01.17.07
How to Have the Best Maid
Should I adopt one of her kids or sign over my paycheck?
Your goal is to get your house clean, without having everything in it thrown out or hidden, preferably at an affordable cost.
You’re going to give very precise, written instructions that can be translated by her friend and be checked by the two of you together, for every room in your home. You are only going to obsess about one or two rooms a visit. (If you have a small apartment, it will only be about one or two chores a visit.)
You’re going to make choices about where you really want your maid to spend her time. Were you asking her to do the laundry just to ensure that she stayed a minimum number of hours or do you really hate laundry? Maybe it’s just the folding you hate.
You’re going to do your best to make your maid worth twice as much an hour. With luck, you’ll be able to convince your friends that your maid is worth more so that your maid gets rid of 2 clients for every new client she takes on.
This last point is a stretch. She might be tempted to dump the person she likes the least, but to give up two people and only get one is scary. It makes her more vulnerable to terminations and she may feel its more important to bring more money home than to spend more time with her kids – even if one of her employers is only paying half as much as everyone else.
