Foreign maids

Blame it on the labor law in Hong Kong again, since most employers have some reasons to believe they are not falling between the limitations of the guidelines and most employees believe their employers are right. These group of devoted employees become the 24x7 pillars of the society.

Someone needs to stay at home and dust the house, take the dog for a walk, or bring the kids to school while both parent are busy at work or getting on with their lives. Foreign maids are the solution.

Foreign maids are one of the most important imports of Hong Kong from the nearby countries. Filipino maids, Indonesia maids, mainland China maids, ... for US$400 per month, you get almost unlimited supply of domestic help, right from your own kitchen. It's cheap, it's pretty, it's handy!

Geographically shifting the strategy and hire a maid to be your domestic help and look after the kids is not an ideal solution on this side of the world. Maids are not too popular in N. America because if you hire a maid, you automatically become an employer of one employee. And being an employer, you are subjected to all the labor laws and regulations.

The maid in your house should essentially be treated as another worker in a 300-man factory. There are 2 15-minute breaks for every 8-hour shift. One 45 minutes unpaid lunch break and overtime pay if the maid works more than 40 hours per week. If the regulated minimum wage in your state is $8, you need to pay over $1350 for a maid each month. Not including insurance and worker's compensation and all the other good stuff.

Even if I am a regular office worker working a 40 hour week, I still need some traveling time. If the maid starts to work from the time I step out of the door, and ends by the time I get home, I still have to pay the maid overtime for all the hours I spend on the highway. Not to imagine what kind of arrangement has to be made for the 1.5 hours of recesses during the day. (Put the baby in the freezer?)

HKers are better-off in this game so far. Most people can afford to stay out longer when they have hired a maid to look after the house and things attach to it. Maids are more flexible and work 12-hour shift (some longer) without any complaint like the rest of the local HK workforce. While in here you have 3 choices, grease your maid with all the overtime, hire additional help, or pick up the chores yourself.

Readiness

Sometimes you just have to wait it out.

It's amazing how things happen. You are drifting in the middle of the sea. You were told that you will meet the shore following the current after 3 and a half days. You are wet, cold, tired, hunger, and suffering from sickness from floating in the water for too longer. You see nothing on your route just the sky, the sun, the cloud, occasional rain, some floaters in the near distance, etc... You start kicking a bit after 2 days of patience.

Still nothing happens.

Time seems to pass slower by the minute. "I'd rather be in xxx than here. Will I ever make it? Am I still drifting in the right direction? Is there really a shore on the other side? Has time stopped? Is it the end of all?"

You wait and wait. You cry, you scream, you yell, and the situation does not change. You lose your voice, you become desperate and begin to weep soundlessly. You lose your consciousness. Your are surrounded by blackness.

You then wake up, lying on the beach. Extremely tired but feeling the warmth of the sun. The sunshine is too bright to even open your eyes to take a peek. You don't know how much time has passed, but you know you are out of the water.

A home in HK

Since the labor law in Hong Kong is not written in stones, and there is not much union interventions, Hong Kong creates groups of devoted employees who work hard. Home is not the usual place you can get hold of someone. Cell phones are the absolutely essential because that's the only way you can reach someone.

People don't eat at home, they start early at work and stay late. It's too much work to cook , not to mention wash the dishes after. Dining out is an everyday routine. People don't sleep at home. Working overtime overnight is not common. When one can get off earlier, why not get together with some friends and enjoy a wild night?

People used to have some sort of an entertainment unit sitting at home. These days, with the advancement of technology, even entertainment is mobile. With a 80GB iPod, one can carry most if not the entire of one's music collection in your pocket. All other portable devices allow you to watch a video/ movie not at the theater and not even need to be at home.

What I know is people do need to go home take a bath, get change before going back to work. Guess the only thing in a house is a bathroom and a storage for work clothes. The rest are just decorations, part of the house to show, part of the demonstration of a lifestyle.

Somehow, in most cases, it's inhuman to leave the home all empty, all alone all the time. So "fillers" are invented. Fillers like pets are popular, so do home-staying maids, and babies are good props to keep the house warm.