How To Find (&Keep) A Good Maid?

[doglover]

This seems to be the most appropriate forum for this, seeing as I'm in Issan. I'm having a hell of a time finding a housecleaner that can do the job up to my perfectionist specs (and being able to "think" by theirselves). I don't even think the word "perfectionist" exists in Thai vocabulary....(sure another perfectionist will prove otherwise). I have no interest in becoming a born again 'mai pen laier'. So I would like to hear from the other perfectionists that reside in Issan and have domestic help. How did you find your dream maid(s)? And how do you keep her (them)? I'm only looking for one.....just one....!

[plachon]

Not sure about the finding part as I've always been self sufficient or had Mrs Plachon to help keep the house in order, but once you've found your maid, probably best way of keeping her is marrying her, especially if you are as fussy as you claim. One thing that most Thais can't stand is perfectionists, and will take great delight in sabotaging your perfectionist ideals, often in a very subtle manner. So be prepared for subterfuge behind your back, especially if you complain about every dog hair out of place. Should you be so lucky as to find a maid who will tolerate your eccentricities, then bag her immediately, is my best advice.

[CelticBhoy]

We went through 5 in two years.

A good one doesn't exist. We went

from family members, recent graduates,

near retards and even Burmese. All failed

miserably . . . and I'm not a perfectionist!

Best of luck on your search.

[doglover]

Not sure about the finding part as I've always been self sufficient or had Mrs Plachon to help keep the house in order, but once you've found your maid, probably best way of keeping her is marrying her, especially if you are as fussy as you claim. One thing that most Thais can't stand is perfectionists, and will take great delight in sabotaging your perfectionist ideals, often in a very subtle manner. So be prepared for subterfuge behind your back, especially if you complain about every dog hair out of place. Should you be so lucky as to find a maid who will tolerate your eccentricities, then bag her immediately, is my best advice.

That seems to be very true. Part of the problem is that I have been mistaking that sabotage for terrible memories and inability to follow instructions. I described myself as a perfectionist as I'm sure that's how the previous maid's see me. But I'm really just after a clean house and don't require it to be ready for a Home & Garden photoshoot day to day (and the dogs hairs are always out of place which causes no cringe). Looking for a maid that can be shown how to properly clean (which I do) and then be able to grasp the concept of how things are properly done and run with it. To be able to come up with work on her own rather than having to have her hand held all day. Great advice on keeping her when I find her!

[doglover]

We went through 5 in two years.

A good one doesn't exist. We went

from family members, recent graduates,

near retards and even Burmese. All failed

miserably . . . and I'm not a perfectionist!

Best of luck on your search.

And I was thinking about getting a Laos, Burmese is even more extreme.

[Tatsujin]

On the contrary, we are very lucky and have a wonderful maid . . . it happens to be the lady that used to be the maid where my wife previously worked.

To say she is wonderful would be an understatement and as she and the wife are now good friends it helps a lot. She always brings food for our 3 x dogs as a treat which she pays for herself, she cleans, irons etc and does a great job. If we go away, she stays over and looks after the dogs for the weekend, she nearly always stays later than she should each time she comes to finish what SHE thinks needs doing.

I've said it to many people . . . she is one of the hardest working, nicest Thai's you could ever hope to meet. We are lucky to have her as a maid, and even more lucky to have her as a friend.

[Traxster]

If you want something done to your satisfaction

do it yourself !.

[Tatsujin]

If you want something done to your satisfaction

do it yourself !.

Good point . . . my Gran always said the same, "if you want something done right, do it yourself"

[glegolo]

I sympathize with you. My experience is from my best friend here, an american guy. He and his wife has also been looking a lot for 3 years now.

After 6 of them they did finally find a relative that could do the job quite OK.

But here it is again. You can NOT find a enough good one in Thailand, not a chance in hell. But you can find a good decent one that can take

care of the worst shit what regards cleaning, and then can you or your wife take care of the things that are extraordinary cleaning, good for you.

Curiosa! my family did "borrow" my friends last cleaning lady one day for 250 baht. And accrding to this american guy. she was extraordinary good.

I did find that she worked hard for 12 hours I can confirm that, we were home all day. And here cleaning was as I suspected, it was 70-80% to my

standard.

But I must say that i was really happy and so was my wife to when all was over. I had to do the windows all over again..... when the sun shines on

them I could see all the corners in each window not being cleaned at all. I also have to take care of all cleaning alongside the walls. And I have to

clean the 2 toilets also all over again.

But besides that she was really a hardworking nice lady, which we will use again. We even were so happy that we gave her little bit extra money and

food for the day.

