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- Thread starter mgregoir
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Haitian maid?
Very strange the assumption the every first-world individual has $100.000 in the bank? Sounds like a lot of jealousy and misleading assumption to me. Same reason so many folks want to emigrate to first world to find that they are lucky to have $100 in the bank. I hired maids in Central America for nearly 20 years. Honesty is a trait that they either have or don't have. Pay what the maid would earn if working for a local and no more. Then they will know that you are not just another ignorant foreigner that will be easy to take advantage of. Just my dos pesos.
Pma22222,
Welcome to DR1. You know what they say about that word ASSuME, hehehe. You are correct in your statement and it is because of those overpayments that we foreigners are subjected to the double standard of pricing here.
Rick
Welcome to DR1. You know what they say about that word ASSuME, hehehe. You are correct in your statement and it is because of those overpayments that we foreigners are subjected to the double standard of pricing here.
Rick
You can ruin an otherwise good employee by paying too much.
Also if someone's pay scale changes in a way that affects their lifestyle (especially if the change is beneficial) usually there are huge uheavals, people having to deal with a new identity and all their friends and aquaintances treating them differently and bumming off of them.
Given the choice you probably don't want to have to deal with an employee going through this kind of thing.
Don't overpay your maid for the same reason youdon't feed wild animals at a national park, spoils them, upsets their natural proccess and ruins their independance.
Also if someone's pay scale changes in a way that affects their lifestyle (especially if the change is beneficial) usually there are huge uheavals, people having to deal with a new identity and all their friends and aquaintances treating them differently and bumming off of them.
Given the choice you probably don't want to have to deal with an employee going through this kind of thing.
Don't overpay your maid for the same reason youdon't feed wild animals at a national park, spoils them, upsets their natural proccess and ruins their independance.
This is true of any person going up the socio-economic latter.MrMike said:
In fact, many Dominican families have experienced a rift between the family members who progressed economically with those who remained economically less wealthy.
The one's who have gained more (or is perceived to had gained more) is often treated as a "threat" by those who have remained economically backwards. This creates certain odd situations between the two, especially when the economically more advanced member begins to do things that shows his/her upward mobility such as buy a single family home in a nice neighborhood or buy a new car, etc.
Those who are economically less successful in the family may feel slight resentment which leads them to do one of two things:
1. Compete by attempting to buy new cars, house, etc by borrowing in order to symbolically "show" the most economically advanced members of the family that they are not the only one's who can buy a new car or a nice house, etc.
or
2. They will resent the members who have moved up in the world and for that reason, expect the more economically advanced members to supply the less advanced members with help money or goods whenever they want. Also, if the more economically advanced members give the less economically advanced member goods that are seen as inferior, given the perceived wealth of the family members with greater resources, the members at the bottom may feel insulted and in the process insult the one at the top.
Many Dominican families (particularly among families that live abroad and return to the DR from time to time) have found themselves receiving the wrong end of the stick. Incidents of family members in lower socioeconomic sectors returning the "trapos" the family member in the higher economic sector send them (trapo being clothes that are not of high fashion (ie. de marca)), etc.
All of this is normal for people going up the economic latter and usually results in change in his/her acquaintances with whom they meet with regularly and also develop new relations with new friends and leave the old one's behind.
I remember a homeless guy who used to sleep in the littel park in front of the Iglesia Sagrado Corazon de Jesus church in Moca. The entire town believed he was just a "desamparado" or a homeless poor person. That was the belief in the entire town until the day he died and his family members came from Santo Domingo and La Vega in spiffed up SUVs, nice clothes, and nice everything to take his body to the cemetery.
So much for being poor, the guy was actually a family member of a family that was split between those who experienced upward mobility and those who remained at the bottom. Supposedly the family always had plenty of bochinches and pleitos revolving around money with the poorer members blaming the wealthier members of being cheap and practically "come solos" while the wealthier members complained of the poorer members always calling them for favors and money related things and never to see if they were fine or how their health was, etc.
These are things that many Dominican families are going through, issues that may be completely invinsible to the typical DR1er and tourists or foreigners, but that MANY Dominican families know very well from first hand experience.
Overpaying a housekeeper could put her in a similar dilemma and cause her productivity and attentiveness during her working hours to diminish. In addition, this creates alot of unnecessary stress and could emotionally affect the housekeeper to the point that she may not be capable of doing a good job.
