Job Discussion Forums

[laughing_magpie06]

I am curious if anyone out there has had the same misfortune as me when it comes to hiring good, qualified nannies / babysitters for their kids. I have a 9 month old son who we have hired babysitters for on 5 separate occasions. All have fallen short of what I consider acceptable. Things such as talking on the phone or sending text messages while juggling my son and feeding him at the same time. Carrying him in a tie around the neck which in some cases I have found the knot to be loose and unsafe. Going for walks in the market and not coming home for considerable lengths of time. I will say I have come to accept lazy and shoddy service in most fields in this country but what I can't accept is the agency which we have used continue to accept their version of events over ours when it is us paying and giving them cosy jobs after they have failed miserably in their previous job with us. Is there no accountability at all? By the way the name of the agency is Setia, which is based in Sunter. I asked my wife why she continued to use them and said something along the lines of "most of them are all the same anyway" Anyway, I am at the point where my wife will resign from her job soon and look after my son herself.

Please share any similar experiences on this forum.

[jaksamania]

try this: http://bima.ipb.ac.id/~anita/babysitter.htm

or this: http://fotowanita.com/ok/

[beefer]

[ezekiel]

I was, naturally, overjoyed when our daughter was born and spent the first 6 months of her life doting on her and doing everything a daddy should to help, but I had the luxury of leisure at the time..once I started work here that had to change and we began hiring babysitters to give my wife a hand..thus started The War!

We live in Medan and have probably been to 75% of the 'agencies' here..most of whom, and I'm not exaggerating when I say more than 10 different 'yayasan', took our money and sent us someone totally incapable..we have driven all around this town to be supplied with girls who I wouldn't trust with a stuffed toy; we had an epileptic from South Aceh who had a fit on her first night, scared the crap out of us all saying it had happened frequently and the village 'dukun' had told her that she had evil spirits..the agency denied knowledge..we have had theives, blatant liars, and some of the worst attitude on young women I have ever encountered..I would say this has happened with 10 different agencies and we have been lucky enough to have 3 good childcarers in 2 years..

We have threatened agency owners with police and media involvement with only reluctant apologies and limited accountability..they are rackets and even the better ones pay their staff so little that they are unlikely to give a crap about the job anyway..our current nanny, who was still with her agency at the time, was sent home for Christmas with Rp250,000..she was owed at least 2 million for 6 months work..she is still owed the remainder..she now works for us directly.

So we gave up, and opened an agency ourselves (or rather my wife did.)
The customer pays more to foot the bill (as they should, are they not aware of such a thing as MINIMUM WAGE??) and the extra is passed on to our staff (and, speaking as a foreigner, it's still really not enough)..we have a strong element of customer and staff care and we do not accept any staff who cannot do the job, organise themselves, listen to rules and follow them and possess good 'common sense'..we also vet customers, too and they are made aware that they have obligations to provide our staff with certain human needs and rights.
Our staff stay and work with us in our house and have training sessions everyday for 1-2 weeks..they are constantly observed and at the end of that time if they obviously haven't learnt and we cannot trust them to look after our own children they are deemed unsuitable and are sent home, not sent to a family..it means my wife has less trainee staff at one time but almost no customer complaints..at the end of the day, treat a young woman with some respect, make them aware they have rights, pay them a decent salary (I mean actually give it to them!) and encourage them to be professional and you give them something to work for.

salam,

ezekiel

[laughing_magpie06]

I think you have the right idea ezekiel. Only today we have finished with yet another. This one had a boyfriend who liked to turn up drunk and cry on our doorstep. She has gone away a couple of times to 'see her mother' and then the same problems return. Makes the total six since my son was born last March.

[ghost]

Just reading these narratives is cause for concern.

I still, naively, had the assumption that Indonesians are similar to Filipinos/nas in the way they work as housekeepers and caretakers, but after reading your accounts, it seems that Filipinos/nas can be trusted a lot more to do a good job with strangers, and I know many expats who have had Filipino/na housekeepers, and very rarely heard any complaints. The Pinoys/Pinays are usually cheerful, loyal and do an excellent job, and don't ask for millions in return.

I will visit Indonesia soon (Feb. 4-24) with the objective of landing a job somewhere, and will see for myself, but your comments about the general attitude have given me cause to be cautious in my dealings. Are my fears unfounded?

Thank you.

Ghost in Korea (www.gifle.go.kr)

[guruengerish]

I'm very much out of my depth here, but I have read the Filipina maids are paid more in Singapore than Indonesian maids for a number of reasons.

The first is that they almost always speak English reasonably well, and Singaporeans in general would not know much Malaya/Indonesian to communicate with an Indonesian speaking maid.

Another reason is that The Filipanas have been exposed to a basic level of modernity, and know how to operate electrical equipment. Our maid in Java wouldn't even try.

I'm not criticising the maids who mostly come from far-flung villages and are trying to make a living, but there is a fairly big difference.

On the flip side, I did meet a bunch of maids at JKT airport once, who were heading for Singapore. They'd all attended a training school in JKT, spoke well and seemed a nice, balanced group.

If you were to locate this school and employ one of their graduates, and pay Singapore salaries, you might be onto a winner.

Maids in Indonesia generally are worked quite hard, rarely have a day off and only go home during the festive season for a few weeks. My students hated this time of the year, as they had to wash their own cars, clean their own rooms and so on.

An Indon-Chinese family I knew in Bandung, employed three maids; they were on call from 6am to 10pm, and that was every day of the week. Sure, they got board and lodging, but it must have been a long year between breaks.

[wailing_imam]

Pay for maid in Singapore: SGD 300 plus the Singaporean Govt is paid a monthly levy fee of SGD 500-700 (almost twice the maid's salary)

Indonesians get one day off a month.
Filipinas get a day off each week.

Filipinas come with long hair and still look like women,
Indonesians come with short hair.

Filipinas are paid at least 100 more SGD each month.

[ezekiel]

It's well worth knowing about pay and conditions for other household staff especially in Singapore and Malaysia but the OP's question was related more to childcarers, less to maids or housekeepers..

The criteria are the same though..the person must be willing to work hard and take pride in doing a good job, have initiative but not be scared to ask if unsure, be honest, satisfied with the household and the conditions there and feel as if they are earning enough money..the problem with babysitters and nannies is that you need all those things PLUS you need to be able to trust them with your most precious things, your kids...

Moreover, employers in every sector, whether private citizens or companies need to come to terms with the fact that 500,000 rupiah does not constitute a decent salary for any adult nowadays regardless of whether the employee is a school graduate or not, professional or semi-skilled or just a labourer..minimum wage should be (and I think actually 'is' !?) at least 800,000..
at the end of the day, as we know.....you get what you pay for!

salam


ezekiel