There is no household which has not at some time or other experienced the crisis for a domestic help or in common terms MAID or BAI. It is not possible to manage the entire house all by ourselves and that is why a maid or a help is needed. Ask a lady, how much importance a maid has in her daily life. A 5-minutes of delay than her usual time and you have your pulse racing with the thought of doing the dreadful home tasks of cleaning, mopping, washing all by yourself. It surely gives a headache and a very severe one.
Till now the maid status was good with me...like I have had 2 maids in almost 2 and a half years. So it was fairly alright for a maid average ratio of one year, but now I have had changed 3 maid in less than a month!!! Its so annoying....First you train them and in less than a month they leave...after spending your time and energy teaching them the work, paying them well and for a mere 100-200 bucks they join elsewhere.
In old times, single maid used to work for years as a strike contrast to today's scenario. Today if a maid completes even one anniversary with your house, feel blessed. The attrition rate in this job profile is 3 times more than that of a software industry. And no retention programs or schemes seem to work in this scenario....as there are always greener pastures on the other side. The quality of their work has drastically come down, with more pay demands and they like to take offs as per their convenience without notification. At least if they notify in advance, we can finish our work in time as per our ease. Its damn frustrating to come home in the evening after a hectic day at work and do the household chores. Gone are the days when one used to explain the work to be done while keeping the maid. Today she will update you with her wishlist before joining namely, her weekly offs, her breakfast needs and choices, whether she likes elaichi or adrak wali chai, about her yearly bonus or new saree requirement, the work which she considers below her standard (like throwing garbage bags) which is not in her job responsibilities. And what an irony, we adjust to every demand of her just when we give a damn to most of our husband's adjustment theories. With her comes the unending, innovating and never thought before 'bahanas' for taking offs. Sometimes I think why I could not think of it whenever I wanted a leave. Yet another habit of these very irritating creatures which gets on my nerve is asking for advance. But what I have learnt from my maidordeals is to always follow the thumb rule of never giving any sort of advance to them or else to forget to get it back, unless for an exceptionally trusted one. If you are living in a society, all the maids will have a union and they will have fixed amount for a specific set of work...no matter how much you convince she will not settle for a penny less than that. They will talk as if you are not hiring them, but they are doing a favor for you agreeing to come to your house. Funda being that the supply being less than demand, has lead to their dadagiri.
Some of the incidences worth quoting are:
- One of my new maid asking - "Didi, aap abhi bhi kapde se pocha lagati ho, mop nahi hai kya?" Arey mop se lagana hota toh main khud na laga leti, tujhe kyun rakhti.
- Maid ordering - "Didi, yeh jhadoo kharab ho gaya hai, kal naya le aana" 15 din mein kahin jhadoo kharab hota hai.
- "Main Sunday ko nahin aayungi....hum sab friends ghoomne jaate hain" What crap!!!
- Paused work in between six times to attend calls on her ever ringing mobile.....arrggghhhh....ever busy celebrity..
- Balcony is not considered a part of house.
Ohhh God!!!! their never ending tantrums..
The other day when I went to my neighbor to ask that if she knows any maid who can come to my house, then I came to know that this is not happening only with me...this is "Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki or rather "Kahani Har Ghar Ki".
