How much time off do you give your maid over the weekend?

Mine also works 5 days a week, I don't understand how some expats make their maids work 6-7 days a week where as we would never accept those terms in our own job. The maid will be happy and you will have the house to your family. My husband works 6 days a week. actually you will find that a lot of expats do work on a saturday .. until 5.00pm !

Our maid leaves about 6pm on Thursdays and comes back midday on Saturdays unless she has a babysitting on either Thursday or Friday night.

Our maid lives out, she's of Thursday 4 pm until Sunday 7 am. If we have guests or a party I'll ask her to come in for a couple of hours and usually compensate that time during the week. LOL! your maid then have 3 days off and work 4 days :) thats so kind. lol! <em>edited by Gorobattie on 23/03/2014</em>

Our maid lives out, she's of Thursday 4 pm until Sunday 7 am. If we have guests or a party I'll ask her to come in for a couple of hours and usually compensate that time during the week.

My maid gets off from 5pm thursday - 5 pm Friday and if I am travelling, my maid stays at home to look after the house, do a deep cleaning and walk the dog.

Yes Ladies, I did exaggerate by saying it is a breeze, because it definitely isn't, otherwise, we wouldn't have 2 in our home. However, what I was trying to say is, we give a lot of attention to the conditions of housemaids here whereas the truth of the matter is that there are other profession who does similar sacrifices. Say, a secretary, who needs to be at work by 8 am will have to get ready from 6 am because she needs to line up with the use of toilet (2 common toilets in a 4 bedroom flat, 1 in masters bedroom which is paid for at higher rent), to catch the metro and the bus and walk a bit if need be, reach the office at 8, spends 10.6 hours in the office, leave the office at 7/7:30pm, takes the bus, metro and walk a bit. Reach home at 9/10pm, prepares her dinner, sleep. Sometimes they go out, most of the time they don't. 5 days a week. On their day off, they wash and iron their clothes, rest, go to the park or the mall, meet their friends. With their salary averaging AED 3 - 5K a month, if they are not careful, they end up in huge debt. Now take my 2 housemaids scenario. One starts at 6 am. My husband and I wakes up the same time. I prepare the children snacks and lunch box, my housemaid no. 1 gives them a bath and get them ready for the nursery, my husband drops them at the nursery. At 7:30am, the kids are out of the house. I eat my breakfast that I prepared myself, get ready and go to the office. At 1 pm, I collect the kids from the nursery, housemaid no. 2 starts at 11am, there will be 2 of them to take the kids from me when I drop them home. Kids go for a nap until 3 pm. By 7/8pm my husband and I will reach home. Housemaid no. 1 is resting already as she finishes at 6. My husband or I prepares quick dinner, eat, take over the kids after housemaid no. 2 ready them for bed time. I take one the 1 year old, my husband takes the 3 year old, read stories, then switch so we both spend quality time with them equally. My housemaid no. 2 is resting by then. In the middle of the night, if one of the kids wake up, I do wake up to tend for them. In general, I wake up once or twice a night. One thing's for sure, none of my housemaid will dare see me as doing less than them or would dare talk to me with disrespect. I need my 2 days off because that's the only time I could rest and spend quality family time without having to worry about the dishes or dirty clothes. They do have one day off every week but then they do rest more than me during weekdays. So when I said a breeze, I probably didn't exaggerate much if it is to compare to my schedule. edited by farthestpoint on 21/03/2014 edited by farthestpoint on 21/03/2014 <em>edited by farthestpoint on 21/03/2014</em>

Interesting extremes ....on the one hand people treat their maids with respect, appreciate what they do and give them a fair amount of time off ... and on the other .... :(

I am wondering if the maids who are bringing up the children from 6 or 7 a.m. until 7 or 8 p.m. would say their job is a breeze. I would say their job is a lot harder than office workers as they are being surrogate parents and as we all know, bringing up children is not an easy task taken lightly. Thought I would interject here on the maids behalf :).....2 days off a week or at least 1.5 i believe is fair.