By this i will say...forget that stuff you talk about being picky when it comes to cleaning. Hire a decent honest girl that will take care of the worst and

than you or your wife take care of the rest. i think that this is the closest you can come to happiness.

Good luck - Glegolo

[JurgenG]

The only answer I can think about is : luck !

Over the years, we have met an excellent maid, we call her our "estate manager" as she's able to manage independently almost any task you ask her to do, from cleaning the house to finding and supervising any contractor we need for the house. We also know a taxi driver who can, on a phone call, pick up anything from anywhere and deliver it to the other side of Bangkok in total confidence. One day, when no one was available, he even came home to pick up our sick dog, drove it to the vet, bought the medication and drove it back home.

How you find such people ? trial and error among a long period of time. And when you find them, you don't let them go !

[Lickey]

We have 2 salon girls who double up as housemaids when the salon is not busy, my b iggest gripe is they dont seem to see the things that need to be done, simple things like topping up the water tower, make sure there is cold water in fridge ect, Take the cobwebs of the walls THEN mop the floor, dusting the stairs starting at the bottom,,,Going to the market 4 times for pok Pok ingredients by motorsi, Then checking the fruit bowl, its empty, off to the market again,, 4.5 years now and gradually getting there, I do believe logic is lacking in Thailand,

Op, you will find one oneday, and it will take patience to get a good one..

Cheers..

[doglover]

We have 2 salon girls who double up as housemaids when the salon is not busy, my b iggest gripe is they dont seem to see the things that need to be done, simple things like topping up the water tower, make sure there is cold water in fridge ect, Take the cobwebs of the walls THEN mop the floor, dusting the stairs starting at the bottom,,,Going to the market 4 times for pok Pok ingredients by motorsi, Then checking the fruit bowl, its empty, off to the market again,, 4.5 years now and gradually getting there, I do believe logic is lacking in Thailand,

Op, you will find one oneday, and it will take patience to get a good one..

Cheers..

This is exactly my experience Lickey. The lack of logic in how they perform the cleaning tasks and how they cannot seem to see what has to be done. The last maid actually was doing a good job cleaning wise but then would revert to her easy ways of doing things(still needed her hand held after two + months). She would forget almost everything that was shown to her on how to perform tasks (how windows are cleaned, how the toilet is cleaned, how you close an exterior door after you open it).

But 4 to 5 years! Wow Lickey..........patience is a virtue that I don't have.

Thanks to the other posters as well for your input. Maybe it is just a trial an error scenario. Pretty soon we'll have to recrute from a neighbouring village. As I am sure the 5 ladies we let go are not telling my side of the story.....

Any more suggestions or stories?

Edited February 23, 2011 by doglover

[JurgenG]

We have 2 salon girls who double up as housemaids when the salon is not busy, my b iggest gripe is they dont seem to see the things that need to be done, simple things like topping up the water tower, make sure there is cold water in fridge ect, Take the cobwebs of the walls THEN mop the floor, dusting the stairs starting at the bottom,,,Going to the market 4 times for pok Pok ingredients by motorsi, Then checking the fruit bowl, its empty, off to the market again,, 4.5 years now and gradually getting there, I do believe logic is lacking in Thailand,

Op, you will find one oneday, and it will take patience to get a good one..

Cheers..

I think the problem here is your two salon girls don't like to do household chores and try to escape the house as often as they can.

We have the same problem in Isaan (our "good" maid is in Bangkok). We have a kind of package with a local couple, the man take care of the garden while the wife clean our house. She obviously hates it but the salary is good and the husband likes the job. In our house, she is as inefficient as you describe, maybe worse. On the other hand, she has three kids and two grand children, I've seen the way she run her house, it's a complete different story.

Some Asian people have issues with their job description. A friend of mine was waiting for important customers and asked his assistant to check the showroom and dust a little bit the shelves so everything will look perfect. She replied "I'm not a cleaning lady" and refused to do it. It was only when my friend started to clean the showroom himself that she, very reluctantly, started to help.

[lannarebirth]

Steal one from the nicest hotel in your area.

[bkkharry]

We call our maid Empty Head, that speaks for it all. Drives me nuts, but just shut my mouth and bitch to the wife. Not much I can do, unless I want to be the new maid.

[doglover]

We call our maid Empty Head, that speaks for it all. Drives me nuts, but just shut my mouth and bitch to the wife. Not much I can do, unless I want to be the new maid.

Good point! I mentioned we just let the last one go and after three days of being 'the new maid' I had to call her back. So I'll have to do my best to be happy with what I have for the moment.......

