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Housekeeping Vs The Housekeeper

If you have ever had a domestic staff who is lethargic, slow and just generally lacks the drive to do her work, I am certain it may have crossed your mind at some point that “If this person didn’t want to work, why did they take up the job in the first place?”.

Let’s trade places for a few seconds. Have you ever taken up a job that you didn’t sincerely have the natural propensity for, but had to consider it because you weren’t doing anything and the pay was very good? Well, if you haven’t, I have. I hated marketing in banking because I knew I could thrive more in a back-office role or service related department. But I couldn’t quit, because I had been jobless for a while and this was my first shot at being in the corporate world.
In addition to that, the pay was very good. I had never handled that kind of money before that belonged to me.

You can guess that because I hated marketing, I sucked at it and couldn’t deliver results like some other marketers who felt at home in that role. These people were thriving, hitting targets, getting commissions e.t.c but I was struggling. As much as I wanted to do well, I wasn’t motivated to. Yet I didn’t quit. My drive to earn an income was stronger than my drive to be excellent on my job.

This is exactly what happens to many housekeepers, yours inclusive. Your domestic staff’s personality could hate the routine that is housekeeping, hate the fact that she has to serve a family or wake up early in the morning to clean. It doesn’t make her a bad person, it only makes her human, normal and part of a very common statistic.

Unfortunately, if you decide to fire her based on this situation alone, a large percentage of maids fall into this category, so you may end up with another uninterested staff.

The good news is that there are strategies to make a domestic staff who falls into this category improve and become better. Just like me in banking, my superiors took some steps that helped me navigate my role as a marketer easily, the result was that I was able to record tremendous growth and progress.
I highlight a few of these strategies below:

  1. Break down the complex and complicated chores into smaller bits in a way that maximizes her strength and time. This act is called SCHEDULING.
  2. Start to recognize her as a value-adder and demand a level of responsibility and contribution from that title. If you can stop seeing her as a simpleton, whom you are helping or a project you are working on, there is every likelihood she will live up to that expectation.
  3. By sparking up her interest in the job through compensation and benefits. If these benefits are structured right, you will find you maid making commitment to do stuff and also cultivating discipline in order to meet all conditions.

Would you be interested in learning more about these strategies and how you can implement them with your DS? I put together a mini course with 4 videos, totaling about 2 hours, that will help you move your domestic staff from being Laid-back to being a doer and performer. I explain the three winning strategies I highlighted above in-depth. You can read more about it HERE.

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