Home employees: ten things they hate

You may know someone from your environment who is a home employe - we will use the female because more than 98% of the sector is covered by women -.Or you have one at home to perform domestic tasks, care for your elders or your children.Or you have read 'Maid' (Captain Swing), whose author, Stephanie Land, tells her misadventures as a single mother who tries to make a living cleaning foreign homes, a story that Netflix has become a television series ('The assistant')that has hooked millions of people.That is, maybe you know (or you think) something about the life of these employees.

But, in reality, it is a diffuse 'knowledge', like a science fiction cartoon for all but its protagonists.Something we prefer not to repair too much, it is not going to be that we leave badly, since 'normal' people are never identified with the bad ones of the books or the series, right?Well, maybe we are consciously or not.And, in the case of household employees, a very precarious collective, being the 'bad' means, to begincollective domestic territory, a group that since 2006 struggles for the rights of these workers.With almost three decades of work in the sector and many years of activism, Pimentel emphasizes that she has been one of the lucky ones who have had impeccable, supportive and, above all, human employers."But, unfortunately, there are many companions who don't," he says.

As it counts, this type of work must evolve, not only legally - the collective has a good number of labor claims - but also from the human point of view, since certain 'details' (perhaps not so nimios for whom thesuffer) damage their self -esteem, cause discomfort and, ultimately, make them feel "invisible" and disabled.These are the things that household employees hate (although, of course, few will say it) and that Pimentel, as spokesman for the domestic territory -not because of their experience, fortunately -knows very well.

«In many houses they are believed that you are multi -purpose.You have to be worth everything: they hire you to clean and then you find that you have to take care of the grandfather, pick up the children, take a walk with the aunt and walk the sister's dog.They even make you go to friends or family homes!The right thing is to explain what they expect from you before starting.You have to de-fi-nir, ”says Rafaela Pimentel.

If something feels bad, it is that their day is not limited and that they fall more and more tasks without taking into account that they do not fit 'in their time."This is especially serious in the case of inmates, where breaks are not respected," he says.

A home employee knows many secrets of our house: hey conversations, iron our clothes and knows if it is face or not, see things...So the relationship with its employers is, in reality, very intimate.Let's not say if they spend much time with family children.But what do those who hire them know?"They must believe that we have no family," says Pimentel, whose group includes complaints and complaints of this type.Missing empathy.

Employees know what they are going to a house, but one thing is to clean and others find shoes thrown everywhere, dirty underwear on the floor "and even glasses of coffee in the bathanecdotes of their companions.This is lack of respect, education...And all."One day it can happen, but some employers usually do it," Pimentel complains. ".As if we were slaves ".

"The girl" (although the worker is 60 years old), "La Chacha", "The girl who helps me".You have to banish these words and expressions to refer to household employees.They feel fatal."Let's see, we have a name," recalls Pimentel.

"When visits arrive home, employees are working and employers do not say who they are, that makes them feel invisible, noneful and uncomfortable," says Pimentel.The educated thing is to comment 'Mira, this is Fulanita, works here'.Come on, the basic courtesy norms that we would apply in any situation."We are not ghosts, but sometimes we dedicate ourselves to this we have that feeling," he says.

Many employers hallucinate when they know that their home worker has a university career, knows languages...«It bothers us that they think we were born like this.Let's see, there are people with a very good curriculum, but who have had to come to Spain to work on whatever, ”he says.The surprise offends."A Venezuelan companion who is a doctor worked for an assistant time and fell when they found out at home," he recalls.Now he exercises as an optional.

Rafaela Pimentel, who has written the 'maid' preface, highlights that many middle or high class people who can already have household employees have forgotten that perhaps their parents or grandparents had to emigrate to earn the bread, leave theirChildren in Spain and get to serve, as said once.«They tell their employees 'Oh, I don't know how you could leave your children in another country, how horrible', and that hurts: in their families they may have done the same in the past, but historically people tend to erase the pain...".

Sometimes, believing a favor, household employees are given used clothes.If it is in good condition and the offer is proposed with touch, it is something solidary and sustainable.«The bad thing is when they give you broken, very old garments, which only are worth the container.Many take them not to offend and on the way home they throw them in the trash. ¿Por qué no declinan la oferta antes? «Para que no las llamen 'mal agradecidas', algo muy extendido", apunta Pimentel.

A veces, con condescendencia, se dice esta frase, que las empleadas de hogar suelen usar «de cachondeo" en sus quedadas.«They tell you like they do a favor, but then you ask for a salary increase and they jump 'Oh, I have no money, that this month I go very bad because I have many expenses, I will put the collagen...'", cuenta Pimentel, acordándose de las historias de sus compañeras. «Y luego, después de decirte que andan justas, les planchas la blusa aún con la etiqueta puesta y que vale 200 euros", relata.