Irfa Yuhanis Norman (S10037052)

TRUST AND COMMUNICATION - The Key to Having a Succesful Employer-Employee Relationship



Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AozDFn1vHmI

Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) play significant roles in today’s society.1 in every 6 households in Singapore employs an FDW. With the tasks of cleaning and caring for their employers’ families, providing revenue for their separate governments, and ultimately earning money for their own families back home, these FDWs hold large responsibilities.

I feel that we as employers have to provide them with proper shelters and good living conditions. This is our legal responsibility. Not the government’s, not the FDWs. If the employers carry out this responsibility to its fullest, a stable relationship can be formed between both employer and employee.

Trust and communication is the key factor in having a firm and well-balanced relationship between an employer and his or her FDW.

Ms Faridah Jamal, a 46-year-old single-parent of three has had 5 FDWs work under her successfully since the birth of her first child. The longest contract signed with one of those FDWs was 6 years. She has never faced problems in ensuring that her FDWs obeyed and respected her.

She shares her secrets, “First stage in selecting a maid is I feel the most important. Study their portfolio very carefully, in detail, like, where they come from. Their physic is also important. For example, you don’t want to look up to a taller maid. It’s important that they look up at you. I will never choose maids who are bigger or taller than me.”

She further elaborates that taking note of their marital status is also an important factor, stating that “If they are married, I would prefer that they do not have children.”

The individual personality type of each FDW she hires influences her decision greatly. “I will look for points to show whether they are an independent or a dependent personality. I will always go for, of course, independent personality.”

The portfolio of an FDW should be taken seriously before any legal employment takes place. It is the pre-process that matters most. Once the FDW is hired, it is absolutely necessary to set proper ground rules and most importantly, have the understanding that communication between both parties have to be of the same level. Talking down and instilling fear on the FDW during her first few days will tend to send her in a downward spiral emotionally and psychologically, and therefore affecting her work.

Ms Faridah says, “It’s very important that you lay the grounds, as to how you would want them to work, where to focus their work on. Example, building trust is very important. I always tell my maid on the first day that they arrive here, that I have to trust them and they have to trust me. Because if there is no trust, we cannot live under one roof.”

A good working relationship starts with communication. Employers and employees have to have a compatible platform to work with. The FDW has the responsibility to enquire if or when she is in doubt. While we, as the employers, have to address the communication gap if need be and therefore create a bridge to meet the understanding of the FDWs. We have to realise that these FDWs have to face a totally different culture from what they were used to back home. Therefore for trust to form, there must be a mutual agreement to “work together” not necessarily “work for”.

However there has been a substantial media attention on problems employers face with FDWs in recent months. This, Ms Faridah states is possibly due to extreme high expectations set by the employers.

“Many a case I feel that maids run away because they cannot meet up to the expectations that their employers have of them and they cannot voice it out. So, they run away from it.”

Employers too have to start off with a logical mindset that they cannot expect everything to go smoothly once the FDWs step into their households. Initial friction is inevitable. These FDWs are not robots with a built-in chip in their brain.

“We must always understand that these maids, they are also human beings. They are not perfect. They have their weaknesses; they have their strengths. Do not have too high an expectation on them, that’s number one. And also do not stress yourself to expect highly of them. I feel that basic human respect is important. I always tell my maid that I would want them to be more as friends. But at the same time, they shouldn’t lose the sense of respect for you too.”

All in all, cases of abusive employers or “runaway maids”, I feel can be avoided, if both parties are willing to work hand in hand. Trust and communication has to successfully built from the beginning. This has to be the role of both employers and employee – like in any other working relationships.

DONE BY: Irfa Yuhanis Norman (S10037052)