Maid Manual
.
The Maid Manual by Tisha C. Bautista
I was going to blog about my cook and yaya situation at home but it honestly drags me down. I've entered enough stories here about my yaya diaries. To sum it up, I'm new at this. I've only started having maids when i got married six years ago. Before that, I lived alone and was raised in Canada by my parents with absolutely no help from anyone else. I know how to clean bathrooms and make beds. I can do basic cooking. I raised my children with own two hands - including cleaning poopie diapers. But with everything that I do now, I need helpers to get me through the day so I can be a wonderful, patient and not-losyang mom.
In my six years as a househelp employer, I've experienced these -
- My most trusted 5-year long all-around trusted maid turned out to be the girlfriend of a fugitive wanted for murder in their hometown. She and the fugitive both got caught by the police during her annual vacation. I cried over her for three days. It broke my heart.
- Sophia's yaya of one year ditched us to get a job in a cookie factory. We loved her. It broke our heart. She left while we were on our annual monthly vacation in Canada. I cried buckets for her. It was my first "break up."
- 2008 was particulary a revolving door for us. Because of the maid-fugitive fiasco, I've had to hire maids and cooks from referrals and agencies:
- An excellent cook. She was kind, well-mannered, gentle, soft-spoken. She had 10 years experience of cooking and she fed us really well. I asked her to cook eggplant. I expected the humble tortang talong and she gave us eggplant parmigiana. The love affair lasted three weeks. Then she told us the news. She was two months pregnant and feeling really yucky. I was willing to take care of her through the pregnancy but she said the smell of cooking made her sick. We bade farewell. We still think of her for now.
- An impostor cook. She said she had lots of experience cooking. All she knew how to cook was menudo. Even her sinigang looked like menudo. She was knife-happy. She chopped everything into cubes like there was no tomorrow. And killed all the fresh vegetables in the process. I had no experience in firing people yet, so I kept giving her a chance. Until on the seventh day, my husband said he'd lost his sanity and asked me to let her go. I gave her extra money and told her nicely to pack up. Oh yeah, she was a smoker too. None of us smoke. Ugh...
- A maid with four tatoos. She could have been a pole dancer in her previous life. But she worked hard. She had one kid out of wedlock (from the son of her previous employer... yikes!). The mother in me wanted to help her and hope for a better life for her. On her third month with us, she told me that she was five months pregnant! By the same guy. What a life! I paid her an extra three months and told her to go home.
- My current cook. Hired through an agency. Everything was ok until a couple of weeks before Christmas she told me she had to go home. She'd only been with us for five months. She said her grandmother was dying. She asked if she could borrow two months' advance salary. She had to fly home. My eyebrows went all the way up to my hairline. But I still lent her the money. What was supposed to be a two-week emergency leave ended up to be four weeks. Never mind the fact that I had no cook over the Christmas holidays and my two yayas had to work double time and pick up her work. She then asked for another two-week extension (amounting to a total of six weeks), and asked for transportation money back. Well, after going ballistic privately, I phoned her and told her to get her a$$ back here. I don't know if I did the right thing by even getting her back. Again, I try to see the good side of people. She was good until her personal problems took over her sanity. So I'm giving her a chance.
I'm not a monster employer. I treat my staff very professionally. I'm strict with uniforms and grooming. But obviously they're not just employees, they're members of the household so in time, we develop relationships (still professional but with friendship and mentoring). This is why I've shed a few tears for the few good ones I've lost. Sophia's first yaya was on contract with us for 18 months. She did her duties well. And at the end of her contract, she went to London to be with her son who was an engineer. We had a good turn over and even better send-off.
I give them what the law dictates and more. They get full SSS benefits, three-week annual paid vacations, an overnight day off per month. One hour daily siesta. I've given loans - and one of them was P60,000 to save an 11-year old brother's leg from amputation. I pardoned the remaining P25,000. They continue to have a personal life. My current four-year long yaya just got married last year, and she still works with us. They have their own room and bathroom outside our main house. By 8pm they stop working and stay in their bedrooms.
Should I be running my household the feudal way instead? Lord and servant? Surely there's a middle ground. I still consider myself lucky. I have not yet come across theft and child abuse. There's no forgiveness for either. But please, I pray that no one ever ever lays a finger on any of my children. Enough about that.
Yesterday at the bookstore, I saw this book The Maid Manual written by Tisha Bautista. Its only P195 and it is filled with very useful information on how you can professionalize the way you run your home. It has tips on how to clean efficiently, incentives, grooming, scheduling etc...
Table of contents
Cleaning duties, per room
Yaya duties. This one seemed to elicit some controversy among my balikbayan friends. Click on photo to see the comments and explanation.
It's a good book. I love it. Congratulations to Tisha. It has put things in perspective for me. A lot of the things written in there, we already know. But Tisha laid it out in a way that can help you run your household efficiently and systematically.
Now if only someone could create an agency for professional maids who come in at 7am and leave at 7pm -- maids with no baggage, side stories and attitude problems. That would be perfect. Better yet, I'm hoping for the day to come when I won't need anymore live-in maids or yayas.
