You may have little sympathy because I have a maid...
That's okay. I would too if I didn't live here and didn't fully understand what it's like. Take the story with a grain of salt if this is an opinion of yours. I appreciate your view, and I had the same opinion before coming here. But just to give you some things to think about....
Having a maid in Angola is almost an expectation as an expat. So is having a gardener. It helps the local economy to employ two people, and we pay handsome salaries relative to the typical wages that are received. Generally, if the maid is working well, they are hired by the next family when the first one leaves on a different assignment. The staff get 6 paid weeks off a year while we are on vacation, they get sick days, and they work limited hours (mine was supposed to work from 7:30 - 14:30 with a full 1.5 hour lunch - but that didn't even happen!)
The work itself: There is a ton of dust in Angola, as few roads are paved. I don't have the energy after working 55-60 hours a week to clean the house, mop the floors and do laundry. I also don't think Paul wants to spend his weekend mowing the lawn. There are no dry cleaners here that we could trust, so ironing is a critical factor for work as well... Finally, we aren't home all day, but there are maintenance folks that need to come in reasonably frequently to repair and maintain the house, so having someone here to open the door and watch them work is important.
Enough of that... on with the story....
Why did you fire your maid?
Well...after working with Veronica for 14 months, her sticky fingers (
as noted earlier in the blog) became a bit too much. Simple things kept going missing, and after some coaching and requesting that she not take things from the house, we still saw "stuff" disappear. Additionally, she was arriving late and leaving early, and she was letting her daughter in the home, when we had specifically asked that nobody but the repair and maintenance team were allowed to enter. As such, we finally decided that it was time to end our relationship with her.
Some background on things going missing...
Along with some silly, yet tempting items for a maid to enjoy, the following list of goodies evaporated from our home... Now, I note the items below seem trivial, but we live in Angola, and we generally can't find these items by brand at all. And if we can, it's not without going to some length and paying quite a bit, so it is frustrating to find them empty or gone when you're really wanting them and wanting a little taste of home.
- A full bag of chocolate covered fruit snacks from COSTCO... you know the ones
- A bag of halloween sized Snickers
- A full bottle of Heinz ketchup was found empty after we had used it once on Kraft Dinner
- A full jar of peanut butter, JIF brand - impossible to find here...other peanut butter is available, for $14-$15 per 12 ounce jar... but it's not JIF - which may explain Veronica's behavior of eating the WHOLE THING!
- A full jar of honey from our trip to the Christmas Markets in Germany
- My face creams, serums, eye creams, and other skin care items that make me believe that I'm not aging as quickly as I could be dare I not be using them... (I realize that the entire anti-aging effort is fruitless, and that much of it is smoke and mirrors and results are somewhat psychosomatic, but still... oh, did I mention I turn 35 this year...?)
- Multiple perfumes - apparently the Chanel was not enough
The Kicker:
Right before vacation in May, we noticed that Paul's vitamins, and about half of the gallon+ of ice cream that he tends to nibble on periodically went missing. So Paul calls Veronica and asks her about the vitamins (Paul had taken a "leave of absence" from taking his vitamins, so the fact that there were only 30 or so left from a 200+ jar's worth made us wonder, but I think it was the ice cream that sent him over the top). Veronica said she didn't know anything about it...
Long story short, when we went on vacation, we asked Veronica to leave the keys with a neighbor. When we got back, I called her, and I said that we would not need to be working with her anymore, as we could not trust her any longer. We gave her a month's severance (one month for every year worked is typical).
Then What?
A month later, I came home on a Wednesday to a summons. I had to go to the Tribunal dos Trabalhadores on Monday morning of the next week.
Imagine coming home to a document written in a language that you know JUST enough to conclude you're in some bit of trouble with the maid you terminated, and that she is seeking justice for her termination... Let's just say there was a moment of full panic, and "What the H?"
Within a few days, the concerns subsided to comedy. Namely on the fact that we were probably going to have to pay out some money to close the case before it went to trial, which we had embraced, and because we started to think about how we could turn this case into some crazy requirement for all expats ensuring hired help to sign off on a release called the Veronica Doctrine...
