Dealing with the DR: maids & assistants

Adrian Bye

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Jul 7, 2002
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I've always tended to have a maid handle most of my local things such as paying bills, shopping and running errands. In Santo Domingo I've been paying RD$10,000/month fulltime. Its been problematic because the maid messes up a lot of stuff and needs a lot of guidance.

I now have a half time assistant for RD$10,000 and a maid who I am thinking of moving to half time at RD$5,000. This would mean that for RD$15,000/month I have:
- someone to do basic things like cook, clean and take care of my apartment
- a smart person to handle local issues, go to the phone company, do shopping, manage things for me, etc. (and she works from home a lot of the time)

Additionally I do all my bill payment online (only took 8 months to get it all working)!

RD$15,000/month is US$430/month. And this is a flexible team which can handle most of the dramas that come my way from living in the DR. We all know it can be stressful sometimes living here as an expat, and this seems like it might be the perfect combination of being not too expensive and high value.

I'm kicking myself right now since I've almost always had a maid only since 2001 and its been a big point of stress due to their poor work quality.

Any comments on this? Has anyone found a better combination?

Adrian
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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Just a question, if I might, Adrian? I take it that if you've been here since 2001, you yourself know the systems and workarounds which your trouble-shooter assistant might need to use? We employ domestic help but the other issues we take care of ourselves - but then of course, we're retired & not running a business. However, one day an assistant might become necessary due to our age/infirmity so I think this is a good subject for discussion because many other aging expats are likely to be in the same position.

We spent the first few years of living here discovering the quirks and idiosyncracies of the different organisations with whom one has contact, building up relationships, rebuilding them when personnel changed etc and now don't find any of these things all that stressful or insurmountable. We even achieved getting the free tank of water for the cystern during the recent Puerto Plata drought! (Yes we can afford to buy it, but we pay the monthly water bill and no water had been delivered for ages so, it became a matter of principle). Mainly achieved by BushBaby persistently sharing a few home truths with the CORAAPLATA chief engineer :cheeky: and we got a tank delivery before our Dominican neighbours did. Much to their admiration.

I don't know that we would feel so confident in knowing how to work the system unless we had first done this for ourselves, hence my question. I would totally agree that a lot of maids are simply not assertive enough to achieve the end result when dealing with bureacracy, so that it does need an assistant who can think outside the box, be persistent & never take 'no' for an answer.
 

Adrian Bye

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Questions welcome!

I did it all myself in the beginning, including going and paying every bill in person.. I always wondered back then why I wasn't getting much work done! :)

I think the DR throws curveballs your way whether you have everything established or not.. I doubt I've worked at hard as integrating as you have though.

Have you actually looked at how much time you spend on all that stuff? Maybe its easier since you're retired?
 

Lambada

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Have you actually looked at how much time you spend on all that stuff? Maybe its easier since you're retired?

For sure, in the early days, hours and hours were spent on the day to day things. Nowadays, a lot less time - like you, bills are either paid online or via telephone & credit card or if in person, we now know at what time of day the lines are shortest. Yes being retired makes it easier, so does PP being smaller than SD, so does having 2 of us. We divide the bill paying/trouble shooting/forming personal relationships etc between us. BushBaby has always been our prime mover with CDEEE (because of the early unfortunate tendency of their tecnicos to not pay attention to me as a female :rolleyes:), he also handles CODETEL. I deal with taxation & the DGII, the Land Tribunal (if & when necessary), Telecable and CORAPLAATA bills. Although having said that, when it gets to the 'big deal' issue & dealing with the guy at the top, BB will take over as recently, because that actually saves time not to have to wade through the sexism issues.

I'd be interested in learning the process whereby you went about looking for your smart assistant. I know when the time comes for us to employ one, we are probably going to be hard task-masters ;) in the sense that we would expect a highly competent person who leaves no pieces to be picked up by us later (none of the 'yes, but.....' responses!), & for such competence we would be happy to remunerate accordingly. Did you run any sort of selection test to find out about qualities like perseverance, alternate solution finding, keeping one's cool etc?
 

Adrian Bye

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You have division of labor, I don't :) Even still, you could both be out doing something fun rather than standing in line at CORAPLAATA.

I hired someone when I first moved to Santo Domingo 8 months ago and she was a disaster. I didn't replace her. My secret technique this time around was to find out which of my friends were interested in a part time job (all of them) and then pick the cutest female to start on a temporary basis. LOL. I was prepared to try out 5-10 people until I found someone good, but this one is working out great so far. We'll see if it continues.

I've noticed a major difference in level from Santiago to Santo Domingo in competency so that will be a big problem for you in POP. I would suggest you hire a university student who comes from a moderately high level family. Here's a simple test:
- "do you have a facebook account" (NOT hi5 or myspace, ONLY facebook)
- "do you have internet and a computer in your house"?

if they pass both of these, they will likely be the level you're looking for.

Its nice to give a poor kid a break but there will be too many things they don't know.

When you try them out, they'll want a flexible schedule and to be able to work from home. You need someone who has internet and gets things done.

Give them some test projects for a day. Then try someone else. I just hired a new housekeeper, we tried one for 3 days and the second for 3 days. The difference was clear and we kept the better one.
 