*good suggestion from an earlier poster to steal one from the best hotel in the area

[hgma]

if your location is near the lao border try the maidservice in Laos.vientiane

faranginlaos.com

I have NO experience with the service, but thai families we know do use the service.

hgma

[SGD]

As stated, the biggest problem is that they simply cannot see what needs to be done and if told, will simply deny they have been told or did not understand because they don't believe it needs doing. Or it is too much work.

With one, I went from informal to formal who was given a list in Thai of daily duties (such as sweeping, dusting etc.), weekly (bed linen, windows etc.) and monthly (curtains etc.). She had proven unable to think for herself or take daily instruction (from the missus, not me) and then just simply would, not do what she was asked because it was detailed and would be obvious if she didn't complete the tasks. She left but would have been fired.

Another started to drink, getting into bad company and went to be a prostitute to Thai men in a local bag house.

Another stole and had to go.

More than one just wanted to watch TV all day ???? <deleted> ??? just useless.

I don't think you can find one with any degree of ease. You can make their life as comfortable as anything, pay them well and they will still under perform, take mega hours to complete the simplest of tasks, forget all the time and then never complete the job to any reasonable standard. You seriously have to wonder why or whether they are simply too stupid because they are told in their language by their own countrymen and still cannot complete the tasks they agreed to perform.

[bmore99]

We have an excellent maid. Works very good and very hard. She used to be "slaved" at Central KK for only 162 B/day

Of course every now and then she needs to be reminded of some little things.

But we always do that by telling her how much we appreciate her and that we pay her more than others because she works so hard and well (not because I'm a farang). Then politely we ask her, while showing no hard fealings at all, to not forget the thing we want to have done.

Honey catches more flies than vinager!

[SanukJoeII]

Some topics are amazing, this is one of the most amazing IMO.

Whilst reading all posts some questions come to my mind:

1) Some having a "missus" need a maid? Why? Missus disabled? Missus lazy? Can't do yourself?

2) One poster paid 250 baht for 12 hours work!!!! <deleted>. 6 Euro, 5 GBP, 8 USD for 12 hours work? You should be ashamed of yourself! Minimum wage in most Isan areas is 200 baht/day, for 8 hours, being 25 baht per hour. So the poor maid working 12 hours should have received 300 baht from her kee niao employer...

This was the nasty part of my post, don't worry, it will only get better. I will share with you how I manage to have a clean house.

I live alone (single), have a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house, garden and a rubber plantation. So enough work. As the road (25 m from the house) is a red sandy road all in and around the house gets a reddish layer of this sand, so more than when living near a paved road the house gets dirty.

The daily work I do myself, dusting, sweeping the floor, dishes. I do the wash myself, two a week, I iron what is needed, during watching tv.

The weekends the house is filled with teenage girls. No, not what some of you think. My stepdaughter who lives opposite my house, brings in a couple of friends and together they form cleaning teams, 2 by 2.

Before they start we discuss (I tell) what has to be done and how. They chose what to do first (as long as it is logical) and who does what.

When the work starts I'm with them, helping with moving things or holding a ladder, whatever. That way I see how they work and can adjust things, works wonderfully.

After 2 hours break, lunch in the local food place (noodles or Mama 10 baht) and back to work. After 4 hours we stop, they have earned 100 baht each which is a lot for poor Isan teenage girls. The remainder of the day is filled with watching tv, karaoke and other things. Now comes the bonus. If they worked fine and to my satisfaction (every time so far) I offer to take them the next day to Udon, spend time in the shopping mall and end up with either KFC, McD or Pizza, my expenses of course.

This system of work and pleasure has given me not only a nice clean house but also a bunch of happy teenage girls who did a job with their friends, have money to spent and had a nice day in Udon. Needless to say they want to come back each time, and it's my pleasure...

So for me no maid, I would feel embarrassed to perform such a colonial attitude. Unless people are both having a job or are disabled I cannot see the need for a maid to clean a house, and certainly not on a daily basis.

Of course this is my personal opinion and I'm fine with everyone having a maid, or two, or three. I know Isan people, they will never perform as picky perfectionist farang like as they don't see the need. If you want them to perform nicely work together with them, mentioning things that can be done differently (better), clean four floor tiles and let them do the rest, is it so difficult? Yes, if you sit on the terrace with a cold beer and some BKK newspaper, or spent a couple of hours being on line, then at the end of the day perform a military inspection of the work done, finding things not satisfactory, yes then you have a problem!

