Home or Hell for Domestic Help?

It’s 12 AM and you’re in bed, hungry. Without thinking twice, you walk to their door and knock, and ask for a sandwich.

Being greeted with a muffled voice and a yawn did not bring your attention to the time or nature of your request.

Domestic helpers work around the clock, within the clock and cannot avoid the clock. Especially if they are live-ins, they are unfortunately always within your reach.

Whether you’re oh so hungry for that midnight snack, need a shirt ironed at 6 AM before work, or if you’re just too lazy to get yourself that glass of water from the kitchen, domestic help is on your speed dial.

In light of Labor Day at the beginning of this month, I felt it necessary to comment on the labor conditions of domestic help.

Being just one yell away, we exploit the unregulated services of our domestic helpers every day.

We forget that just like others, they are workers that deserve the respect other laborers get. Yet, we deny them working hours, adequate holidays, and may even underpay them. We forget that it is not normal for someone to literally and physically be at work from the moment they get up to the second they put their heavy heads on their pillows at night.

What’s worse is that we don’t seem to care.

We aren’t really bothered by their long working hours or irrational working conditions. “If they weren’t here, they’d probably be worse off doing God knows what somewhere else,” we tell ourselves.

Effort goes into justifying their inhumane treatment, simply to rid us of guilt. Deep down we know it was probably unnecessary to wake them up and ask for a cup of tea, but in reality we most often undermine the impact a
small action like waking them up has.

Imagine living at work. As bizarre as that sounds, that is literally the case for stay-in domestic help. They are always at work and hence always under your command.

In addition to that, the constant physical positioning at work surely creates cognitive dissonance in the minds of domestic helpers, as they are forced to reconcile what is supposed to their place of work and their home.

When you live and work in the same place, how easily can you feel at home if you know that at any second you may be called to complete a task?

How can you ever feel comfortable when even your own room, your safe space, can be intruded at anytime?

You don’t.

Domestic helpers live a life of discomfort with a lack of privacy or structure. We physically and mentally place them in uncomfortable situations and in addition to that, not only belittle their work, but also undermine the effort
they exert.

“They don’t do much anyway. Make a few beds here and there, cook and dust.” This is the common misconception and naïve take to the daily chores of domestic help. Such naivety is especially significant to address when domestic help takes on a more labor-intensive role, like heavy cleaning of terraces, maintaining the garden, washing cars, and being a part-time driver.

It is time for a societal epiphany where we realize that domestic help deserve the respect all laborers get. They deserve clear working hours with reasonable chores and adequate salaries.

Just because the domestic help business itself is largely informal, does not render the laboring helpers undeserving or unworthy of professionalism and at the least humanity.