Lambada

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I've noticed a major difference in level from Santiago to Santo Domingo in competency so that will be a big problem for you in POP. I would suggest you hire a university student who comes from a moderately high level family. Here's a simple test:
- "do you have a facebook account" (NOT hi5 or myspace, ONLY facebook)
- "do you have internet and a computer in your house"?

if they pass both of these, they will likely be the level you're looking for.

Yes internet & computer at home would be a requirement but I think I would also want to test for things like creative intelligence. I used to use simple tests for that when interviewing potential social work students in the UK. 'Write down as many uses as you can think of for 2 bricks' - time allowed 60 seconds. For here you'd have to make it culturally appropriate so you would use 'blocks' instead of bricks. Then you score it on originality, flexibility and amount of detail - something like Guilford?s Alternative Uses Task:
Welcome!

Tells you a whole lot about people......;) My most creatively intelligent students would get to around 20 uses in 60 seconds following a couple of minutes thinking about it, but it's the range of ideas you're looking for rather than volume. So the originality of the ideas tells you quite a bit about how they problem solve.

I'd probably also want to test for assertiveness - in UK that would have been 'Your best friend borrowed your favourite book 6 months ago and hasn't yet returned it, despite prompting. How would you get it back?' Here that wouldn't fly because of different notions about sharing, borrowing etc but I'd most likely think of something culturally appropriate.
 

Adrian Bye

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you're looking for educational/social level where they have learned critical thinking, etc. my "facebook test" will qualify for that in POP. It won't work in 2-3 years as facebook becomes more popular, but right now it does.
 

Adrian Bye

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Jul 7, 2002
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I just wanted to provide an update after a few months of experience with this.

Firstly, there's a few things you can do which reduces your dependence on maids/assistants dramatically
a) do all your bill payment online via banco popular or local credit card and only do business with companies that can handle billing that way.
b) get a food delivery service. we found one in santo domingo which will make food to any diet specifications you choose. the food is healthy and comes fresh every day.
c) Having an assistant is invaluable
d) I've found it key to pay the assistant hourly NOT monthly. This way you can increase or decrease hours depending on what is going on. If they are doing too many hours they won't get frustrated and quit.

The food delivery wouldn't be for everyone, however think how much complexity it reduces from your life if you no longer have to cook (which is what most maids do) and you no longer need to buy groceries?

Overall I've gone from requiring a maid 6 days/week and having a stressful relationship with her since I was depending on her to do things beyond her capabilities, to now only needing a maid 1.5 days/week and having a (very) part time assistant who works from home.
 

Adrian Bye

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Jul 7, 2002
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todolight
cost ~$2500/week, includes food + delivery
they'll cook to your specifications but i haven't tested this yet
mabel margarita nadal mendez <mabelnadal@yahoo.com>
809-563-2338
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
My situation is somewhat different than your as I am not running a business here. For that reason I don't see the need to have a personal asistant. We have had a housekeeper since the beginning and at first we had one that worked everyday of the week and did extra things as well. Apparently, doing the "extra" things didn't bode well for here because we caught her stealing with a video camera. I believe in the two years she worked for us she stole at least RD20k if not more.

Our new housekeeper just recently started working three days a week and we pay her RD2900 monthly. She arrives at 7:30 and leaves at 4, sometimes earlier. My wife has to wash the dishes the days she is not here and she doesn't seem to gripe a whole lot. The housekeeper does a good job but I relish the days when she is not here because I am very wary now.
 

Adrian Bye

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Jul 7, 2002
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i have no business in the DR. i just need someone to organize things for me locally, since it makes things easier and saves a lot of time. i'd rather pay someone RD$150/hr to go stand in line someplace so i don't have to do it.

per stealing: in all my years here (since 2001), it hasn't been a problem i've noticed. in fact, i thought this finally happened to me last week when i lost some jeans but it turned out i left them at my hotel in NYC.
 

tomas2

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Nov 29, 2005
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Yes internet & computer at home would be a requirement but I think I would also want to test for things like creative intelligence. I used to use simple tests for that when interviewing potential social work students in the UK. 'Write down as many uses as you can think of for 2 bricks' - time allowed 60 seconds. For here you'd have to make it culturally appropriate so you would use 'blocks' instead of bricks. Then you score it on originality, flexibility and amount of detail - something like Guilford?s Alternative Uses Task:
Welcome!

Tells you a whole lot about people......;) My most creatively intelligent students would get to around 20 uses in 60 seconds following a couple of minutes thinking about it, but it's the range of ideas you're looking for rather than volume. So the originality of the ideas tells you quite a bit about how they problem solve.

I'd probably also want to test for assertiveness - in UK that would have been 'Your best friend borrowed your favourite book 6 months ago and hasn't yet returned it, despite prompting. How would you get it back?' Here that wouldn't fly because of different notions about sharing, borrowing etc but I'd most likely think of something culturally appropriate.

Dang, I had been been secretly studying to become Lambada's domestic helper for when they finally throw me out of my current gig, but it has become embarrassingly apparent that I am not now (nor will ever be) qualified.

I hope my boss never gets ahold of this test. So how much does the "standing in line guy" get per month? :)