Reasons Why Singaporean Are Moving To Part Time Maid Service
The choice of perusing the services of either part time maids or full time maids has always been an economic problem at its core. The very fact that someone chooses to hire a maid means that he or she perceives the benefits of hiring a maid, which is mainly the freed up time to pursue other activities instead of spending the time cleaning the house outweighs the cost of hiring the maid, which is the economic cost of the maid. Following from this cost versus benefit analysis, there seems to be a slight bias towards part time maids over full time maids.
The first and most obvious reason is that the economic cost of hiring a part time maid is lower than a full time maid. The most explicit cost is the monetary cost of the maid, the wage, accommodation and food. Evidently, if the maid works part time you only pay her per hourly rate or a fixed amount. However if the maid is full time, you have to pay her more, as she is available round the clock, you have to feed her and have a room for her to stay in your house as well. All these are extra costs incurred. Next, is the more subtle cost, which is the higher propensity for the full time maid to have misconducts or breach of contract.
Generally speaking, based on history, a full time maid has a higher probability of stealing possessions from the employers’ house and running away. Also, they may have higher probability of getting impregnated and forced to be deported back to their home country and discontinue their work. Of course, these are just generalizations but there seems to be a higher number of these cases occurring with full time maids rather than part time maids. Also, greater costs may be incurred in installing CCTVs to monitor the house in the event that the employer does not trust the full time maid.
The next reason is that part time maids are more efficient compared to their full time counterparts. Broadly speaking, most part time maids are experienced full time maids who have been cleaning the houses for years and know what way to best clean the house. Furthermore, owing to the nature of their work, a fixed amount of time spent cleaning the house, they are to fully maximize the time spent in order to clean the house thoroughly to the employer’s standard, whereas the full time maids have the leisure of more time to do so, which may lead to complacency and inefficiency.
Thirdly, due to the changing societal and family structures, most families do not maximize their spending in a full time maid. Young families now do not have too many children to look after and their main concern is the cleanliness of the house. Furthermore, most young people are putting off marriage and children which results in a decline in the need for a full time maid.
In conclusion, there seems to be more advantages to hiring a part time maid. However, the choice should ultimately be made to be customized and suit the employers’ needs.