House Rules for New Yaya

Ate Marlyn left last Sunday.  We are in need of a new yaya for Neo.  Luckily, we were able to borrow the long time yaya of Lolo Jun and Lola Net’s churchmate.  She will stay with us until such time we were able to get a new yaya – or if God permits, she stays with us longer na lang.

Even though she will just fill in the role of Neo’s yaya, we laid down house rules for her early on.  We don’t want misunderstanding along the way kasi.  So what are some rules we set?  Here are the lists.

Compensation and Benefits

Ø  Salary – discuss how much salary you intend to give and the manner and time of giving - is it monthly or weekly?  For us, we don’t give high salary for new yaya.  We are not kuripot.  We give above the salary required by the law.  And we are willing to give more but we must be sure that the yaya deserves it, and how do we know they deserve it?  Performance review.

Ø  Benefits – discuss the benefits you are planning to give.  Free toiletries?  13^th month bonus? SSS? Philhealth?

Ø  Days off – Kasambahay Law dictates we give our kasambahays once a week day off.  But honestly, this case is not the best for all household.  We are lenient with days off, but are very strict regarding agreed time of return.  When we agreed for her to return on a specific time, we want it followed.  We have plans that can be ruined due to late comers from day offs.

Ø  Vacation Leaves – discuss vacation leaves if you want to grant it.  For us, we are willing to shoulder the fare for vacation leaves once they reach one year employment with us.

Duties and Responsibilities

Ø  Neo-first policy – we hire all-around yaya.  But we always have a Neo first policy.  We are not maselan in our house cleanliness.  We want her to focus on Neo.

Ø  Cleanliness – we want Neo’s yaya to be clean.  She will be preparing Neo’s food.  She will be playing with Neo a lot.  So we want her clean.  Hygiene is important for us.

Ø  Honesty – well, this is a no brainer.  So our relationship will work, we value honesty so much.

Ø  Mobile phone usage - a lot of employers nowadays are having problems with mobile phone usage.  Some yayas tend to be abusive.  Always texting and calling.  Asar kasi the unlicall and unlitext that networks implemented e.  We want Neo’s yaya to focus on him, if she’s on her cellphone a lot of times, tendencies are, she will neglect Neo.

Ø  Chismis-free household – what you see, what you hear in our household, leave it there.

Ø  Hands Off – the same way we don’t want makating dila at bibig, we don’t want malikot na kamay in our house.

Ø  DO NOT HURT NEO.  This is of utmost importance.

How about you?  What are the house rules you implement with your yaya?