back home but agreed to give her rest whenever she needed it. The maid continued: “but i cant rest since she (her employer) is always come (sic) inside the room check”.

She added that doctors from the National University Hospital (NUH) gave her 19 days to rest, but she felt more stressed and agitated because her employer would constantly check on what she was up to. The maid wrote that she was mentally, emotionally and physically unwell and wanted to return to the Philippines to rest. She asked others in the group for advice about her situation.

Here’s what they said:

Earlier this year, a tired maid with a lack of sleep took to social media wanting to request her employers to hire a nanny for their child.

In an anonymous post to a support group for helpers and employers alike, the maid wanted advice on how she could convey her situation to her hirer. She wrote that she only got to sleep around midnight but had to wake up around 6 am to start her chores. She got no rest during the day because she had to take care of her employer’s baby.

To add insult to injury, the maid wrote that she would sometimes have to sleep with the baby at night if the baby fell sick.

Maid sleeps at midnight and wakes at 6am without any rest during the day, sometimes has to sleep with employer’s baby if child is sick