Maid says someone asked her who her owner was, “Nobody owns me. If you ask me who’s my employer I can answer you”

SINGAPORE: A foreign domestic helper took to social media to set the record straight after someone asked her who her owner was.

In a post to a support group for domestic helpers and employers alike, she wrote: “I am okay being called, a helper, a maid , an auntie, a nanny, you can call me as any as you want as long as it’s fits to my job”.

“But to ask a helper or a maid ” What/who s your owner ” Like, It’s always puzzled me, I’m like, “owner?”. “Nobody own me “.. If you ask me who’s my employer I can answer you. But to ask me. About who owns me. My answer is “nothing and nobody””, she wrote.

The woman emphasised that maids are not objects or pets, they work and get paid for the job they do. No one bought or sold them, they were hired, she said. “I believe some people don’t mean to ask such. But I also think it’s not that hard to learn the difference or certain words. Let’s practice to rephrase certain word and make it appropriate. As I don’t think the word “employer” is difficult word to say. Regardless anyone’s educational background”, the woman wrote.

Here’s what others who were in the group replied:

Earlier this year, a foreign domestic helper took to social media after she felt that her employer wanted to transfer her for insignificant reasons.

In her anonymous post to a support group on Facebook, the maid asked other netizens for their opinion on whether her employer’s reason for transferring her was valid. She said her employer would call her names “like STUPID and USE YOUR BRAIN”. She would be scolded for simple reasons “like sometimes forgot minor things which is not on purpose”, she wrote.

Maid upset that her employer tells her to ‘use your brain’ and calls her stupid; other helpers say this is the norm in SG