Perfect maids don't exist, but if you find one close to it follow the advice of one poster: MARRY HER!

Cheers

Joe

[bmore99]

....

1) Some having a "missus" need a maid? Why? Missus disabled? Missus lazy? Can't do yourself?

...

Interesting assumption that the "missus" sits jobless at home ....

[brimacthai]

If you are in Surin we have a house cleaning (inside and out) service plus we do garden and landscape work with water features, ponds and fountains.

We try new cleaners every week, most don't make it to the second week. Some of our people have been with us for more than 3 years now.

So if you're looking for a good maid in Surin you won't find one, sorry all the good ones already work with us!

We work on a contract basis only with several packages to choose from.

If you're interested, call Brian on <snip>

We only work in the Surin area and not too far out of town

Edited March 8, 2011 by craigt3365
phone number removed

[jaideeguy]

Whatever you do.......don't hire a family member!! I did 7 yrs ago and she is krap, but she is family [sIL] and can't fire her and her family is increasing and guess who has to 'help' them??

[jazzbo]

While there certainly are dis-advantages, one of the advantages of a service apartment in Isaan is the weekly cleaning including spotless bathroom and clean sheets & towels ... all I have to do is leave a tip enough for her to buy lunch. Labor issues are with the management.

It also prevents me from accumulating to much clutter which is what I fear if i were to rent a house.

[Naam]

here's another thread on maids with [perhaps] a little advice.

[doglover]

here's another thread on maids with [perhaps] a little advice.

http://www.thaivisa....S/#entry3685459

Thanks Naam. And the post you made within that thread has your usual charm . I sincerely appreciate your style unlike some. Straight to the point with many a laugh as a bonus. I like how pay is discussed alot in that thread. And I am starting to think (part of) the problem is the local mentality towards work and it may be time to look elsewhere. My wife has scared me away from using Burmese or Laos saying there are often stories of them slipping away (with valuables) and never being seen again. Even nasty stories like murdering their employers but she says this comes from built of emotions dealing with overbearing bosses and they snap!

The other part of the problem is I really have to work at being more patient and being less sour. And realize that each new maid that comes will have to be shown all over again how to do things my way and this will take time. I think I'll try picturing them as my wifes sister or aunt when I speak with them. It can be hard to keep in mind that many people who work as maids come from families without the luxury tech their employers will have in their homes. So they may have no idea how to use vacuums, dishwashers, clothes, washing machines, etc. Surely they never shine the cutlery or glasses in their own homes, or have a selection of cleaning tools and items for specific tasks. Very easy to be negative and label them as 'stupid' as I have muttered many a time. But when I think about the bosses I have worked for, honey definitely does attract more bees than vinegar. And surely no maid whom is paid well, fed well, provided some comforts in her room and treated like family will ever murder her employer.

So yes there may be some luck of the draw to get good maid to walk through my door, but the above should keep her when I find her. Thanks for your help y'all .

Edited March 10, 2011 by doglover

[SGD]

And surely no maid whom is paid well, fed well, provided some comforts in her room and treated like family will ever murder her employer.

But they will for the same simple reason that they would kill the goose that lays the golden egg rather than collect a gold egg every morning. You know it makes no sense but you are not Thai.

[ESB7]

When you say maid....do you mean maid or 24/7 slave.......a maid would geneerally clean and thats about it, which I think 100% of Thais do very well....but if you want a cook/washer/gardner/ironer/window cleaner and any other dogs body job doing then you are pretty much up siht creek as that is basically slave driving.

[doglover]

When you say maid....do you mean maid or 24/7 slave.......a maid would geneerally clean and thats about it, which I think 100% of Thais do very well....but if you want a cook/washer/gardner/ironer/window cleaner and any other dogs body job doing then you are pretty much up siht creek as that is basically slave driving.

!

Special thanks goes out too the last two posters for capping this thread off so eloquently!

[ESB7]

When you say maid....do you mean maid or 24/7 slave.......a maid would geneerally clean and thats about it, which I think 100% of Thais do very well....but if you want a cook/washer/gardner/ironer/window cleaner and any other dogs body job doing then you are pretty much up siht creek as that is basically slave driving.

!

Special thanks goes out too the last two posters for capping this thread off so eloquently!

Hey.............obviously what you are looking for!!!...............just a note, I have a Nanny/Maid..been with us for 3 years, give her an increase in wages every Birthday and this year will pay for her college fees.......she is fantastic and really part of the family....seriously, you must not look as getting a 'Thai maid'........it just dosnt exist, speak/treat someone well and am sure you will get the ideal 'maid' you are looking for