Term 3 Week 1 (Blogging Assignment)

Singapore prohibits employers who do not give their maids rest days, and these irresponsible employers would face legal consequences if they do not abide to this law. However, veteran labour leader Halimah Yacob recently called for the legislation of weekly days off for maids working in Singapore, which sparked off many disputes and controversial opinions voiced out by Singaporeans. In my opinion, initially, some employers restrict the freedom of their maids too much, by only giving them 1 rest day per month, however, should it reach the extent that maids have off-days weekly?

Maids are hired to take care of the family, in circumstances such as when the independent adults go working on a daily basis and lack of time to take care of their needs or when there are disabled or particularly needy members in the house. Maids do most of the housework mostly on weekdays, including cooking, babysitting and sweeping whatever mansion that the employer owns. They do numerous amount of blue-collared work, and they are paid for their efforts to maintain the family. Many employers might think that maids are lowly, unworthy of their respect, of a lower 'caste' or even treating them as slaves and abusing them, thus, not treating them as humans and not giving them 'sufficient' liberty.

However, maids are people, and they have life too! They are not generated by unlimited amount of battery, and they are not robots. I feel that they should be 'freed' during weekends, when employers be staying at home, and bond with their fellow friends, so as to relax and have a balanced lifestyle. As long as their work attitude will not be affected negatively, I feel that there is no problem in giving them the freedom to have their off-days weekly. Instead, I actually think that by meeting up with friends might even improve their work attitude.

Firstly, by working for long hours daily, maids might feel weary and tired, and seeing that their off-days are a month ahead, they might be depressed and despondent, thus being unable to perform to their personal best due to low spirits. Furthermore, this weariness might brood unhappiness against their employers for giving them insufficient off-days, and their moodiness might lead to defiance against their employers' orders, thus ruining their employer-employee relationship and might lead to even worse and dire consequences. Therefore, by offering time to befriend people weekly would give them an opportunity to speak their sorrows out, and at the same time receive some consolations and encouragements from their friends. Furthermore, this would also allow them to look forward to a day that is closer, thus making days seem shorter and improving their work attitude.

In conclusion, I think that maids should indeed be given off-days weekly to rest. By doing so, not only do maids benefit from it, employers would also profit from it, since they would not need to face the sulky face of their maid and though work days for maids are less, they would be more efficient and productive. Thus, in a nutshell, giving maids to rest weekly would lead to a win-win situation for both parties.