-NALs
NALs said:
Reminds me of my cousin Daniel. For years I would listen, late in the evening, Daniel's yelling down in the valley, calling his cows, "Vaca!, Vaca!, Vaca!. Every morning like clockwork, Daniel would drive his motorcycle down the dirt lonely road into town, carrying in tow a 5 gallon metal container full of milk. Daniel was one of the eldest sons of my second cousin Manuelico, who had died several years previously, at the ripe age of 102, after siring 27 children. I asked Daniel many times, why, at his age, almost 80, he insisted on living such dull, shabby existence, tending his cows, day after day, year in year out. The day of his funeral in Las Yayitas, the procession of late model SUV caused traffic backup for several kilometers outside the village. They were the relatives, who had arrived from everywhere on the planet to attend his funeral...
hypocritical
Sorry...I realize this is a little off topic but M'frog....you judge canadian/american/british women & dominican resort workers everyday in these Forums..
What is the difference between maids & resort/animacion workers?
Maybe you can think about that for a bit....and maybe think twice before you write your next sarcastic comment to an innocent person looking for a little info.
Your words say it best.....maybe try a little self medication.
My apologies for going off topic.
Sangria
mountainfrog said:
Sorry...I realize this is a little off topic but M'frog....you judge canadian/american/british women & dominican resort workers everyday in these Forums..
What is the difference between maids & resort/animacion workers?
Maybe you can think about that for a bit....and maybe think twice before you write your next sarcastic comment to an innocent person looking for a little info.
Your words say it best.....maybe try a little self medication.
My apologies for going off topic.
Sangria
Questions From Afar
I'd prefer that you quote in the respective threads thus detailing your accusations.
BTW, it's the black letters which convey the message not the white spaces:
We employ them or have them in our family.
What is it you want to know?
m'frog
sangria said:
I'd prefer that you quote in the respective threads thus detailing your accusations.
BTW, it's the black letters which convey the message not the white spaces:
mountainfrog said:
sangria said:
We employ them or have them in our family.
What is it you want to know?
m'frog
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The point is just to follow your own advice...
Just as choosing the best maid/housekeeper should not be based on any prejudice or stereotype...you/I/anyone should not be generalizing or judging people we don't know personally.
When I read your quote I found it to be hyprocritical in nature following many other posts you have written in other forums on the DR1.
I agree with what you and the other posters are saying to the OP. I just wanted to point out my observation that your message should apply to all people....not just maids and to perhaps keep that in mind for your future posts.
Sangria
Overpaying never gets you more productivity from people, especially from those who are on the lower end of the economic scale. I know at my job the ones who get paid the most do nothing because they feel a sense of entitlement and feel that they have paid their dues.
So hiring a maid is not that difficult-get references from people who have hired the person in the past or at least know her and DO NOT pay more than what any other dominican family with a maid pays for the service.
And if shes' cute try to have sex with her every once in a while. That's what everyone else does.
So hiring a maid is not that difficult-get references from people who have hired the person in the past or at least know her and DO NOT pay more than what any other dominican family with a maid pays for the service.
And if shes' cute try to have sex with her every once in a while. That's what everyone else does.
Why not ask family members back home to look for the Haitian person that you want? It would be easier this way. No worries about not trusting because if you did not get any reference it is going to be difficult. In my life, I have already come across umpteen time Indon maids who say they wanted to work but in actual fact running away from some personal problems and after 6 months run back to where they came from or change to some other locations. Think carefully, do you really want or need a maid in your house? What about g/f who can cook?
understand that you will have to choose based on the lesser of the two evils. a GOOD honest maid is hard to come by (dominican or hatian). my family has employeed dozens thru the years and they all start off GREAT and end up the Same. they all steal or borrow at one point or another it's just a fact of life so as soon as you come to terms with that you can continue your search. they don't perform well on the bonus system whereby you would like to reward them with a little extra cash- don't do it - you will damage them. treat them with respect and do not involve them in your personal life b/c they will feel entitled and take advantage of it. do not give her a key unless you want her chulo stealing from you too. please do not sleep with your maid, it makes life harder for everyone involved, especially when you get caught. count your money, shoes, shirts, beer, rice, toilet paper, ect....
*if you don't want to be disapointed in them when they take/steal/borrow things from you, just give it to them.
*if you don't want to be disapointed in them when they take/steal/borrow things from you, just give it to them.