All Things Are Not Maid In Heaven
Jun 5th, 2007 by Don Ray
I received the following email and thought it might be worth posting it and my reply.
Hi Don,
I’m unsure whether you can help with this kind of issue. If not, never mind. But as you were talking on your blog about Natalie, I’d like to give it a try. My wife and I made some experiences here in Panama City with maids, but it was less than perfect. It seems that many of them are so desperate and have so many baggage attached that they intent to solve all the problems via the ‘gringo’.
So my question is whether you or someone else know about a girl who wants to work as maid in Panama City to take care of a 3 BR apartment in a highrise. Someone smart with desire to study would be ok.
Maybe you can pass the word along. That would be very kind.
Here is my reply.
Hi Reader,
Finding a good maid is not the easiest thing to do. Natalie isn’t a maid, but a student I am working with to pass the TOEFL. My Maid is Edi but that really doesn’t matter and I will get back to your issue.
There is a lady in David (Tita 774-4598) that finds maids for people. She usually has several people that are looking for work. I know two families in Panama City that she has placed maids with.
I know it may sound strange to look in David for a maid in Panama City, but that is what they did. Both of these families needed a maid that would also be responsible for taking care of a young child or baby.
One on the families got a lady that is in her fortys and is really a hard worker. She cooks and takes care of the children. The family has others that come in periodically to clean the apartment (Large 3BR) and or iron.
The second family is a professional single mom that also needed a maid/nanny for her 2 BR apartment. She also found a person in late 30s early 40s and she is great also. I watched the process of hiring and it took three tries before she got a fit.
Incase you want to call the lady, that places young and middle aged women for work as maids, here is here name and number again (Tita 774-4598). As far as I know she only speaks Spanish. Obviously for a person from David to go to Panama City, she would be a live-in maid and require a servant’s quarters.
Every now and then on the Yahoo groups someone will post that they are returning to the US and have a good maid that needs work in Panama City.
I think all of the maids have some baggage. If their lives were perfect they would not be willing to work for $8-$10 a day or . However it is possible to find some good ones. Even with the best, it is not wise to leave too many temptations laying around.
Don’t know if that will help or not.
Regards,
Don Ray
While I didn’t mention it to the person that wrote, I recommend that you have a written understanding of what you are hiring the employee for and that social security is paid. Not a bad idea to have a contract drawn up by an attorney. Most will rather have the money and not have it go to social security, however if you ever have a problem and you have receipts for paying social security you are better off. It is customary to have a person on trial for some period of time. If they work out that is good, if they don’t it is better to sever the relationship as early as possible.
If you don’t have a written agreement and your maid decides to leave (either because you fired her or because she just doesn’t want to work) she may go to court and request damages. If you have a contract and records of payments, you are in a better situation. Believe me that the poorest educated maid will know how to work the system to her benefit.
With a maid don’t take anything for granted. If you use a vacuum cleaner, instructions are necessary. You will have to tell them that it is not like a mop and you can’t bang the head into the Wall as you do with a mop. You will have to instruct her that it needs to be emptied after each use.
If you have a stove with an oven, she will most likely never have used one. If you have Teflon covered pans she will use the Brillo scouring pad to clean them if you don’t tell her not to. Even if you tell her not to, she will probably use one if she can’t find the sponge.
I believe in treating a maid fairly and with respect. Still, she is the employee and you are the employee. Those boundaries are sometimes hard to keep. There are more sad stories in Panama than you want to know about. Many of them are true. Some are just better stories to get you to give them some extra money. I am not saying that all maids are dishonest. However some are worse than dishonest. Some will tell their boyfriends what you have in the house and when you are not going to be there.
Good maids are hard to find. When you find one, recognise the fact and feel greatful still respecting the boundary between employer and employee.
Good luck if you are also looking for some hired help in Panama.
As I am the person who originally asked the question, I’d like to tell about our experience so far. Tita found for us an 18 year old girl with good references. During the conversation with Tita we heard that it has been a bit difficult to place her with someone as some employers found her to be too beautiful and feared the husband will be interested in her. Go figure! All her references were good and she arrived last Saturday. We picked her up at the bus terminal, gave her a warm welcome and spent the Sunday cooking and talking to get to know her better.