See the doc below... the second page, which is her testimony, says that I terminated her because she stole ice cream and drugs. I love that part... mostly because it's such a great accusation and such ridiculous singular grounds for termination.
So, anyway, we gathered up a lawyer (a family friend - we are lucky we have such wonderful people over here to help - but that's an exception... this would be an adventure for your regular old expat with limited Portuguese!) and we show up with some funding in hand at the Tribunal Dos Trabalhadors (Workers' Tribunal). I don't mind paying Veronica more salary - had she said that the severance we gave her wasn't enough, I probably would have paid her more to just end the relationship.... I just wasn't informed (which is entirely my fault) - I based our termination process on how others had terminated their maids/gardeners, so everything was a surprise.
I'll keep the tribunal part short, but with a few observations:
1. The tribunal was held in an office building from the 1960's that had not been updated since then. We sat in the moderator's office, and we each told our sides of the story. She typed away on her brand new Mac Book Air.. documenting the whole thing...ahhh the paradox of the 1960 defunct building vs. the fresh and clean technology.
2. After a quick listening to Veronica (who started her story 20 years ago when she first started as a maid for an expat company), the moderator cut her short and stated "none of that is relevant - when did you start working for this woman?" At that point, I knew this was at least going to be a FAIR trial (we had some concern with regard to whether an ex-pat would be damned from the start, but it wasn't the case).
3. It didn't help much, but I am proud to say that I carried all the way through in Portuguese when it was my turn to tell my side of the story, and everyone understood me. I basically said everything you have read about why we terminated Veronica, emphatically noting that it wasn't just ice cream and vitamins (not drugs) that led to her termination, but all sorts of random crap that just got annoying.
What Was the Outcome?
The moderator said that I had every right to terminate Veronica, as the grounds we had were valid...BUT.... it's illegal to do it over the phone. Our entire relationship had been over the phone.. I've seen the woman face to face less than ten times in the time we've been here...but that's the law... so we paid for the month of salary that we had technically employed her (because I didn't properly terminate), and three months of punitive salary payment. Veronica made out like a bandit. Pun somewhat intended.
We paid cash right there, got a release signed from the moderator, Veronica, and me - basically stating that this case was closed....
Unintended Consequences of Doing People Favors....
Unfortunately, I thought we would have to pay Veronica for 3 months at most.... and it was 4... so I was short a bit of money. Again, family friends come to the rescue! Luckily for us, and not so luckily for our lawyer, he had enough to cover the additional amount that I needed to pay. The moderator was pretty shocked by this, but then we explained that we are all friends, so... no problem. Paul paid him back the next day. Cash is a funny thing here. We withdraw from our Treasury at work - open only specific hours to go down, write a check to, and receive USD in return.... so sometimes you're just short of cash and you end up borrowing significant sums of money from colleagues or friends if the Treasury is closed... strange world.
Looking on the Bright Side...
Given the fine we had to pay, that was a really expensive phone call to terminate Veronica, but I feel vindicated that I got some fabulous bathroom art out of the deal - I will be framing the summons, accusation/statement, and final outcome in some sort of simple piece of decor... it's a good conversation piece.
Serious Stuff for those with Staff in Angola
(DISCLAIMER: The items below are my suggestions, by no way is this legal advice (especially since I'm not a lawyer or anything fancy like that). It's just guidance from one family's perspective. Please don't take me to court again because you read this, implemented it, and it didn't work out. Obrigada.):
- Hire your maid or gardener with a 1-year contract - to be renewed each year - I think your company can help you with this if you're with one of the multi-nationals over here...
- Review any disciplinary issues in person, even simple things like arriving and leaving on time, quality of work, etc. and have the individual sign off that they have received coaching.
- Have your staff sign off that they received their payments each month... we've heard of other cases where this gets disputed.
- If it comes to you needing a different person to help because of performance issues, then terminate them in person with a third party witness (suggest using the Security team if you're with my company), and have them sign off that they have been terminated for cause.
