On previous visits to India, I'd noticed that the domestic help made demands/comments that would have merited instant firing in earlier days, but I didn't pay much attention because I was on short visits, and with the mindset of an expatriate, I was willing to let it go because it was a short-term issue. This time, being here for a longer duration, I must endure and alter, if I can!
The first thing I observe is the demands for raises, sometimes within a month of the original hire. This is made for various reasons: "The house is much bigger than I thought", "Auto fares have gone up", "My husband lost his job", "I have to move out of my mother-in-law's house", "My rent has gone up", "Food prices are soaring", and so on. All perfectly valid reasons to ask for a raise, except for the last one, which came from a young man who ate all his meals here and therefore was not in the least impacted by the soaring price of food or, for that matter, rents or auto fares. What sours me on these demands are two things: One, a month is not a sufficient period to warrant demanding a raise, unless you were hired conditionally. And two, demanding a 20% year on year raise is, to my mind, unreasonable- especially when I've myself rarely seen over a 5% raise. I'm paying a part-time maid twice what I recall paying a full time cook 5 years ago. And they all eat here(very well, I might add), so that's a bonus for them.
Then there are the "food requirements":
Nescafe or Sunrise only, please, none of that nasty Coorg coffee that you drink.
Coffee/tea on demand all day long, with at least 50% milk and as much sugar as I want. (There seems to be a virtual epidemic of hypertension and hyperglycemia among young domestic workers.)
Liquid soap to wash hands[which I don't mind if they wash their hands appropriately without using up the whole darn bottle in two days]; regular soap dries my skin.
Whole-wheat bread is not kosher, we prefer a whole loaf each of sweet white bread, preferably from Koshy's.
If dosas are for breakfast, then it should be 4-6 masala dosas each, or 6-8 plain dosas(" I don't know how you live on 1 masala dosa or 4 slices of toast, but I can't").
Toasted bread(and even French toast) must be accompanied by dollops of Amul butter and Kissan mixed fruit jam.
Meat in some form should be on the menu every day for lunch and dinner.
Fish that costs less than INR300 a kilo is too cheap to be worthy of eating, we're not dogs.
Rice three days in a row is unacceptable, and must be substituted by chappatis or parathas.
Nothing left over from yesterday, not even the sambhar or vegetables, and especially not yesterday's rice, we're not dogs.
No "dry" rotis or bland curries, we're not dogs.
What's this "macaroni"? Give us rotis instead, we're not dogs.
Eggs at lunch or dinner must be supplemental to the regular meat dish, not a substitute. We're not dogs.
And requirements from the live-ins: Gillette Sensor razors, Dove soap, moisturizing cream, hair conditioners and tonics, real fruit juice(they love apple juice), cookies(Dark Fantasy seems to be a favorite), etc.
Okay, so those were demands from different people, but it's amazing how quickly bad habits can be transmitted. It seems like the "old" workers instruct the newer ones on what to demand and how to get away with doing the least. There was a muted hint at wanting bottled water like I drink, but I nixed that on the theory that drinking the boiled Aquaguard-treated water seems to have worked fine for them until I showed up. [Note: I have now myself transitioned to the Aquaguard water, without boiling(one must be conservative with gas use now, with the 6 cylinder limitation), with no apparent ill-effects.]
Now onto work habits. Again, the best way I can present this is to just pass on their comments:
If you want me to vacuum, I can't clean the toilets.
I'm the cook, I don't cut vegetables and I don't do dishes.
I cut the vegetables and do the dishes. I don't make coffee.
I wash clothes and mop the floors. I don't make coffee.
If you want me to water the plants, pay me another 5,000(and I still don't make coffee).
I'm leaving early today(and I don't need to ask you, I'm telling you).
I'll clean the upstairs tomorrow, I vacuumed downstairs today.
I don't do ironing(there's an ironing lady down the street if you need it). And I don't make coffee.
Somehow, the idea that you are hired to work for an x number of hours does not seem to have entered the consciousness of the domestic worker. Right now, I'm down to a live-in housekeeper(en famille, and said famille enthusiastically reprises the role of food critic) and a part-time maid. The maid was hired to work from 9 AM to 2 PM. but she's whittled that down to roughly three and a half hours now, occasionally throwing in a bonus hour, and manages to eat breakfast and lunch in that time. She also shows up anytime between 8 AM and 10 AM, depending on her mood, or perhaps some other job. The housekeeper does her job, which consists mainly of looking after her own family, but will make it seem like she's putting in enormous effort solely on my behalf.
For now, it works. Even if I'm the only one drinking pure Coorg coffee.
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