In finding a good nanny, employers have to be extra careful about choosing which agency to go to. I have always had reservations in getting a yaya through an agency, but since we needed one fast we had no choice but to try it.
So, I searched for an agency through the Internet. Lo and behold, I did find one after a few days of searching. I do not remember the website exactly, but I am quite certain that I chose a legit website that was already well known to people. After the initial exchange of text messages, I called their office number to talk to the proprietor. The name of the agency was DIVINE MERCY MANPOWER AGENCY, a small office located in Quirino Avenue near Singalong, Manila. I was sort of relieved that an agency should have a religious sounding name, and was confident that their services would be good enough.
WRONG. My husband and I visited the office and we were immediately introduced to a yaya named Delia. Since we were of meager means then, we negotiated the salary on the spot, which the owner agreed. We were charged an agency fee aside from the advance salary. No big deal. We paid the fees and left with our brand new yaya.
The first thing she did was to do our week's laundy. She started after lunch, she finished it way into the night. I mean, it was not a lot of clothes to wash, but she finished it at almost 10:00 pm. We were clueless why she was like that. But that was not all. She did everything so painstakingly slow, from ironing clothes to washing the dishes. We wonder why it took her so long to finish everything. And that was just the first week. But, as long as LJ was ok, we're ok, then she's ok.
We went home one day to come into the house with a distinct acrid smell. When we asked the yaya what was wrong, she explained that she sterilized the bottles and forgot to turn it off. As a result, the water in the sterilizer dried up and MELTED all the bottles!!! Horrible! Still trying to make out of it, we asked how she could have forgotten about it. She answered (quite sweetly) that she was watching tv and got absorbed in the telenovela. We were calm about it but deep inside we were thinking: What if the stove just exploded? It could have been fatal!
Thankfully, she left after 2 weeks. She realized - and probably the agency did not inform her about this - that her salary was too low for her. We couldn't we more glad about it. We returned to the agency to ask for a refund as stipulated in the contract, but they did not oblige and instead replaced it with an equally difficult person who we had to return overnight. Makes me wonder if there are other agencies out there that are equally worse.
So, moral of the story? Beware of these small-time agencies. There are more horror stories to this I'm sure. And I hope the government will be more proactive in monitoring these businesses.
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