.
The Maid Manual by Tisha C. Bautista
I was going to blog about my cook and yaya situation at home but it honestly drags me down. I've entered enough stories here about my yaya diaries. To sum it up, I'm new at this. I've only started having maids when i got married six years ago. Before that, I lived alone and was raised in Canada by my parents with absolutely no help from anyone else. I know how to clean bathrooms and make beds. I can do basic cooking. I raised my children with own two hands - including cleaning poopie diapers. But with everything that I do now, I need helpers to get me through the day so I can be a wonderful, patient and not-losyang mom.
In my six years as a househelp employer, I've experienced these -
- My most trusted 5-year long all-around trusted maid turned out to be the girlfriend of a fugitive wanted for murder in their hometown. She and the fugitive both got caught by the police during her annual vacation. I cried over her for three days. It broke my heart.
- Sophia's yaya of one year ditched us to get a job in a cookie factory. We loved her. It broke our heart. She left while we were on our annual monthly vacation in Canada. I cried buckets for her. It was my first "break up."
- 2008 was particulary a revolving door for us. Because of the maid-fugitive fiasco, I've had to hire maids and cooks from referrals and agencies:
- An excellent cook. She was kind, well-mannered, gentle, soft-spoken. She had 10 years experience of cooking and she fed us really well. I asked her to cook eggplant. I expected the humble tortang talong and she gave us eggplant parmigiana. The love affair lasted three weeks. Then she told us the news. She was two months pregnant and feeling really yucky. I was willing to take care of her through the pregnancy but she said the smell of cooking made her sick. We bade farewell. We still think of her for now.
- An impostor cook. She said she had lots of experience cooking. All she knew how to cook was menudo. Even her sinigang looked like menudo. She was knife-happy. She chopped everything into cubes like there was no tomorrow. And killed all the fresh vegetables in the process. I had no experience in firing people yet, so I kept giving her a chance. Until on the seventh day, my husband said he'd lost his sanity and asked me to let her go. I gave her extra money and told her nicely to pack up. Oh yeah, she was a smoker too. None of us smoke. Ugh...
- A maid with four tatoos. She could have been a pole dancer in her previous life. But she worked hard. She had one kid out of wedlock (from the son of her previous employer... yikes!). The mother in me wanted to help her and hope for a better life for her. On her third month with us, she told me that she was five months pregnant! By the same guy. What a life! I paid her an extra three months and told her to go home.
- My current cook. Hired through an agency. Everything was ok until a couple of weeks before Christmas she told me she had to go home. She'd only been with us for five months. She said her grandmother was dying. She asked if she could borrow two months' advance salary. She had to fly home. My eyebrows went all the way up to my hairline. But I still lent her the money. What was supposed to be a two-week emergency leave ended up to be four weeks. Never mind the fact that I had no cook over the Christmas holidays and my two yayas had to work double time and pick up her work. She then asked for another two-week extension (amounting to a total of six weeks), and asked for transportation money back. Well, after going ballistic privately, I phoned her and told her to get her a$$ back here. I don't know if I did the right thing by even getting her back. Again, I try to see the good side of people. She was good until her personal problems took over her sanity. So I'm giving her a chance.
I'm not a monster employer. I treat my staff very professionally. I'm strict with uniforms and grooming. But obviously they're not just employees, they're members of the household so in time, we develop relationships (still professional but with friendship and mentoring). This is why I've shed a few tears for the few good ones I've lost. Sophia's first yaya was on contract with us for 18 months. She did her duties well. And at the end of her contract, she went to London to be with her son who was an engineer. We had a good turn over and even better send-off.
I give them what the law dictates and more. They get full SSS benefits, three-week annual paid vacations, an overnight day off per month. One hour daily siesta. I've given loans - and one of them was P60,000 to save an 11-year old brother's leg from amputation. I pardoned the remaining P25,000. They continue to have a personal life. My current four-year long yaya just got married last year, and she still works with us. They have their own room and bathroom outside our main house. By 8pm they stop working and stay in their bedrooms.
Should I be running my household the feudal way instead? Lord and servant? Surely there's a middle ground. I still consider myself lucky. I have not yet come across theft and child abuse. There's no forgiveness for either. But please, I pray that no one ever ever lays a finger on any of my children. Enough about that.
Yesterday at the bookstore, I saw this book The Maid Manual written by Tisha Bautista. Its only P195 and it is filled with very useful information on how you can professionalize the way you run your home. It has tips on how to clean efficiently, incentives, grooming, scheduling etc...
Table of contents
Cleaning duties, per room
Yaya duties. This one seemed to elicit some controversy among my balikbayan friends. Click on photo to see the comments and explanation.
It's a good book. I love it. Congratulations to Tisha. It has put things in perspective for me. A lot of the things written in there, we already know. But Tisha laid it out in a way that can help you run your household efficiently and systematically.
Now if only someone could create an agency for professional maids who come in at 7am and leave at 7pm -- maids with no baggage, side stories and attitude problems. That would be perfect. Better yet, I'm hoping for the day to come when I won't need anymore live-in maids or yayas.
.