Hiring services of a maid to help you and your family live a comfortable life by doing household chores and other related tasks may be easy if you think of it at first since all you have to do is to call agencies that renders maid services. But as some crimes, bizarre acts, abuse are being connected to maids and the people they meet outside when they are on their mandatory day offs are increasing, families cannot help but get bothered on what can their maids do when when they are on their off. Some employers are also becoming paranoid about who are their maids are interacting with during those days.
One employer named Shoba Devi expressed her suspicions regarding her Filipino maid's whereabouts, due to this, she hired a private investigator to follow her maid and find out what she did on her off days.
The Filipino maid was in her 20s and married but that did not ease the suspicions from her foreign employer. The investigator found out that the family maid had a Bangladeshi boyfriend and the couple shops, eats and checks into a budget hotel during her off days,
Ms Devi got concerned on what their maid might bring that someone into the family home without their consent. This suspicion grew bigger as Ms. Devi notices that their maid had recently started to talk on the phone late into the night.
In this case, it is safe to say that the maid was not bringing her Bangladeshi boyfriend back to the family home. But the report stirred some controversy and sparked debates about whether employers should be investigating their maids on their off days. Some aired their concerns that the employers who hires private investigators to follow their maids during off days may be invading the maid's privacy. They expressed that any maid can do what she wants during her off days, They can have boyfriends or even go to hotels with them as long as it does not affect her job. The debate also pointed out that maids are also human beings and has the right to live their lives without scrutiny from their employers during their off days.
However, others were also able to point out that this is a policy issue as it is the employers' responsibility if the maid gets into any trouble or falls pregnant. Since, the responsibility will be on the employer's shoulders if their maids get pregnant or got into trouble. This argument made other people agree to the employers' choices of following their maids during off days.
"It is every employer's nightmare that some unknown man could intrude into their house. You don't know what these intruders could do, like turn violent or steal things." - MR DAVID NG, director of DP Quest Investigation Consultancy
Up to now, debates regarding this actions made by employers is whether right or wrong still grows larger and maids may feel that their actions are being watched even if it is on her off days.