Maid in the Philippines

June 6, 2007

There are all sorts of maids in SIngapore and the most sought after are Pilipino maids due to their ability to speak English. However in my dealings with maids I noticed that the ability to speak English is slowly deteriorating among Pinoy maids. Two weeks ago I even had a maid who failed the English entry test for maids 3 times. The exam was meant for Primary 3 ,it is basic knowledge so failing it means that understanding of English is really poor.

 

A distunguishing trait of Pinoy maids is that 99.9% of them have handphones and are fast with texting. My maid for example has an ear piece.

 

She is like a telephone operator(maybe that should be her second career or maybe I should ask her to apply as a call centre agent in Timbuktu). The moment she wakes up and cooks breakfast you can already hear her talking ang giggling with her friends. One time I woke up at past midnight and I heard whispers in her room. I saw her again talking ang crying over the phone. Her phone bills sometimes exceed my bills.

 

Another trait of Pinay maids is their ability to do part time work  or sideline whether it be cleaning other houses, selling all sorts of stuff from phone cards to real estate.Again my example is my maid. My maid started out with selling phonecards. She gets her customers from everywhere. She talks to strangers on the train at the MRT station and chats with them and sells them her wares. She has all sorts of stuff…levis tshirts, jeans, perfume, phone cards, balikbayan boxes. She is also my agent for maids.

 

Lately she told me she doesnt want to sell anymore because she said some of her clients fail to pay or even run away from their loans. Pero di pa rin nadala. Yesterday she told me she wanted to open a $500 account sa bank because she said her partner(in crime) doon ihuhulog ang tubo nila sa patubuang alahas. I dont know where she gets her  screwed business sense. If you see her crying and screaming its either she has lost hundreds of dollars from her customers or her friend is saying bad things about her.

 

Another trait iof Pinay maids specially those who have been here for some time eh gusto nila puti ang amo nila.They dont want Indian, CHinese employers basta gusto nila puti(meaning Europeans or Americans). Why do they like working for this group. Kasi gusto nila all SUndays day off pati public holidays. And what do they do during the day off?

 

Again my maid..what does she do on her day off? She goes out at 6am  and returns at 8 or 9pm. She first goes to church, meet up with friends. Go to Lucky Plaza(the favorite meeting place of Pinay maids) to collect payments from her customers. She chats and eats with friends(may mga baon sila) They talk talk talk until their mouth and pockets hurt. They cry cry cry until their nose turns red. They cry about boyfriends, their husbands ,their children,their parents etc. AFternoon if they still have time they work part time cleaning houses of friends. they are happy to earn a little money or if you treat them to free lunch or breakfast.

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Another irritating thing about Pinay maids….they expect you to buy everything for them like their shampoo(Mam sa akin Pantene ha kasi nasisira ng buhok ko pag iba), toothpaste(Mam colgate lang), napkins(even the everyday pantyliner). Even their own drinks. Yung iba nagtatago pa ng food sa kwarto nila. Mind you, food that they buy in the grocery using their employers money.

 

In contrast, Indonesian and Indian maids have no day off. They work from 5 am to 11 pm with no complaints(maybe because they cannot talk English and have no friends) Ang mga pinay lumabas lang ng pintuan may kaibigan na. Dumungaw (look out the window) lang may kausap na.

 

So now, do you think Pinay maids  will still be sought after?