Household Helper Needed

We are looking for a female retired expat for one full day a week, 10 to 5, flat rate $500 mn. Above standard housekeeping skills for 2bd/2ba, living dining kitchen office. Vacuum for area rugs. Full floor mop. Some food and party prep. Laundry and supervise afternoon iron person. Rotation of special clean projects.

Additional work available periodically at rental house. Also possible party work and house and pet care when we travel. If you need to supplement your income this could work for both of us.

Could you explain your reasoning for not employing a native Mexican for this position?

Do you supply the maids uniform?

"Supervise afternoon iron person"?Que,la señora que contrataste no sabe planchar?

There have been 5 women respond to this forum ad. Plus 2 from a women's group and 2 from TOB. So 9 retired expat women are looking to supplement their income or in one case 'just something to do'.

I am surprised. I figured maybe 2 or 3 responses.

As for the 3 questions here:

The woman who irons for us has been with us in one capacity or another since summer 2005. We have finally found her niche in ironing and we are glad to pay her a set amount every week whether there are 6 items to iron, 30 items or no items. She does a good job but needs supervision to pace her work so that 30 items doesn't take her 5 hours.

The maid uniform question is snide and mean spirited.

As for a local woman, we have had 4 different women and one man in almost 10 years. This most recent maid has been with us for 2 years with exactly the same terms. 8 hours is not necessary to clean the house and she has been working slower, not doing a good job and leaving earlier and earlier for the same money. She is not amenable to adapting to expanding her duties to other chores I would like to have assistance with occasionally.

For the past 6 months I have found that a single crystal is missing from a chandelier in my dining room. I replace it and it is gone again a couple weeks later. Always the same crystal. That is extreme passive-aggressive and I am unwilling to see what comes next.

So I am looking to find a different way to meet my needs and offer an opportunity to someone else.

kb9gzg wrote:Could you explain your reasoning for not employing a native Mexican for this position?

I completely understand the op's thinking.  You may enjoy my take on " my maid woes " in an old thread from Oct 2011, the same maid was invited back...but by June of last year, I just couldn't handle it anymore.  I wanted to buy a vacation place in Tapalpa just to get away. lol  But unfortunately, it's January 2015 and I'd sure like to find someone that could do a thorough cleaning at least once a week consistently.  It may be me with my physical obstacles but by golly, I'll get it done!  

I hope everything works out well for you solajijic.

I hope the expat women that showed an interest are entitled to work here. If they are residente temporal, they need work visas, and I can't see the government supplying them with visas for that type of work. Their skill sets would not be any different than Mexicans.
Having someone work for you 'under the table' could get very complicated and troublesome. And you can still have the same problems (i.e. shoddy work, theft).

This whole business of hiring foreign retirees for domestic work leaves me speechless.
Maybe a young single mother from El Salvador would be understandable, but senior or any citizens of the US or Canada.  

Suegarn is right, for sure. INM just doesn‘t give lucrativa visas to folks who want to do menial labor that is commonly available in Mexico. Then, there are the dangers of working illegally, or of being an illegal employer. Any expat that you might hire would have to be Residente Permanente, but would still have to notify INM of their employment/employer, and then there is the RFC, etc., etc.
I suggest that you find a good Mexican housekeeper. We had one for over a decade and never had a complaint. That is more common than not, so you may have simply had an unusual experience.

Chapalagringa wrote:

kb9gzg wrote:Could you explain your reasoning for not employing a native Mexican for this position?

I completely understand the op's thinking.  You may enjoy my take on " my maid woes " in an old thread from Oct 2011, the same maid was invited back...but by June of last year, I just couldn't handle it anymore.  I wanted to buy a vacation place in Tapalpa just to get away. lol  But unfortunately, it's January 2015 and I'd sure like to find someone that could do a thorough cleaning at least once a week consistently.  It may be me with my physical obstacles but by golly, I'll get it done!  

I hope everything works out well for you solajijic.

I don't "get" any of it, Chapalagringa, but that's just me.  I would feel extremely uncomfortable having another less well off expat woman doing my housework, especially when I know how much even LESS better off most of the Mexican ladies doing maid work are.  I don't want a regular maid and the personal involvement that entails, but my ailing back isn't up to doing all the housework this casa needs these days.  That is the reason I hire a contract service sending two Mexican ladies here as needed.  So it's not always perfect, but if I have complaints, I deal with their jefa and problems are resolved.

As Suegarn mentioned, there are also legal implications involved.

How much per hour does the service charge? Is it Spring Clean?

CanuckBob wrote:How much per hour does the service charge? Is it Spring Clean?

Yes, it's Spring Clean. We've used their services for seven years now. Sometimes I'm not happy with one of the workers and Letitia, the jefa, sends a different person who does a better job. I'm an old customer and they give me a good rate, so a new customer may pay more. They set the rate based on how many hours they figure will be needed to do the job. I'll send you the specific information in a PM. They are bonded and they pay all the vacation pay, termination (if any), aguinaldos, etc. and they bring all the cleaning supplies needed for the job.

slainte39 wrote:This whole business of hiring foreign retirees for domestic work leaves me speechless.

I have to agree,it struck me as somewhat absurd,but then so did the need for someone to supervise the "afternoon iron person".