Everything seemed to be quite perfect, but today she left saying that her mom were ill and she had to be with her. She has 8 siblings. We don’t believe that her mom is ill and Sra. Tita confirmed that this wasn’t the case. Instead it seems that it’s the boyfriend who wants her to come back. From what she told us the boyfriend is significantly older than her and works as a guard. According to what she told us she had the first boyfriend with 14 and was simply lucky to not get pregnant right away.
I don’t know how that works for Panamanians. But from what she told us about her past 3 employers working as maid has been a nightmare so far. She had to take of young children all on her own while her employer’s wife had her lover over. In another case the wife seemed to be an alcohol abuser. She was never treated well before and now that she is, she decides to leave and drive back to Chiriqui after just 3 days stay and only one day actually working.
It seems that these people are not used to being well treated. All that we hear is that Panamanians don’t treat them with any respect. They have them eat standing in the kitchen where the maid has to prepare a different and cheaper food than the family. They get to take care of children, being children themselves. And the list goes on. This has been our third attempt with a live-in maid. Before we tried about 4 cleaning ladies and it has been almost the same story each time.
Hi Stephan. Thanks for updating the picture of getting a maid. From what I have seen this is not an easy process. As I said, the second family that I knew that used Tita took three tries. Both of the families that I know wound up with ladies that were a little older. The biggest failures, I have seen, have been with the girls that are in their late teens or early twenties.
Some people think they can move to Panama and have a maid and live the easy life, but find that getting a good maid is a job in itself.
Seems that most of these girls are totally screwed up in their minds. I would love to understand it better from a psychological point of view. I do know and have seen it that usually their parents did not care about any education at all. But what astonishes me most is that they seem to prefer being treated badly or keep living in bad conditions instead of catching an opportunity.
I hear you. It is sort of amazing. Good luck on your search.
It sounds to us like you aren’t paying them enough dinero. Most people, regardless of their country, will not leave a well paying job. I don’t think $150-$200 is a well paying job anywhere in the world no matter how third world the country may be. Try paying $600 to $800 a month and see how fast they bail on you. I think you’ll be surprised at the loyalty they exhibit to their most geneous and kind employers.
I personally think the amount of money you are suggesting is insane for Panama. Anyone paying that much money is not doing anything beneficial for Panama.
$150 - $200 will find a lot of potential maids. Paying more only tells them that you want to be relieved of your money and it will not bring you any more loyalty or any better service. It might bring more thieves into your house.
If you want to do the correct thing, you will find what the appropriate salary is for maids in your area and you will pay close to that rate.
That’s my humble opinion.
“generous”
Dean, did you know that most office workers in Panama earn between $600 and $800 monthly? Construction jobs pay around $800, which is viewed as a very good salary. Skilled engineers with experience break into the $1500s. Outside tourist spots a cup of coffee goes for about $0.50 and $1.00 buys you most taxi rides within the city or 3 bottles of beer (again outside tourist spots or fancy restaurants).
Wow! 800 per month…I want to work on your house! And yeap… Don is totally and absolutly right, that won’t changed anything. They will probably just keep quiting on you every month to get the benefits and with that salary the percentage of money in benefits is BIG. That is what is happening to me. I paid 300 per month….tomorrow my maid (the one we treat as a queen) is coming with a letter from EL Ministerio de Trabajo….let’s see what happens…I am totally surprice about she quitting…I didn’t see this coming…by the way, Don any advice in maid that quit without telling you in advance??
- Peggy
Hi Peggy. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. I really don’t know what the law says about employees leaving without notice. Usually they are terminated for reason and that still causes problems because most people have not been following the law and paying social security and vacations as specified. If an employee takes a case to court the law gives them the benefit of the doubt and if an employer doesn’t have all records showing payment, then the judgement will go in the employee’s favor. At least that has been what I have heard from other people’s experiences.