To charge ap for *another* ruined item of clothing and trashed iron or not?

[kittywise]

Ok, I've had my AP since Dec. We've had ups and downs and some of you might remember my posts on the subject!
Against all odds it has worked out pretty ok.
She is very dippy and has no common sense but has learned from her many mistakes and she plays really well with the younger children.
She has to leave in April to go on another language course.

Now my dilema is that she has managed to spoil a number of items of clothing by putting them in the tumble drier when she was told again and again that they shouldn't go in. Items like jumpers, fleeces and tracksuit bottoms. The first couple of times I patiently explained and then started to get cross. She actiully said to me that she would have been crosser than me in the same situation!!

Anyway yesterday she comes to me saying the the hot iron must have fallen into the basket underneath the ironing board which contains pile of clothes waiting to be ironed.
She says she hadn't noticed that it had fallen. She had turned it off and gone upstairs ( how can you not notice that the iron is no longer on the ironing board?)

Consequently the iron has ruined 2 items of clothing, I'm amazed that it was only 2, one expensive gap fleece, and of course the iron is covered in burnt plastic and is now unusable. Not to mention the potential dire consequences of burning clothes.
There is a huge tank of heating oil in the basement where all the laundry stuff is. I can't begin to contemplate what would have happened to us if a fire had started down there

Now I am pissed off, it was so so careless and dangerous of her and I am faced with replacing yet more clothing.

I want to ask her to contribute towards the cost of a new fleece and say that next time I will ask her to pay the full amount for any items that need replacing because she has shrunk, burnt etc them.

What do you think? What would you do in this circ?

Ta

cannot do the task it does it mean that my ap is a monkey or any other animal.

should read ; cannot do the task it does NOT mean that my ap is a monkey or any other animal.

I wouldn't charge her for a fleece. She's not paid enough.

Agree completely with lisalisa.

If you're going to start deducting wages give her a final written warning, so she at least has the chance to leave or something.

But if she keeps cocking it up isnt it easier to do it yourself (rather than deducting wages)?
As she does extra time with your DCs (as you said earlier), then surely you can accept that washing/ironing is not her forte.

And yes it is basic housework but lots of people do struggle with it, my DH is very intelligent but would really struggle to so all the washing in our household.

Desi makes a good point. I went to Japan quite capable of cooking. My first visit to a supermarket to stock up I had no idea how to cook anything on the shelves (cooking equipment different too) and couldn't read any instructions.

Kittywise it does it mean that my ap is a monkey or any other animal

Ha ha desi the English 'workers I have come across and I use the term workers very loosely are indolent. That is simply my experience.
I have spent a long time explaining the clothes to her. She has no need to understand the labels We have sat together sorting washing, discussing what is cotton, what is wool, what is nylon. I have got her to feel the fabrics, tell me whether she thinks they should go. I have asked her please to come to me if she is unsure.

She fully admits that she KNOWS that a certain item shouldn't have gone in the drier but she put it in.

I don't mind mistakes but doing the same thing over and over is NOT a mistake.

I chose her because she replied to my ad and seemed nice, she laso stretched the truth about her experience working in a house and bring with children. She lead me to believe she had had experience. Once she was here and I dug a little deeper it turns out her family have always had maids, she never had to do any house work ever, nor had she looked after small children.

But she has, on the whole been ok, against all odds.

chippingin are you illiterate?

ok kittywise that makes no sense. So she knew an item shouldn't go in but she put it in anyway??? Of course she didn't. You're the employer, she's the employee - you can phrase the question in such a way that she has no choice but to agree with you (especially as she's thai- which if it's the same as Japan there is no way someone can say 'no' - yes very often means no in Japan).

No she said she bundled the clothes in without checking whether items shouldn't go in there.

I wouldn't charge her for a fleece kitty that seems a bit petty. BTW AP's should only do dc's ironing you know?.
She would be getting a warning for the iron incident though.
I have charged an AP for a tyre in the past. She had a Sat night job working in a pub and managed to burst a tyre 2 weeks on the trot driving over the same pothole. I warned her if it happened again she'd have to pay and sure enough that Sat night she punctured the tyre for the 3 time. She had to pay and wasn't happy, but didn't do it again.

Tiramissu - just for you -

By kittywise on Wed 04-Mar-09 13:47:10
I do everything that is tradtionally the female role.
I do all laundry, cleaning, ironing, cooking etc

KW am illiterate - try reading some of your own posts. Anyway, just out of idle curiosity, why do you ask?? If it's because of our cross posts 22.55 and 22.57 - then really PMSL, get over yourself.

ingles I think that is for nannies. The same stipulation is not for ap's. You agree with them what housework is to be done. Usually it is light housework as is the case here.
Nannies are employed to do things with and for the children.

I shall have to think about the charging now

Perhaps I will say that I will not charge this time BUT if it happens again I will.

That sounds fairer kitty, that way she knows what to expect if she cocks up again, think waht ingles did worked well.

Still not sure I woudl trust her with an iron again...

ha ha chippingin I do do all of those things!
She is not the only one. She couldn't possible manage all the laundry by herself, that's ridiculous. I pay her to do some of it.
You learn to read posts properly instead of inventing things.

I do the laundry dp doesn't. I think it's quite traditional for women to get help with the housework.

No points for you there chippingin, try harder.

chipping, just furiously typed words, not an inability to read and comprehend.

Are you sure she knows how to use the drier properly? Speaking English may not necessarily mean she reads English very well. When we lived in China the appliances in our flat (obviously) were all labelled in Chinese. DH reads Chinese, I don't, so whenever I had to do anything but a standard wash I'd have to ask him to set the machine. Maybe stickers marking the right settings would help her?

In rural SE Asia, people dry their clothes by pulling the fridge out from the wall and putting the clothes horse against the coils on the back, because they're the warmest thing in a house without radiators. Unless she comes from a middle-class Bangkok family, she may be completely flummoxed by this tumble drier contraption you have.

Don't you have insurance? I have insurance for the girls who work with ds1.

lol ChippingIn
she prob meant 'i give all the instuctions/shouting about laudry, ironing etc '
Are you illiterate

Thanks for the though ninedragons
i hope that I have explained so that she understands. I only really use on setting for cottons so we leave it at that.

That's right, it's great to be able to afford to have help in the home. I'm so lucky and glad I don't have to do all the housework, lucky me.

As I said typos.

chipping doesn't read posts properly and extrapolates

I wouldn't class ironing as light housework tbh, but that is just me and because I hate it beyond words and wouldn't give it to my worst enemy.

I agree with the power thing. Again - poor girl.

Kitty I can understand your frustration, I really can, - perhaps you can suggest she cooks you all a meal by way of an apology, or babysit one night but don't dictate.

Like your suggestions snowlight esp the babysitting...

Annoying as it is, I don't think you can dock her pay for a genuine mistake.

A former colleague of mine in Hong Kong had a VERY expensive Tang Dynasty pottery horse. Its tail had broken off, and she'd been meaning to take it to a professional restorer. She got home one day and found her Filipina maid grinning and very pleased with herself because she'd fixed the tail by supergluing it back on.

That was thousands of pounds worth of damage, but it didn't occur to her to dock the woman's wages for a perfectly honest mistake.