When you hire a full-time housemaid, you expect them to do what you ask. They are there to make your life easier and when they aren’t living up to your expectations, it can make it an uncomfortable situation for everyone involved. It’s not uncommon for only about 70% of instructions to be followed and the rest to be ignored. Here are some tips that employers can utilize to address this problem.
1. Put Your Expectations For Your Housemaid In Writing
Your full-time housemaid might not be clear about your expectations. This is why you need to put them in writing. Go into great detail about what their responsibilities are. Go over this list with them and ask them if they are unclear about what they are expected to do. Don’t forget to let them know when you want these tasks to be accomplished by. It also may be helpful to create a daily checklist for them to utilize.
2. Allow To Be Honest About Why They Aren’t Doing What You Ask Of Them
There may be a legitimate reason as to why your full-time housemaid isn’t doing what you ask of them. Create an open dialogue with them to where they will feel comfortable talking to you about why they aren’t doing what they are supposed to. You just might be surprised to find out what the reasoning is and it may be an easy fix. For example, they may not be cleaning your house as well as they should because they don’t have the right cleaning supplies and they are too afraid to ask you for them. Just make sure that you don’t reprimand them when they offer you an explanation. If you do, then they may not be comfortable coming to you in the future to address a problem that they are having.
3. Discuss Priorities With Your Housemaid
Your full-time housemaid may not be able to accomplish everything that you want them to in one day because of other things that you need them to do at a moment’s notice. Some things can come up at the last moment and you may need them to focus on these things. Because of this, it’s important that you discuss priorities with them. Let them know about specific tasks that they need to accomplish even if they only have a limited amount of time. You might not mind if they don’t get the laundry done because they are helping out at a last minute dinner party or if they aren’t able to make the beds because they had to pick up the kids from school for you because you got held up in a meeting at work. Your full-time housemaid needs to know what’s okay for them to put off until the following day if these last minute things do come up. If they have a limited amount of time, your better off if they complete 1 or 2 task very well versus 3 or 4 of them that are done in a subpar manner.
4. Give Specific Examples to Your Housemaid
Your full-time housemaid may think that they are doing a good job and not realize that they aren’t living up to your expectations. This is why you need to give them specific examples of what they are doing wrong. For example, if something isn’t cleaned thoroughly, you need to show them. If you want a specific room tidied up a certain way, you may need to do it so that they can see how you think it should be done. By being clear and giving specific examples, you can ensure that they do things the way that you want them to. There won’t be any confusion as to what needs to be done.
5. Talk About Hiring Additional Help
Your full-time housemaid may not be completing everything that you want them to because they simply just can’t do it all. In some instances, this may be because they aren’t cut out for this type of job and you need to let them go and hire someone else. However, this may not be the reason at all. It may be because you are expecting too much out of them. If you feel like your full-time housemaid does an overall good job and you don’t want to fire them, ask them if they are feeling overwhelmed by all that they have to do. Find out what they feel as if they are struggling to do and ask them if they think that you need to hire additional help. This may be the best case scenario for everyone involved. Your full-time housemaid will end up having enough time to complete the most important tasks and you can hire someone else to get the tasks accomplished that haven’t been getting done.
In conclusion, you can get your full-time housemaid to follow all of your instructions and do everything that they are supposed to. By utilizing the above tips, you can talk to your full-time housemaid in a non-confrontational way and get to the bottom as to why they aren’t doing what you have asked them too. Just keep in mind that it probably isn’t because they are lazy. They may be feeling overwhelmed or unsure as to what exactly you are expecting them to do. You may just need to set clearer expectations or, in some instances, hire additional help.