Like Tree8Likes
  • 1 Post By hongkong7
  • 1 Post By HKHK154
  • 6 Post By jabalong

Helper quits in 2 months. Do I have any recourse?

Closed Thread
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    151

    Unhappy Helper quits in 2 months. Do I have any recourse?

    Our helper just quit last night after slightly over 2 months with us. You can imagine our disappointment as we went out of our way to make her feel welcome and comfortable. we even provided wifi access, a separate TV with its own cable connection, a media player where she could watch her movies... the works. Apparently her US visa is likely to come through next week and she will join her American fiance in the US around new year. She would have known this when she started with us two months ago. No mention every of waiting for the visa etc. I feel shortchanged after having spent few thousand on her visa etc. Do I have any recourse to get back the money?

    BTW... she has given less than 1 month notice and is forfeiting the salary in lieu of already.


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    4,821

    Not that I can see.


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Posts
    823

    Thats a bummer. She probbly wasn't expecting to get her US visa.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Hong Kong side
    Posts
    1,824

    Similar happened to me .I just absorbed the (considerable)cost. The positive side though: the new helper is way way better than the previous one. Good luck

    Koen likes this.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Clear Water Bay (In Da Jungle)
    Posts
    9,968

    My 1st helper who i paid for the fees, medical tests etc failed to even turn up to work. Money down the drain. Just had to suck it up and start all over again.

    Sent from my GT-N7100 using GeoClicks mobile app


  6. #6

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
    Posts
    626

    Considering you're basically getting a servant for a few hundred bucks a month I think that it's just one of those things that you need to accept may happen. I mean I doubt she even has the money or else she would not be in HK.

    Not having a go.. just saying it's still pretty good value.

    Last edited by HKHK154; 08-12-2013 at 06:32 PM.
    jabalong likes this.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    151

    I would not call $4000 few hundred under any circumstance. Plus paying 5k to an agency to take care of visa , insurance and other requirements... I feel cheated. I would not have purchased medical insurance for two years either if she had told us that she is expecting her visa. In any case... She is leaving this weekend and I guess that's the end of this story. Doesn't leave a good impression in my mind for like her.

    Sent from my SM-N9005 using GeoClicks mobile app


  8. #8

    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    349

    It sucks for you absolutely, but you can also try look at it from her perspective.

    She probably had no way of knowing if/when her US visa would come through - it might have been a month, six months, a year or who knows. These things are often opaque.

    Sure, she could have told prospective employers about her indeterminate plans - but with this overhang who would have hired her? In all probability, no one, that's who.

    And she still has to earn a living in the meantime. It's one of those cases, where honesty probably wouldn't have been the best policy for her.

    Before people complain about cheating maids, have to bear in mind it can happen with any of our jobs. People take jobs knowing something might change in our lives (say with a spouse's job) and have to relocate to another country.

    Sucks for the employer, but such is life sometimes. And it can just as easily be the other way around, where a current employer finds out about tentative plans and preemptively gives the maid the boot ahead of time, forcing them into doing what your maid did.

    Not saying this is the case for her, but the point is life doesn't always happen cleanly with neat transitions. It's often messy - sometimes favouring the employee, while other times it's the employer coming ahead.


  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by nike439:
    I would not call $4000 few hundred under any circumstance. Plus paying 5k to an agency to take care of visa , insurance and other requirements... I feel cheated. I would not have purchased medical insurance for two years either if she had told us that she is expecting her visa. In any case... She is leaving this weekend and I guess that's the end of this story. Doesn't leave a good impression in my mind for like her.

    Sent from my SM-N9005 using GeoClicks mobile app
    you might be able to transfer the insurance to your next helper

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    151

    Thanks Heather. I did find that out and that's some relief. I'm over my initial disappointment

    Sent from my SM-N9005 using GeoClicks mobile app