Maid - Setting Up the Review Process

Every human being likes to be told whether they are doing well or otherwise. Praises are good motivators while reprimands on wrongs must be swiftly delivered. Similarly, everyone has their likes and dislikes, opinions and concerns. It is only fair then that they be given an opportunity to speak up and be heard.

We treat our maid no differently. We set up periodic reviews that we will sit her down with us to review her performance. We will let her know what she has achieved, improvements that we noted and are glad and similarly, what we disliked and areas that we wanted her to change. At the same time, we wanted to give her an opportunity to voice out her concerns, views and requests.

We will take this opportunity to remind her and reinforce our expectations and at the same time, shared with her what other new responsibilities we would be entrusting to her.

This periodic review also gives both of us an opportunity to release any penned up frustrations and tensions before it explodes, becoming even more difficult to manage.

For the past one week, our maid who previously was not allowed to handle Ryan has been entrusted with the following new responsibilities:-

• Prepare milk to feed Ryan (although we have not let her to feed Ryan just yet)
• Take care of Ryan for brief moments including carrying him.

She seemed excited at the prospect of being allowed to take care of Ryan. We are glad although we will still be supervising her closely. Ryan seems to have taken a liking to her and would smile whenever she calls out to him.

She has progressed rather well in the last six months considering that she does not even know how to cook. To-date, she cooks our rice, boiled vegetables, boiled simple soup, cooked double boiled herbal soup for my wife (as long as I gave her the ingredients) and boil bird nest soup for my wife. We have also `officially’ assigned to cut all our ingredients whenever we have to cook, and she is pretty good with the knife.