Dearest Malaysians.
It is indeed very painful to be paying for our maids or foreign workers RM800 a month and they are unable to work the way we expect them to. We are paying them with the money we made from our sweat and blood. Now we are reflecting on our civil servants who even paid RM600 a month which is lesser than our maids. That is why many have expressed their disappointments in the press. You have my sympathy.
How many of us really treat our maids and categories of foreign workers well, sincerely? How many of us can look at “the person in front of the mirror” that we are the innocent victim and that we should not pay our maids/ foreign workers RM800 a month? Giving them the money and materials do not mean that we are already giving them the best. Did we communicate with them like the way we were to communicate with our local employees? When they need a listening ear, did we lend it to them? We usually do not think that listening to their problem is a must because we have paid them RM800 a month and any problem about them is none of our business. They have received our money so just do the job that we want. Some of us even stop our maids to have friends. Folks, are we hiring a maid or trying to emotionally torture a slave-to-be?
Malaysians generally are not willing to invest in trainings. This includes training our maids. We can’t just expect our maid to be able to do everything at home by themselves the way you want it to be and do it excellently if you don’t show them how to do it. Did we try to bargain the price of hiring maids with the maid agencies? Or are we trying to suppress them so that we can gain the most out of it and the agent don’t make money? Maids agency exists to cater for the demand of the society and not to do charity for us. If we keep bargaining for ridiculous price of hiring a maid, chances are they will give you but with lower quality of maid to match the value you are willing to pay.
I have personally encountered my ex-boss maid whom she used to complain about her incompetency. Later, I found out that my ex-boss didn’t train her by showing her how to perform the task or what to use to do the job well. After I showed and explained to her what and how to do the job, she did it very well, the way I wanted it to be done which is the same as my ex-boss’ .
There is another scenario whereby foreign labourers in the company were very hardworking in carrying the cargo to the respected points but our local staff were just watching and directing them to do the job as if they are the labourers’ boss meanwhile they are just at the same level with them. There was one time when these foreign labourers went on strike and went back sharp after work, the locals suddenly found themselves handicapped without them.
We need to admit that we need them to help us do the jobs that we do not want to do. If we are hired as a maid or foreign worker, would we do the job they are doing currently with the pay of RM800 a month? Even if we were to do it, would we do it whole heartedly? Would we sometimes wish that our boss will teach and show us how to do it because we are very new? We all get training every time we landed a new job in a new company. It is a norm but why can’t we do it for our maids so that they carry out the job the way we want them to?
I am not saying that all foreign maids/workers are always right. Nobody is perfect except God himself. Why are we expecting our poorly paid maids/workers to be perfect when we ourselves are not? If they are really that good, do you think they will still work with you for RM800 a month? Kindly use your rational mind to consider all the above mentioned. Thank you for your consideration.