The maids that work for Spring Clean would probably make less than  those hired directly by the homeowners, as there would be a profit factor for Spring Clean and they would have to charge the homeowner more as well.

slainte39 wrote:The maids that work for Spring Clean would probably make less than  those hired directly by the homeowners, as there would be a profit factor for Spring Clean and they would have to charge the homeowner more as well.

They probably do, but on the other hand, it's steady work. The homeowner is charged more than they would pay a "freelance" maid, but for them, it's probably worth the higher rate since the agency takes care of the extras. I've nothing against the agency making a profit since the have expenses over and above the maids' wages.

I have used Spring Clean several times for large cleaning projects, between renters, weekly cleaning of a rental and for upholstery. They are an option. The cost is basically $500 pesos for 2 people for 4 hours. I am not interested in under the table.  $500 pesos a day is an excellent wage here, and I have been paying that to a youngish local woman who is not able and somewhat unwilling to accomplish what I want done.

BUT....I am looking for a little more help in areas other than cleaning.  Most of the women who have answered are permanente, 3 own small service businesses which I can only assume are not supporting them adequately or not keeping them busy enough. One recent widow has been left with only half her husband's private pension and is not eligible for SS yet.

With the INM changes I think you just might see more people who need to work doing it.  There are plenty of women and men cooking for cash and not all of them "need" to do that. There are people who drive shoppers into Guadalajara, do house and yard sales, sell art, housesit and pet sit or walk....why are those jobs okay and cleaning house is not okay.

As for being uncomfortable in the suburbs where we were from it was typical for a woman recently separated to clean houses and do catering for a year or so while things in her life settled down. It gave her some extra cash, kept her busy while she had time to think and plan and she could work around her kids school hours. Where is the shame on either side of the relationship ... no where. It's a helping hand and some people need it and others want the activity. I am willing to explore the newly opened labor and talent pool made available by the recent immigration changes.

There are plenty of Mexicans working in the US and Canada both legally and illegally. Why should it be any different for a foreigner here? As long as all the visa's are in order, may the best person get the job.

I understand what you're saying and don't mean to give you a hard time about this, but you haven't yet explained why you aren't willing to hire a Mexican worker and want to hire an expat instead.

gringal wrote:

slainte39 wrote:The maids that work for Spring Clean would probably make less than  those hired directly by the homeowners, as there would be a profit factor for Spring Clean and they would have to charge the homeowner more as well.

They probably do, but on the other hand, it's steady work.  The homeowner is charged more than they would pay a "freelance" maid, but for them, it's probably worth the higher rate since the agency takes care of the extras.  I've nothing against the agency making a profit since the have expenses over and above the maids' wages.

When you say "extras" like vacations, aguinaldos, cleaning supplies, wouldn't they be factored into the fee charged the client and not necessarily out of the contractor/middleman profit?  Anyway you look at it, it's an extra layer of expense/value of the service.
It does relieve the final consumer of the responsibility, but you pay for it.

Per my previous post:
"The homeowner is charged more than they would pay a "freelance" maid, but for them, it's probably worth the higher rate since the agency takes care of the extras. I've nothing against the agency making a profit since the have expenses over and above the maids' wages."

Yes, we expect to pay more because of those costs. No problem here with that. The contractor in this case is the company owner with no middleman I know of.

And you don't have to worry about them coming after you for "whatever" when you move or no longer need their services.

gringal wrote:I understand what you're saying and don't mean to give you a hard time about this, but you haven't yet explained why you aren't willing to hire a Mexican worker and want to hire an expat instead.

I'm sorry, but I'm with Gringal on this one.....you still haven't given a valid reason to hire an expat over a Mexican. Saying that expats are looking to supplement their income seems odd, because if they qualified for residency visas based on the government regulations, they are obviously doing something wrong if they can't live on over $1500 US each per month (which is the requirement for temporal),

There are so many hard-working Mexican women out there who REALLY NEED the income. Please try again and hire a local....(they're definitely not all lazy or incompetent).

Solajijic wants a “female retired expat” with “above standard housekeeping skills” who is honest and hard working. She wants to have her needs met and to offer what she see as an opportunity to someone who is not Mexican.
That is all there is to it. There is nothing to justify or explain.

Lady Otter Latté wrote:Solajijic wants a “female retired expat” with “above standard housekeeping skills” who is honest and hard working. She wants to have her needs met and to offer what she see as an opportunity to someone who is not Mexican.
That is all there is to it. There is nothing to justify or explain.

Actually, Lady Otter Latte, there could be something to explain! If she hires someone that is working illegally and taking the job away from a qualified Mexican, then I think that is a cause for justification!
I just don't want to see anyone, expat or Mexican getting into trouble for trying to skirt the government regulations. I know that there are many Mexicans working illegally in the States, but that is no reason for us to do the same thing down here!

Suegarn,
Solajijic has lived here for a long time and knows the laws. You also clearly outlined some potential problems in a previous post. So, she knows. We can not assume she intends to break any laws or help an employee of hers to break any.
Since she is trying something unusual for this area and has posted about it on here, I am sure Solajijic will be extra careful to dot all her I’s and cross all her T’s. It really is her business and not ours.