<Photo credit: STOMP>
A reader, Ariel, wrote to complain about a maid from Myanmar whom she hired recently from an unnamed maid agency - according to Ariel, the maid is constantly sneaking off to nap, leaving the elderly grandmother of the house, who has problems moving about, to sit alone unattended for long hours.
Ariel laments, "She takes frequent naps, rejects tasks and even the employment agent doesn't know how to manage her. She shouted at the agent when they try to counsel her."
Ariel hired this Myanmar maid a few months ago for her uncle and grandmother who lived in the next block.
This was the first time she had engaged a maid for her grandmother, a 93-year-old woman alone in the house most of the time and who would need someone to help and accompany her.
The agency had recommended her as a kind-hearted maid, and told her that the maid had been sent back by two previous employers because she was "unlucky".
"We had a CCTV installed in the bedroom at first, then moved it to the kitchen," Ariel shared.
As the maid was aware of this, she often placed objects to "block" the camera.
"She put my grandmother in the kitchen and she just disappears for hours. We can see that my grandmother is safe, but my guess is that my maid is sleeping," Ariel said.
"According to MOM regulations, they get 8 hours of sleep a day from 9 to 5. But she doesn't wake up at 5. She wakes up at about 6 or 7.
"We can close one eye but she also takes regular afternoon and morning naps."
She also sent a video to user contribution portal Stomp. In the video, the maid can be seen yawning and rudely rolling an orange across the table to the 93 year-old grandmother.
"Other than these some of her other horrible acts include not brushing my granny's teeth for months! We noticed that my grandmother could barely taste anything when we buy food for her. After we lectured her [the maid], we noticed that she started brushing her teeth."
But the worse was yet to come.
"She even makes my grandmother poop and eat at the same time on the portable wheelchair toilet bowl... to save time.
"Once she even broke a blender but did not tell about us. She even used super glue to glue it back.
"One Saturday, we asked her to bring my grandmother out for a walk with us. It was just for a few hours but she refused to go."
Ariel tried to get help from the maid agency, but the agency did little to help.
The agent who helped her hire her maid had already quit, and so the agency sent an in-house trainer to counsel the maid.
However, when he tried to talk to the latter, the maid was sleeping and just shouted at him, "Don't come and disturb me!"
The agency then shirked all responsibility and said it was up to the employers to train her and asked her to hire a new maid as they could not do anything about it.
"I have enough paying the agency with the poor service that they rendered. Pay them but they only counsel them once and gave up as the maid scold the trainer don’t disturb her while she sleep.
"Every time ask them counsel the maid they ask me to change a maid. Their solution is like changing a maid every 6 months so they can earn money again."
She hopes to warn people to pick their agency and maids properly.
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