Yaya Horror Stories: Yaya from An Agency

There was a period in the household where we were hard up in looking for a trusted and dependable nanny.  My in-laws recommended that since we were already out of options, we should get one from an agency.  Although we never wanted to get one from an agency because of the sorts of horror stories we’ve heard from friends, we decided to take a shot.  It was to be our first time.

After googling and checking out several sites, I finally came across one agency that was located near my in-laws’ place.  So we went to this manpower agency along Quirino Avenue in Singalong.  The name was Divine Mercy Manpower Agency (or something to that effect).  We thought the name was providential.  We had spoken to the lady owner and she understood what we needed:  an all-around who could do cleaning and laundry, but keeping watch over our son would be her chief responsibility.  Cooking was not a worry since we volunteered to do it ourselves.

At once, we were introduced to a lady older than us, probably in her late 40s then.  I don’t remember her full name now, but her name was Delia.  We negotiated her salary and finally agreed on something.  We paid her advance and additional agency fees which the owner said was a deposit.  She seemed gentle and silent.  Her only condition was to let her on day offs during Sundays to attend worship.  She was a Born Again Christian.  No worries we said, we go to Catholic mass as well.

That same day, she packed her bags and went with us.  And the first thing she did was to do the laundry right away.

“Sigurado ka ba (Are you sure about this?)” we asked her, thinking that she might want to rest.

“Ok lang ako (I’m ok),” was her reply.

So we didn’t bother her as hubby and I did our respective chores around the house.  That was 4:30pm.

Slow and Not Yet Done…. Why?

We cooked, ate dinner and washed the plates.  She wasn’t done yet at past 7pm.  I was thinking: What’s wrong with her?  She’s probably just meticulous.  I popped in the dirty kitchen to find her still doing the laundry, handwashing everything despite a washing machine in sight. 

“Tama na yan.  Ibabad mo na lang mga ‘yan para bukas (You can just stop already and soak the clothes for tomorrow),” I offered.

“Ate, may samba po ako bukas (I am attending workship tomorrow),” was her gentle reply. 

Not wanting to argue, we just let her be.  We slept at past 10, leaving Delia to do the laundry.

Weirder and Weirder Still

The morning after, we asked her what time she finished the laundry.  She answered “11:30pm”.  WHAT???  We told her that she could do her laundry in installments so she didn’t have to work until late in the evening. 

Since we were rushing off to mass then, we asked her to wash the dishes as we dressed up.  Watching her closely, I noticed that she moved very slowly, even if it was just soaping the dishes.  All I could think of then was “Whew!  This is going to be one long ride….”  Hubby apparently noticed it too, and this was just Day One.

Not trusting her right away, we decided not to give her her own keys and just let her go ahead of us.  Surprisingly, she was very quick and dressed right away.  She left in a huff and returned at around 6pm.

Even then, we were sensing something wasn’t right about Delia and that we should keep a closer eye on her.

Worried that we had let in a psycho in our house, we asked my mom to drop by for occasional visits to keep an eye on my kid.  She would check occasionally to see what Delia was up to, but nothing was wrong really.  Even then, hubby would leave office early to inspect on them.  Although he distrusted her, he found nothing wrong too except that she was a slow mover and was glued to the tv she had in her room. 

We celebrated our anniversary by going on an out-of-town vacation and brought her along with us.

That was then tragedy struck on the eight day.

Burning Down the House – Almost

We had taken our son to the mall to buy the week’s rations and left Delia at home to do the ironing.  When we came home, we surprised to enter the house with a very pungent smell like burned plastic.  We were aghast to find that Delia had left the sterilizer in the stove burning for God knows how long.  She had left it too long for the water inside the sterilizer to completely evaporate that all the bottles (the very sturdy ones at that) melted. 

Looking at the sterilizer, it was completely unusable.  The insides had blackened it smelled burnt plastic all over. 

“How did this happened?” I asked, irritated but still calm.

“Namamalantsa po ako habang nanonood ng tv, di ko po naalala na may nakasalang sa stove (I was ironing while watching tv.  I didn’t remember I had something on the stove).” was her nervous reply.  “I-deduct nyo na lang pos a sweldo ko,” was her quick defense.

Just like that?  SHE COULD HAVE BURNED THE HOUSE DOWN! And just like that, offer a deduction to her salary.  Hubby was reeling but I tried to remain calm and rational.

I was firm and controlled.  “Please do not do this again.  You could have burned the house.  Then what will happen to us?  To you?”

That was the last time she joined us for any meal.  She distanced herself from us since then.

Quitting Cold Turkey and We’re Relieved

On the thirteenth day, she just spoke up.  She wanted to return to the agency for some undisclosed reasons.  We were incensed but felt somewhat relieved.  We brought her back to the agency and demanded for a replacement, arguing that it was barely a month yet.  If not, we had a deposit that we can have as a refund.

The lady owner explained that we cannot refund the deposit for some reason.  Ok, we said, then give us a replacement because we paid in full already.  The agency agreed and gave us another old lady who we returned the next day because she claimed that she didn’t wasn’t informed about the salary she was getting and was actually expecting at least 5k, “kasi yun ang sinasahod ko sa dating amo ko na Intsik (because that’s the salary I was getting from my former Chinese employer).” 

We were duped by this agency and didn’t want to continue getting any more house help from them.  Eventually, we found a replacement based on referral.

We are quite dismayed that this agency is still operating in along Quirino Avenue under the same name.  I’ve lost interest in filing any complaint with the DOLE or DTI about their devious ways.  Blogging it is my way of sharing with people my experiences with nannies and manpower agencies. 

Not All Agencies Are the Same

Don't get me wrong.  Probably not all manpower agencies are like this.  Some are not into scams at all.  It's only unfortunate that there are a few (or maybe most?) agencies who dupe people of their hard-earned money. 

It’s ironic that this agency should use a name that is attributed to Jesus.  Shame on you.