Having a good life in India depends heavily on the quality and effectiveness of domestic help. And just so you get the proper perspective on this, domestic help consists of the following:
- Driver (daily from 8am-9pm)
- Maid 1 (daily/morning - housecleaning)
- Maid 2 (daily/evening - dishwashing and miscellaneous cleaning)
- Milk/Newspaper delivery (daily/morning)
- DVD delivery (occassional/as needed)
- Cooking Gas delivery (occassional, as needed)
- Laundry pickup/delivery (occassional, as needed)
- Miscellaneous (general home care and errands)
As you can see, managing domestic staff is not an easy affair and I am excited to announce that Mona has effectively transitioned into the role of the Chief of Staff in our household. After getting early training managing the staff at the guest house in January, she comfortably eased into this new role as we moved into our new place. I am very impressed with her negotiation and resource management skills although she needs to work on her patience. Managing half a dozen people daily to get your home running and operating smoothly is quite a feat! And I am glad that she is the one doing it.
2 comments:
I would love to hear even more detail since we just moved to Bangalore and I am suppose to do this and I don't have a clue! how is milk and newspaper delivery arranged? do you tip? how do you get people to do what you want?
Way to go Mona! The management skills displayed by you are truly impressive- perhaps Harvard should do case studies in India on how to manage 1001 things at the same time and not lose your sanity!
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