August 15, 2022
In the US there are no in-house labandera. Only washer and drier who are always there 24/7 and who don’t complain of anything, they just keep on spinning.
The only thing that I don’t like in this department is folding and placing the clothes inside the closets. But the physical tiredness is nothing compared to the stress that actual laundry woman gives us.
Isang utos isang gawa, glued to her two cellphones all day. Doesn’t organize our clothes, takes two weeks before she finishes a load.
Nung isang beses nag day off, came back after 4 days. Every single moment we were wondering what happened to her. Baka nasagasaan, baka hindi na babalik, baka, baka, puro baka. Then after two days the security guard called, the husband daw was at the gate. Of course we didn’t speak to him nor let him in. Hindi naman namin sya kakilala. He was apparently fuming mad because he was looking for his wife, our labandera.
Yesterday, she asked for permission to go out for a short while, like an hour. I agreed and issued a gate pass.
She didn’t come back till after 6 pm although I didn’t believe that she arrived at 6 pm.
This morning I scolded her and instructed her to gather her belongings and leave. Ayaw ko style nya.
She was crying, I felt awa, but abusado kasi. She is a bad example to the other maids.
As much as possible we exercise maximum tolerance but sometimes we’re thinking, bakit lagi na lang tayo ang nagpapasensya sa kanila? We rarely let go of maids. We just make pasensya and treat the expenses as part of charity work.
I think it’s more practical to have a smaller house. You will need lesser helpers to clean, maintain, etc. You don’t worry much about their food, baka nagco-complain hindi masarap ang ulam, kulang, walang kape, meryenda, detergent, sira ang cable, etc.
