‘You try to become a helper for one month!’: Singapore maid slams employers over stress and long hours

SINGAPORE: A domestic helper vented her frustration online on Thursday (Feb 12), calling out employers who she feels lack empathy toward their household staff.

In a post shared in the Facebook group Maid, FDW in Singapore, she urged employers to recognise that helpers have emotions too and are not immune to exhaustion or stress.

She challenged employers to imagine themselves in a helper’s position for just one month, separated from their families for years at a time and unable to see their children grow up.

“You try to become a helper for one month without seeing your family for two years, not able to contact your babies every day for two years, and take care of other children?” she said. 

“It’s hard to fight stress and depression every day, and then you take care of naughty kids that don’t listen. Hello? We get tired too; we’re not robots. Do you think we have a lot of time to have fun every day?”

The helper also pushed back against employers who tell domestic workers to simply “enjoy the work.” 

“I try [to enjoy], but you employers are so dirty. You never teach your children good manners and how to keep their toys,” she added. “This is ridiculous. You tell us why it is never clean and why it is so dusty, of course, with all the windows and doors open. What do you expect?”

“You can always go home.”

In the comments section, many other helpers quickly jumped in to show support and share their own experiences. A lot of them said they could completely relate to what the original poster was feeling.

One said, “Most of them are unsympathetic. Only know their side.”

Another shared, “No consideration. Same here, work as fast as you can, do more work… they control the phone. Why? This is what we use to connect to family, especially since we have daughters and sons studying at university.”

A third wrote, “We’re in the same situation, sis.”

A fourth added, “You employers should treat your workers as humans, not a robot. They get tired also and give them rest as they need. Be more understanding and kind… To the workers, do your best at work. That’s the least you can do. But then if they are still not satisfied, then they can find another worker.”

However, not everyone agreed with the rant. Some criticised the helper and felt she was being ungrateful. One commenter bluntly responded, “Oh my god. YOU CHOSE to come here and work. Nobody forced you to! And now you have the gall to whine and complain about it? Damn girl, get back to your hovels already, you whining gal.”

Another chimed in, “If the job is too much for you to handle, you can always go home.”

In other news, a Singaporean worker was left completely dumbfounded after discovering that his overseas counterparts have full teams to handle the same workload he manages alone, and with a much more relaxed timeline!

Posting on a local forum on Wednesday (Feb 4), the worker shared that he is in a project management role in the automobile sector, the same position held by peers from the company’s overseas offices.

Read more: SG worker stunned to learn overseas teams of eight handle what he does alone for lower pay