Needing to get away

Via Asian Labour News, there is a story in The New Paper about domestic maids who need help. Many attempt suicide.

Ms Ivy Lee, managing director of Maid Power agency, said: ‘Some of the maids bring with them unresolved problems from home. Some are escaping from parents or in-laws and have no emotional support from home.’

The adjustment problems they face here just compounds their vulnerability, she said. Ms Alice Cheah, managing director of Caregivers Centre, said demanding employers are also to blame.

‘I think the main cause of stress for maids is that they are confined in the house all the time and some employers nag a lot. The maids can’t express themselves, their frustrations. Some can’t even use the phone.’

The worst insult is when employers complain about their maids to their friends and family right in front of them, as if they’re complete imbeciles who can’t comprehend (I’ve witnessed this on more than one occasion). It’s one thing to work in a dull job, day after day; it’s completely another to be treated as a sub-human, shown no shred of respect, disallowed from retaining any dignity — all for a few hundred dollars a month. It says a lot more about the employers than the maids when the former bitch and moan while their (basically) indentured servant has to sit there and take it.

If people are so unhappy about their maid’s personalities and abilities (rightly or wrongly), I have a simple suggestion: don’t hire a maid. No one’s forcing you.

• 23 Dec 2004