Thursday, July 21, 2011

What do they want?

I've been on an interviewing spree..I do take interviews at the organization that I'm employed with, but this particular vacancy has become a little too difficult to fill in..In this case, I'm in fact releasing "offer letters"  almost to 90% of the candidates that had applied and interviewed, but the probable employees are rejecting the offers..Is it inflation or too many opportunities in the job market available or they would consider and take a decision after scouting the market for some time or just on a whim,they want to figure out what is their employ ability??I surely don't know..I wish I knew so that I could change my style of recruitment process..Instead of prolonging further, let me tell what position this vacancy is for. Its for a house-help position, which is getting increasingly difficult to close the opening day after day.. The offer that we make is well above the market price and in fact, we have given 15% hike twice in the last 2 months.., and our house is spic clean most of the time, the utensils that we use can be counted, and as such its an easy job at our place compared to many other similar job openings..

It all started when on a fine Sunday morning when we had invited guests to our place for lunch . MIL called up the maid to ask her to come for work a little early as we were just back from a 3 day trip to my parents' place and thats when she(we) got to know that the maid has also gone to her native . We have no issues , rather who are we to even have an opinion about her going to her native or elsewhere..All we asked her to do was to inform us that she would be on leave on so and so days , so that we can plan accordingly and need not wait till late evening and roll our sleeves to clear out the pile of work..In fact, before we left for our trip, she could have let us know that she would be on leave..Probably something could have come up urgently that she had to travel, fine, she could have atleast given us a call. anyways, MIL got a little upset and raised her voice and asked her why she hadnt informed her..Thats was it! I kept calling her time and again to check when she would return, but with different responses every time: either switched off, not reachable, or her daughter would pick up and say her mom was not available, and at one point , she refused to pick up if I called from my mobile..So I had to call up from office land line . Finally, she was in possession of some utensil of my SIL, she I'd asked her to return it back. Maid comes after about 15 days and says she would go to her native and be back..I call her back again to ask when she would be back , there comes a reply from her daughter that he mom wouldnt come..

-- Is this what we get in return for treating a maid like one member of our house?
--The number of sarees, shirts , trousers, salwar sets, pay hikes whenever she has asked for, bonuses on every occasion...all these  has no counts and if the maid has decided to quit her job, wouldnt she tell it out..Does it require repeated (almost 50 times) calls from my end to figure out what she is thinking in her mind?
--I don't want to mention any of the above here, but what really is bothering me is that we have in fact clearly mentioned to her why mil raised her voice that day, and this is no reason at all for her to behave this way. In spite of it, what made her to quit all of a sudden? For all these years of acquaintance, is this what we receive in the end? 
--In fact, we did not even tell her when my gold earrings(2 pairs) got lost, when we knew for sure that it was her daughter who had flicked it. The maid was loyal to us , hence we decided that it was my fault for having kept the rings outside , and that I should have been more careful. And we thought it was not right to hurt the maid when the fault was on her daughter..

Now, we appointed another maid, for more salary and half the work of what the previous maid did.This lady was regular most of the time for one month, after which she started showing her true color..she didnt turn up for days together, this was AWOL, on calling up, he husband started telling many twisted stories and finally thru the tailor (who had sent her) , I get the message that mil was giving her more work off-late and thats the reason she is not turning up..

I really dont know what to say..I got enraged on hearing this..She came only for 4 weeks, out of which for 10 days, only mil was at home, while M and I were travelling, and as I mentioned earlier, we (esp, mil) uses very limited utensils even for an elaborate meal..This lady was also given enough food, prompt salary, was never questioned when she would turn up at 3pm on some days when her ususal time was 10 am.

I'm sure that are many house-helps who are very loyal, (our previous maid was ) and have a sense of gratitude for what they receive from their employers. But, why are many people not? Whats wrong with this class of people who simply don't recognize how well they are being treated? probably, stricter and a thrifty behavior from the employers side is what they are expecting? Do these people expect that we dont ask them why they went missing without informing us? Do these people expect that we dont ask them to any work , but pay them every month? What are their expectations? While I may not be in a position to fulfill their requirements, I would like to understand them..

We have finally appointed a maid just before I started typing this. Here's to a good relationship.












No comments:

Post a Comment