Mine also works 5 days a week, I don't understand how some expats make their maids work 6-7 days a week where as we would never accept those terms in our own job. The maid will be happy and you will have the house to your family. Because my husband and I works full time and comes home at 7/8 pm daily as our jobs demands it Because we do have 2 toddlers (3 & 1) and I am currently 8 months pregnant (and yes I do come home that late even at 8 months heavy belly) Because other families' needs and situation are different than yours I would presume more than 60% of the workforce here gets only a day off. By UAE labour law, it's 48 hours a week excluding breaks which, if you would calculate at 5 working days, 2 days off, will give you 9.6 hours a day, say you're taking 1 hour break, that's 10.6 hours a day. Some companies give a day off, staff works less hours a day. That's office job I am talking about. Take the service / retail and it is 54 hours a week. That makes a housemaid job a breeze, with far better living conditions than those in the office who lives 20 people in a 4 bedroom flat at AED 600 a month because that's all they could afford. Saying this, we do have 2 housemaids at home. They both have their own independent room, 37 inch TV, internet connection and TFC subscription specially taken for them. No, they don't have 2 days off, and they know the bounderies which they won't dare cross, but that's all part of our deal. They are lovely and they do make our life much better. edited by farthestpoint on 21/03/2014 I happen to have 3 kids ranging from 2 to 7, so I can sympathize with having to cope with a lot. Long hours are also standard in Dubai. Situations are different in each family of course. I am sure you treat your maids well and I equally am sure they happily took on the job knowing their allocated time off, etc. Labour law doesn't fully apply to maids and legislation will give them 1 day off (whether or not that means they can leave the premises is subject to interpretation). http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/new-law-will-give-maids-more-rights-and-day-off Whatever the law permits or not shouldn't change what morally feels right to a person. Some people literally imprison their maids 7 days a week while others treat them how they would treat a maid in Western Europe, North America, etc. Its a profession, it shouldn't take up every minute of their waking life! When you move back to your home country some day (as shall we all) would you be able to have a maid 6-7 days a week? I'm sure if you are lucky enough to get help in your home country it will be for a set number of hours and days, the rest of the time, you'll have to cope just like everyone else. Saying a housemaids job is a breeze is the equivalent of saying a stay at home mom has it easy compared to a working spouse. Its a lot responsibility and a lot happens behind the scenes. The office workers that work 6 days a week that you compare them to have lives beyond just work, where as more then often maids that work the same number days often don't.

Mine also works 5 days a week, I don't understand how some expats make their maids work 6-7 days a week where as we would never accept those terms in our own job. The maid will be happy and you will have the house to your family. Because my husband and I works full time and comes home at 7/8 pm daily as our jobs demands it Because we do have 2 toddlers (3 & 1) and I am currently 8 months pregnant (and yes I do come home that late even at 8 months heavy belly) Because other families' needs and situation are different than yours I would presume more than 60% of the workforce here gets only a day off. By UAE labour law, it's 48 hours a week excluding breaks which, if you would calculate at 5 working days, 2 days off, will give you 9.6 hours a day, say you're taking 1 hour break, that's 10.6 hours a day. Some companies give a day off, staff works less hours a day. That's office job I am talking about. Take the service / retail and it is 54 hours a week. That makes a housemaid job a breeze, with far better living conditions than those in the office who lives 20 people in a 4 bedroom flat at AED 600 a month because that's all they could afford. Saying this, we do have 2 housemaids at home. They both have their own independent room, 37 inch TV, internet connection and TFC subscription specially taken for them. No, they don't have 2 days off, and they know the bounderies which they won't dare cross, but that's all part of our deal. They are lovely and they do make our life much better. <em>edited by farthestpoint on 21/03/2014</em>

Mine is off from 7pm Thursday till 7 am Sunday morning, unless we need babysitting.

Mine also works 5 days a week, I don't understand how some expats make their maids work 6-7 days a week where as we would never accept those terms in our own job. The maid will be happy and you will have the house to your family.

Friday and Saturdays, mine works just 5 days. Weekends I like just family in the house.