DEYSI AND THE MAID SELECTION PROCESS SANDTON 1988

we now had a new home, and Deysi was fully in command. Things were moving. Her purchased furniture was arriving. Our shipment from home, had arrived. Ron was in school. Ange was training the dogs (to crap and pee wherever they wanted). And I was busy at work trying to establish myself in a new company. Now was the time where we needed a maid. Easy right? Our company had an agency that we could use. Also Deysi was starting to make friends, so there were some leads, to where she could find a maid. One thing about Deysi she knew what she knew, and wanted what she wanted and this extended to maids and gardeners.

She had been raised in Peru and had maids in the house as long she could remember. To her it was a business deal. It went like this; I have a job which pays the full market rate for your services, includes food, lodging and work clothing, and this job is a professional exchange of money for labour, nothing more, nothing less. This should be no problem. Well as it turned out it was far more complicated than I even imagined that it should be.

First of all I, along with all of the rest of the American foreigners arriving on this job, had no knowledge of how you determined what a qualified maid should be. In my mind, you just double the salary and everyone is happy right? Well I quickly learned that it did not work quite like this. Almost all of the maids offered had worked for American families previously and came, already prepared for “my way of thinking”. This did not work for Deysi.

She wanted a maid that had previously worked for a South African family, so that their expectations were of work and not of an easy ride. These were hard to find. the good ones, were working for families that kept them most of their lives and did not let them go back into the labour pool. Uhhuh, lesson one. Secondly they needed to be neat, clean and happy. Lesson two. Many times during the course of our stay in South Africa we encountered families that were in a very unhappy relationship with their maid. Deysi knew exactly what she wanted.

That meant that the selection process was going to take a while. Maids were dispatched by the agency on a trial basis. They came for a couple of days, did their thing and were observed and evaluated by Deysi, just as you would do for any employee in any work situation. Enter the first maid. To me, I’m thinking well problem solved. Not so fast. She proved to be a bit surly, didn’t really want to do maid’s work (wanted Deysi to do it and she would be available to assist) and had somewhat of an attitude. I could have lived with it, I would have just become a prisoner in the parts of the house where she wasn’t. She lasted about two days.

The second candidate was elderly and knew she couldn’t cope with the workload as described by Deysi. She also didn’t see cooking as a part of her duties. Now we are in day four and still no maid. Enter prospect number three, she did not quite make a full shift. Deysi wanted a full-time maid and this lady would not work weekends. The accepted workweek for the maids was 7 days straight with some free days each month to go home or do whatever they wanted. Also each day they had free time or rest time during the day, but were available for evening meals and cleanup. The maid search is not going well, for me, however Desyi was on a mission and nothing would deter her.

After three or four attempts at finding the maid she wanted, she decided to go down to the agency and meet with the people there to explain what her needs were. The lady, there, listened to her attentively and at the end says “I think I have just the girl you want. You can take her home today”. And in walks our maid Selena. She was about 30 years old, had lots of experience with children, smiled from ear to ear, was extremely well groomed and could she cook!

Selina came home with Deysi, and stayed with us until our last day in South Africa. Already, she knew how to clean a house, was happy doing it, could answer the phone, take messages and deal with running the household under Deysi’s supervision. This girl, was everywhere, but never in your face. She had her space and understood her duties. She performed every task with a smile. It became a very well refined business relationship. Thank god for Deysi’s persistence. I can only imagine what I might have ended with, left to my owns devices and lack of understanding of a simple household business relationship.

A vivid memory of how Selena interacted with the girls. Picture Ange coming home from school, and starting at the doorway, shedding her clothes one piece at a time all of the way to her bedroom. Selena was right behind her, picking up the clothes and folding them as she followed along. When Ange finally entered her room, her play clothes were ready. Selena placed her, already, folded school clothes, on her bed. My god, I thought, are we creating a monster? Many times Deysi told Selena not to do that, that Deysi would pick up after her. Selena’s reply was “don’t worry madam, I like to do it”. We now had our maid, and one of the best we ever encountered. Her cooking skills form part of a later post.

Next task for Deysi, was to locate, and hold try-outs, for gardener. I had learned my limitations and got out of her way, so as not to get run over.