Maid workload doubled after employer’s daughter, son-in-law & 3 grandchildren come daily for 3 meals, asks: “Is it worth renewing (contract) or not?”

A foreign domestic helper who has more work thrust upon her than she signed up for took to social media to ask if it was worth it to remain in that household.

The domestic helper, who went by the name of Shi E Ra, posted on Facebook that her employer’s eldest daughter’s family would come to the house she was working at almost daily, doubling the helper’s work.

In her post to Facebook page FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum) on Thursday (May 19) the maid wrote: “My employer has 3 children. The eldest daughter is married already & having 3 children(6yr old, 4 yr old& 1 yr old) and one more thing is she is pregnant in their 4th child”. 

She added that despite her employer’s daughter having her own home, the latter, her husband and three children are “always in the house of my employer”.

Because of their constant presence, she added that she would often have much more work to do, even causing her work to double. “They also come during breakfast,lunch & dinner. I don’t understand why the eldest daughter don[‘]t want to hired (sic) a helper on their own when she has a lot of children”, the maid wrote. 

Other helpers who responded to the post were divided but told her that at the end of the day, it was a choice she had to make.

Here’s what they said:

In the comments section, the helper said that she had too much work and wrote that she wanted to return to her home country.

In March, another foreign domestic helper said that she was told she would be caring for a two-year-old boy and had no idea her employer was already expecting another child.

Then months later, the second kid arrived. And only then she was told that she would be expected to look after the newborn at night as well.

In a post to Facebook page FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the maid wrote: “time check it’s 00:27 and still helping my boss to look after a newborn”.

She had been with her employer for four months. She said that during her interview, she was never told that she would be expected to help with a newborn, or even that her employer was pregnant. In her contract, she said, it was only stated that she was to look after a two-year-old child.

Maid: When I was hired, contract said I only had a toddler to care for, but 4 months later, I also have a newborn to look after at night