Helpers Drama

I seem to have really bad luck with helpers these days. Its one drama after the other!

Background info:

I have written before that we made a bit of trouble with our previous helper, Nyamaa, so instead of working for us full time, I have asked her to work for us part time. She will come twice a week, in the mornings only, just to clean.

I have also managed to hire another babysitter, Undra, who comes in the afternoons every day to babysit Cayden.

Gosh, where do I start? Ok, lets start chronologically. Drama started last week. On Monday, Nyamaa came to me and asked me to help her. She wanted to borrow a substantial amount of money from me and Constanze (she works for Constanze too, same arrangement) to buy a fridge and a washing machine. Just to give you an idea -I pay her USD55 per month. She wanted to borrow USD 185 from me and another USD185 from Constanze. I was thinking, gosh, how long will she take to repay the total amount? I cannot possibly deduct her ENTIRE pay each month, because she needs money to feed her kids! But anyway, I told her that it shouldn’t be a problem and I will just need to speak to my hubby about it first.

On Tuesday, Undra came to me and said her son was sick and she wants to borrow some money. I agreed and told her that I will give her this week’s pay (she gets paid weekly at the end of the week) first.

On Wednesday, everything was ok.

On Thursday, I spoke with Nyamaa and said both Constanze and I agreed to lend her the money. We will deduct USD30 each month from her salary. She said she wants us to deduct ALL of her salary because she receives money from the hubby. I agreed, but told her that if she finds that she doesn’t have enough money each month, just let us know. We can deduct less.

In the afternoon, Undra called and said she was sick and couldn’t come. FINE. But mentally I was keeping track of the days she was absent from work since she first started working for me.

On Friday morning, Constanze called me. She said that Nyamaa came to her house in the morning and started crying, telling her that I was going to cut her pay!!!! Constanze was certain that I wasn’t going to do that, or I would have told her. I was livid when I heard, because here I am, trying to do Nyamaa a favour, and in the end, I was accused of something I didn’t do? Constanze assured me that she would clear up the misunderstanding with her.

Friday afternoon, Undra calls me and said she was still sick. Still coughing and runny nose and all. Said she can come in if I want. Who in the right mind would want a sick person to look after her child? I told her since she has not fully recovered, she should stay home.

At that time, I was already feeling really bogged down by all these helpers issues. I pay others to have them relieve my load and to help me, NOT to pay and still do all the work myself!

Monday morning, when Nyamaa came, I called her sister-in-law, who spoke excellent english, and explained the situation to her. I wanted her sister-in-law to talk to Nyamaa and find out how did the misunderstanding occur? In the end, what she wanted was another pay increase. She wanted me to pay her transport fees coming to my house because she spends about USD20 per month on transport. In relation, its 37% of her salary. I wasn’t too happy when I heard, and I told her sister-in-law that in her one year of working for us, she has had 2 pay increments already. If she doesn’t have enough money, then she should work more hours! She chose to work part time for us. Of course we pay her less in total, but on a per hourly basis, she gets more. Anyway, I agree to increase her pay by another USD10 per month and told her sister in law to tell her that if she still wants another pay increment, I will not agree and will have to let her go.

Nyamaa came to me afterwards and thanked me for her pay increment. She told me that life is hard for her because her husband was initially out in countryside working. That’s why she can only work for me part time - she needs to look after her kids. But last week, her husband quit his job suddenly and came back to the city. He said work life was hard in the countryside so he quit. Now he is jobless and he refused to go back to his job. He drank and even hit her. I really sympathise with her, and want to help her by offering her longer work hours again, but in the end I decided against it because I have had enough of it all. I still offered to loan her the money and wrote up a payment schedule for her. I will only deduct half her pay each month.

Monday afternoon - Undra called me and told me she will be late because her friend’s house pipe burst and she has to go there. I was wondering why she chose to help her friend instead of coming to her proper job? I agreed nevertheless. Then I receive an sms from her telling me that she can’t come today because she is still helping her friend. I was really angry and felt that she was not putting her priority on her job. I did a count and realise that out of the 6 weeks she has worked for me, she was absent on 5 occasions and requested to leave early on 2 occasions. I have had enough!

On Tuesday morning, I told Undra to come to the house and told her that I can’t have her working for me anymore. I need a babysitter that I can rely on, not someone who comes as and when she fancies and still gets paid for it. But I did pay her for this entire week, as a goodwill gesture, even though I told her she doesn’t have to come anymore.

So, now, I am babysitter-less. Every afternoon, I play with Cayden. Its nice but a bit troublesome when I have to cook. He would not leave me alone. So, I turn on the telly for him to watch. Oh heck, something’s gotta give.