Saturday morning, there was a small and meek knock at the door. The perpetrators were three sheepish, Indian women huddled in a small group. I looked inquisitively at them and, for a moment, they similarly at me. Finally, the older woman said in a deep Indian accent, "clean" and pointed inside. I realized they were sent by the landlord as a response to my request to have my apartment cleaned. The trio entered the apartment, took a good look around and began to babble something in Hindu.
It being day 2 of captivity, we were tired, disoriented and pretty desperate to get the apartment cleaned, but I needed to size up the situation quickly as the group was already moving room to room and assessing what needed to be done. Each time they entered the room the two older women would become animated towards the younger. It became clear after room 2 that they were presenting the younger as the employee and themselves as the brokers. We had not even considered a full time servant at this point, but merely wanted the heaps of dust removed from the cabinets. Crap. Another freak'n thing I have to navigate RIGHT FREAK'N NOW.
I took stock of the situation knowing that if I sent them away, I may never get the the apartment cleaned and the thought of trying to do it ourselves was as unappetizing as ice cream with beef gravy. I regrouped and punted. I called my Director of Finance for translation and handed the phone to the ring leader.
Ten minutes later, the phone was handed back to me. The deal was the the younger girl (probably mid 20s), was looking for full time work. She would clean the flat over the next two day as a trial and we could consider her for full time employment after that. Sounded reasonable, so we nodded and off she went.
There was still a nagging feeling in my gut, though, of business unfinished with the cleaning thing. Ok, she would clean the apartment over the next two days, but for how much and how much did she want for full time employment? How much was even reasonable? I had not had time to do my homework and therefore had no bases for negotiation or even the means to communicate to her if I had. She spoke no English. I was operating way outside my comfort zone.
Luckily, the landlord stopped by about mid-afternoon and I was able to express my concerns. After giving me that "you Americans are so cute" look, she pulled the girl in and began asking her a series of questions. Where are you from? Where did you work previously? What can you do, ironing, cooking, errands? From what we could surmise, our new friend's name was Bubbly (like one who has bubbles) and she was indeed looking for full time work. She would clean, iron, wash dishes and do some minor cooking. OK. This all sounds reasonable. We settled on a monthly salary ($106.58) and she got back to cleaning.
On Saturday and Sunday, Bubbly did a thorough cleaning of flat. Bathrooms, closets, shelves and kitchen are now sparkling. Monday, though, we started to realize that there really is only so many times a floor can be washed in a day before you begin to get the law of diminishing returns. As well, since we have no kitchen items, eat out every night and have very little furniture, Bubbly has had very little substantial work to do outside of ironing (which is awesome) and cleaning the bathrooms. We are quickly finding that there is just not enough work for her. As well, the real time consuming tasks like shopping, meal planning, running errands and basic communication are not in her repertoire which poses a long-term problem. Considering this, I think we will keep Bubbly on for a while, but ultimately we will need to look for a more complete servant. I am sure, though, this will cost us. We may have to fork out $200 a month!
I took stock of the situation knowing that if I sent them away, I may never get the the apartment cleaned and the thought of trying to do it ourselves was as unappetizing as ice cream with beef gravy. I regrouped and punted. I called my Director of Finance for translation and handed the phone to the ring leader.
Ten minutes later, the phone was handed back to me. The deal was the the younger girl (probably mid 20s), was looking for full time work. She would clean the flat over the next two day as a trial and we could consider her for full time employment after that. Sounded reasonable, so we nodded and off she went.
There was still a nagging feeling in my gut, though, of business unfinished with the cleaning thing. Ok, she would clean the apartment over the next two days, but for how much and how much did she want for full time employment? How much was even reasonable? I had not had time to do my homework and therefore had no bases for negotiation or even the means to communicate to her if I had. She spoke no English. I was operating way outside my comfort zone.
Luckily, the landlord stopped by about mid-afternoon and I was able to express my concerns. After giving me that "you Americans are so cute" look, she pulled the girl in and began asking her a series of questions. Where are you from? Where did you work previously? What can you do, ironing, cooking, errands? From what we could surmise, our new friend's name was Bubbly (like one who has bubbles) and she was indeed looking for full time work. She would clean, iron, wash dishes and do some minor cooking. OK. This all sounds reasonable. We settled on a monthly salary ($106.58) and she got back to cleaning.
On Saturday and Sunday, Bubbly did a thorough cleaning of flat. Bathrooms, closets, shelves and kitchen are now sparkling. Monday, though, we started to realize that there really is only so many times a floor can be washed in a day before you begin to get the law of diminishing returns. As well, since we have no kitchen items, eat out every night and have very little furniture, Bubbly has had very little substantial work to do outside of ironing (which is awesome) and cleaning the bathrooms. We are quickly finding that there is just not enough work for her. As well, the real time consuming tasks like shopping, meal planning, running errands and basic communication are not in her repertoire which poses a long-term problem. Considering this, I think we will keep Bubbly on for a while, but ultimately we will need to look for a more complete servant. I am sure, though, this will cost us. We may have to fork out $200 a month!
Why would you not work to improve her future resume by having her learn to do these things - especially now when she is probably thinning out marble floors? Is there a hierarchy at work here where if one does not now shop for their bosses they can never shop for their bosses? Get back to me on that one.
ReplyDeleteAnd really.. am I to believe you had not researched this whole household help to any degree? Not only do I find that hard to wrap my brain around, I find it very uncharacteristic of you in that this is generally a strong suit. In fact, one might suggest you are usually quite... umm.. obsessive (understatement) about knowing the local way of life. I'm either disappointed or slightly giddy. Jury is still out. :)
No speaky english = no long term commitment. There are no international hand signals to effectively communicate "hey go fetch me some tampons" so that Olga can get what she needs.
ReplyDeleteErrand running, the ability to negotiate simple bartering (between understanding you and Olga and various shop keepers), and cooking are MUSTS. I agree with your assessment. Talk to the folks you told me about when you were visiting. Somebody knows someone somewhere that will be perfect for you.