A piece in the Sunday Express Magazine a few weeks ago struck a chord with me. Titled "Maid to Order" , it contained some good, commonsense advice on HR management tips for your home. Tip number 7 said: As for power struggles between household help, let the bossy one hire the other one... ." While I would not do exactly that, I have for sometime believed in what the writer termed as "Job Enrichment" for household staff, especially staff with above average intelligence, loads of inititiative, a sense of responsibility and more than a touch of bossiness! I must confess it has worked for me to put the bossy one in charge and allow her to lord it over her underling/s!
If it weren't for this bossy one in your household staff, think how you would handle a crazy, cantankerous and grumpy cook who always said that the menu you wanted her to turn out took too long to cook, and who invariably wanted to put off cooking at least one thing on that menu to the next day?!! Well, my advice to you would be, "Don't handle her. Leave her to Major Domo Uma." Uma who cracks the whip, cajoles the crazy cook, bullies her, and coaxes her. Uma, who gets the cook to turn out the complete menu I have planned for the day, so I not only get to eat what I want (as against what the cook wants to cook), but I also get to keep my temper and my sanity!
What Uma extracts out of the crazy cook with a little wile and guile and loads of patience, Shi Ayi, my dear major domo in Beijing extracted out of not one but two young maids with sheer intimidation!
Not that she even tried to intimidate them...... her status as a retired Public Service Bureau (the eyes and ears of the Government of the PRC in the homes of foreign diplomats) employee of the old, Maoist China was enough to make these two young things quake and shake in their shoes and toe the line she laid down! They were certainly not fooled by her beaming, good natured, grandmotherly look. Years of training had made her sharp and canny and politically savvy. She looked down unabashedly on the two young migrant maids from the impoverished province of Anhui, and used all of her Beijing sophistication to keep them in line. Incidentally, Shi Ayi's underlings included my kids as well. She hustled them into taking off their shoes, washing their hands, and eating her delicious pork dumplings when they returned from school, albeit in a less stern voice than she used with the Anhui girls!
What would I do without my Uma and my Shi Ayi, who although they most definitely are unaware of this strange sounding term, have been my almost indispensable major domos!
And though our erstwhile Man Friday or Mr. D as I affectionately called him was not a major domo with any minions to boss around, I cannot not mention him here and I could not not thank him in my little speech at my graduation party some years ago. For without him would I have had the courage to go back to school after a quarter of a century, leaving home for work at 7 am, proceeding to school to attend classes until 10 pm, and returning to find the family fed and happy, and Mr. D himself waiting for me with a hot dinner?
If I was able to do three different and exciting part time jobs at a time, or simultaneously work and study, and all without being stressed out, it is thanks to these individuals, who though they will never read this blog deserve my profuse thanks - not only for making it possible for me to follow my dreams because they did such a good job of looking after my home, but also because I believe that I have been a much better and happier employer since the day I began to acknowledge their immense contribution to my life as it is today!
If it weren't for this bossy one in your household staff, think how you would handle a crazy, cantankerous and grumpy cook who always said that the menu you wanted her to turn out took too long to cook, and who invariably wanted to put off cooking at least one thing on that menu to the next day?!! Well, my advice to you would be, "Don't handle her. Leave her to Major Domo Uma." Uma who cracks the whip, cajoles the crazy cook, bullies her, and coaxes her. Uma, who gets the cook to turn out the complete menu I have planned for the day, so I not only get to eat what I want (as against what the cook wants to cook), but I also get to keep my temper and my sanity!
What Uma extracts out of the crazy cook with a little wile and guile and loads of patience, Shi Ayi, my dear major domo in Beijing extracted out of not one but two young maids with sheer intimidation!
Not that she even tried to intimidate them...... her status as a retired Public Service Bureau (the eyes and ears of the Government of the PRC in the homes of foreign diplomats) employee of the old, Maoist China was enough to make these two young things quake and shake in their shoes and toe the line she laid down! They were certainly not fooled by her beaming, good natured, grandmotherly look. Years of training had made her sharp and canny and politically savvy. She looked down unabashedly on the two young migrant maids from the impoverished province of Anhui, and used all of her Beijing sophistication to keep them in line. Incidentally, Shi Ayi's underlings included my kids as well. She hustled them into taking off their shoes, washing their hands, and eating her delicious pork dumplings when they returned from school, albeit in a less stern voice than she used with the Anhui girls!
What would I do without my Uma and my Shi Ayi, who although they most definitely are unaware of this strange sounding term, have been my almost indispensable major domos!
And though our erstwhile Man Friday or Mr. D as I affectionately called him was not a major domo with any minions to boss around, I cannot not mention him here and I could not not thank him in my little speech at my graduation party some years ago. For without him would I have had the courage to go back to school after a quarter of a century, leaving home for work at 7 am, proceeding to school to attend classes until 10 pm, and returning to find the family fed and happy, and Mr. D himself waiting for me with a hot dinner?
If I was able to do three different and exciting part time jobs at a time, or simultaneously work and study, and all without being stressed out, it is thanks to these individuals, who though they will never read this blog deserve my profuse thanks - not only for making it possible for me to follow my dreams because they did such a good job of looking after my home, but also because I believe that I have been a much better and happier employer since the day I began to acknowledge their immense contribution to my life as it is today!
