MDS

MDS- Maid Dependency Syndrome.

If there were such a condition, I'd be the first to be diagnosed with it.

I cannot run my house-hold without a maid. The dust and all sorts of debris are accumulating as I speak. There is a big pile of unfolded clean laundry in the backroom, not to mention another pile that needs ironing. Actually I can make do with that by sending some to the laundry-mat. For RM1.20 a piece, they'll do a great job making my husband's shirt all pressed up nicely.

There is also a big bag full of unsorted stuff from Alor Setar that Papa brought back over the weekend, stuff that he got from Pekan Rabu, which my kids adore like emping, putu beras, kuih bangkit, serunding and salted fish. Those are stocks for Ramadhan.

The kitchen floor has not been mopped properly for the past 5 days. I only sweep the floor at about 11:30pm every night after I'm done cleaning the dishes (which are still not placed at their proper racks) and after tucking away the dirty laundry in the washing machine, leaving it for the night so it'll be ready for hanging in the morning.

I only manage the necessary stuff, like food, Aisha, dishes, Aisha's bottles, dirty laundry, basic sweeping and school uniforms ironing. Papa manages the pets, garbage, sending kids to school and groceries. Last night, Amir was practically screaming to do his homework with me. He waited and waited till I'm done with the kitchen and laundry. I succumbed to his demands by asking him to do his homework in front of me while I was ironing the school uniforms. There is a big lump in my throat, and my heart practically sunk at my inability to provide for my children properly at this time.

All these while, all the house chores are being done by the maid. So I don't have problems meeting the kids' demands and whims. Now, I have to juggle work and chores. I have so much on my mind that sometimes I did ridiculous things like placing Aisha's bottles in the fridge and putting Aisha's formula in Amir's bottle instead. The hands and the mind are not synchronized sometimes, to the extend that the other day I took the normal route to office when I was supposed to go to a client site. I guess this would be the major signs of MDS.

And what am I doing rambling away like this?

Hyperventilating

My current maid is booked to go home this Thursday, and I heard all sort of problems with my selected replacement maid. I need a paper bag...

What happened? You see, Mama & Papa already selected the candidate. A widow with 2 grown-up kids, husband passed away. Never worked in Malaysia before. Based on her "water-face", we think she's sincere and hard-working. Mind you, THAT has always been the guidance for us to select the pass 3 candidates. It's always based on the photo that was given in the personal data info. What other means can you assess the person you hope you could entrust your kids with? Doa and lots of doa...

This is a typical career-woman issue. Replacement maid, run-away maid, horrible maid, stealing maid... you name it. I'm sure many could share with me of their maid-from-hell stories and untrstworthy agents. My neighbor had her fair share of maid troubles, from stealing and bleeding (this is gross actually, I might write on this in another post). So does my cousin, who recently thinks she got conned by the agent. The maid she was waiting for at Port Klang didn't turn up, while the agent said she already boarded the ferry. And the list goes on..

So much of maid issues that everytime working-mothers get together, there will be endless narration of all sorts. I'm sure everyone would like to share their agony and grouses. For me, alhamdulillah I have not encountered any horror stories yet. I decided to set a very low expectation on the maid's scope and quality of work. To me, as long as she could prioritize my kids well being, I'm already thankful.

So, at every contract renewal, both Papa and me are starting to be jittery. We have experienced problems getting the maid in, especially with passports and tickets. This time around, the candidate that we selected had actually lied to the agent. She was supposed to get a new passport, and it turned out that her thumbprint is already in the system. She had worked here before, under a different name. We got so upset, but we can't prolong our disatisfaction as we need to work fast getting a new one. Now we are faced with a pool of candidates that are neither Muslim nor young. Sigh!

I'm chasing the agent like mad today, up till the point that he's not taking my calls anymore. Nevertheless, I sent him multiple smses and e-mails to remind him that I desperately need a new candidate!

Now, where's that paper bag?

Ownership or Politics?

I'm currently monitoring a project that I closed last year in a GLC. It's a human resource project and when we first start, the project owner, one of the senior managers in HR was so full of excitement envisioning the completion of the project and what good it would do to the company.

So, we are almost near to the go-live date of the project, when a new HR director joined the company. Prior to this, there was no director, so I guess the project owner was sort of happy handling his baby. As typical as it is, new boss means new structure. So, this project owner's portfolio has somehow been reduced and re-assigned to other people, not to mention the new group of people this director is bringing in to the company. So our friend somehow just dropped all interest in the project, as is he's washing his hands off the project. Now my team is feeling that we are doing this project "syok sendiri" and they have become demotivated.

Never in our past projects we experienced such lack of ownership from the customer. I just don't understand the mentality of the people in this GLC. There are just too much politics going round, and people seem to be so superficial here. No one dares to be bold enough to stand out and bring changes to this GLC. And we are talking of a GLC that used to be the pride of the nation, coming up with Malaysian made product, roaming the streets in UK, Singapore, Australia, Egypt and many other nations. When the company is reviving now, the employees should realize that they can no longer be in their comfort zone. Things need to move to ensure change. And what my team & I are doing is only partial contribution to enable effective monitoring and strategizing of the human capital in this GLC. What we expect is for the people in this company to work together and make it happen.

It seems that the only person who's really interested is the MD. But he's been shed off a lot if information. So how do we get moving here?

How Much?

Amir sayang his baby sister so much, to the extent that when I asked him can I give away Aisha, he would fiercely say NO!

So I tested him. "Amir, you said you want a baby brother, not baby sister. So Mama can give Aisha to Aci next door ok?

NO! NO! NO! TAK BOLEH!

Kalau Mama jual Aisha, can? How much?

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND JUTA POINT THIRTEEN FIFTEEN!!

Abang? You want to sell Aisha or not?

NO! Abang sayang Aisha!

This one I have no problem testing his love. From day one, he wanted to hold the sister.

As for Aina, she's too clumsy to hold Aisha and strike a pose...