Live in Yaya

Are there any members on this forum who have a live in yaya for many years. Looking forward to receive a message so I can ask what is common or not how to deal with arising situations.

 

I have a sister-in-law and her daughter live in for around 13 yrs. No issues.

 

No direct experience myself with a live in helper/yaya/gardener/driver whatever. However, from what I hear (and seems plausible to me) when there's someone living with you long term, they become close to your family, and evidently the way you treat them evolves accordingly.
So, while at the start you may restrict financial involvement to paying a reasonable salary and making sure they're enrolled in Philhealth and SSS (which is also your legal obligation), if they stay with you long term you may very well end up looking after them as much as they look after you/your kids/garden whatever. In other words, when they need to see a dentist/doctor you may well end up being the one paying for that.
There's also plenty examples where the helper has a child that lives with you also and take responsibility for (school expenses etc.).

 

Let them know before you hire them that there will be no salary advances.

Give them a small test early on to see if they are honest. For example, put 200 pesos in your pants pocket and see if it's still there after they do the laundry. Or, have a jar of coins on top of the refrigerator counted to the exact peso, see if some of it goes missing.

 

Both thanks for the feedback and suggestions. In my situation the yaya will not stay for the long term, more a matter of months. I give her a market-based salary. Since I am alone and the yaya also have no kids there's not so much work to do but more for my convenience. Doing household work isn't my favorite waste of time. So besides this and giving the two dogs food twice a day she can spend her time on internet with TikTok, FB or watching a movie on Netflix.

 

I heard of a yaya who always took a cut of the vegetables she purchased for her employer and another one who over-charged for the shopping (the employer knew but let it go).

But let us assume that 99%, or more, are decent honest people.