Numerous households across the country are dependent on their house helpers (today’s euphemism for the term “maid”). Step into any home, they are often seen cleaning, cooking, gardening, among a myriad of other tasks. While many are hardworking and devote endless hours to the families they serve, there is an odd (and rather aggravating) habit that seems apparent across the industry.
While I don’t personally employ a helper, I have encountered this with other households and that is the random health emergencies that seem to consistently arise.
On any given day, the house helper requests time off because their mother, father, husband, or some other relative is in the hospital (and then they ask for an advance to pay for the medical bills). Then, their return is always delayed for some exorbitant amount of time and, upon return, they act as if they didn’t just show up weeks (even months) after they promised. After another a month or so, yet another emergency affects the family, then another one, and another one after that.
It is clear that such instances are not isolated cases as these exact scenarios have been dramatized (and mocked) on television shows and movies repeatedly.

What is going on?
Taking the situation at face value, why does this seem to happen so often? Why are the families of house helpers always in some form of unending medical crisis? There is likely no medical explanation for why this occurs and why it only seems to happen to house helpers. Is it an industry hazard? A strange phenomenon?
Looking at it from the bigger picture, it’s alarming. How is it so many families can be affected by illness after illness impacting a different family member each time? It almost sounds like an outbreak and such cases should be reported to the Department of Health—even the Department of Labor and Employment—in order to see why illnesses seem to constantly pervade certain families and is it rooted in one’s work as a house helper.
The World Health Organization describes an outbreak as “the occurrence of disease cases in excess of normal expectancy;” for one family to be afflicted by disease over and over again almost redefines “outbreak” altogether, which is why the situation presented by house helpers is so distressing.

Gullible?
From my jaded perspective, I see the situation as a means of trying to take excessive time off. There is never a hospital bill, they never contact while they are away, and they always seem refreshed upon their late return. They make such flimsy excuses to take time off and put their karma at stake by allegedly feigning illness; and because the excuse they give is so transparent, it makes me believe they think they’re “outsmarting” their boss—that their boss is just that gullible.
Of course, there is no doubt on the work they put in and the time spent keeping a house shipshape but there is no job in the world that gives workers months off at a time with payment in advance (as much as anybody would enjoy that arrangement). Plus, the fact that they almost always return long after they originally intended shows a major lack of disrespect. For a regular nine-to-five, show up even a day after one was supposed to return and that person would be excoriated—if not fired. Yet, for house helpers, it’s fine for them to take advantage of their employers?
In either case, if an individual family is plagued by one disease after another, that is a situation that demands attention as it poses a health risk to the worker themselves, along with their employer; in the end, it is probably not best for them to be away from home at all. However, if they are just being duplicitous and disregard basic courtesies when it comes to the employee-worker relationship, that just shows poor character and proves they are not one who should be employed in such a capacity./WDJ