Well quite unsuprisingly given Singapore's maid culture it just so happens that there is plenty of fodder floating around on this subject out in the virtual world.
Now these are just a selection of real life examples as either cited by the various maid agencies in Singapore or reported on STOMP's netcitizen reportage channel Singapore Seen. So just which of these do you think goes beyond the call of duty?
- A male employer in his 60s who showered without closing the bathroom door and repeatedly asked the maid to bring him a towel
- A professional couple who told their maid to massage them for every night for 20 minutes because they had "migraines"
- An employer who would strip naked and follow his maid around the house
- A guy who seemed to be unable to tie his own shoelaces as a grown adult and instead gets his maid to do it - in public
Faced with the prospect of being sent back to the Philippines or other home nation, it appears that some maids simply just oblige until they reach the tipping point.
And it's sad that some people take advantage of what many people in this world would view as an extreme privilege by treating their maids less like maids and more like slaves.
Of course there's always another side to the coin, but that's for another post another time.
But in the meantime, it's not all bad news so let's end on a positive note. There was one maid who was left a 4.5 million dollar fortune (including cash and a luxury apartment near Orchard Road) after more than 20 years of service. The luckiest maid in Singapore? I'd reckon so.
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