Efficiency? Progress?

     These are questions I asked this week after some mild frustrations with workers.  We claim to be hardworking, but really, the inefficiency is getting to me.

     I have been helped at home again recently by a part-time live-out housekeeper from Bgy. "I".  I am not out to generalize or destroy an entire barangay's reputation. I just want to issue fair warning.  Two different women in my same village cautioned me long ago about hiring help from this barangay.  They closer they are to the village, they said, the worse they seemed to behave in terms of their commitments. They will slack off, make all sorts of excuses, and generally, really leave you hanging.  I experienced this more than once. Helpers from this barangay are not easy to communicate with, and easily and often ask for 'help'. Money for a sick child is the common plea, and asked on the 2nd day of work. The barangay health center, it seems, is not help to them.  And when I tried to offer solutions, such as the parish center, they refused. This barangay is actually  in Cavite, and not Laguna. Common too, is the story that their husbands, who are not employed themselves, refuse to let them work.  I would rather not have a mother of young children leave them alone at home, but I am told that is the practice and they are used to it. I've not heard of any housekeepers coming from the barangay I'm actually in, which is interesting. I'm within the Technopark---does this mean that the jobs women in this barangay hold are also in the technopark's tenants?

     My real issue isn't so much that now my schedule and plans have again been disrupted but that the one-month old helper has not communicated this properly. Just like the rest, she will text me her dilemma, not reply, claim to not have load, not answer the phone, etc.  I wish they would just say no to the job.

     These past two weeks also, I have tried and been slightly frustrated by the "mananahi" or tailors nearby.  I tried them out, and while they do a good job, it's the scheduling and communication problem again.  Now I have to say, I have huge compassion for tailors---my grandmother was widowed early and supported her children by sewing and catering. But really, their reception person should not commit a pick-up date and should overestimate.  I did not come on the due date and even delayed it just in case.  I sympathize with the tailor who was sick, but they should really have texted (they texted when the first project was done). I told her directly that my trip to the shop was intentional and was another waste like last time.  Then she apologized and said she would just text me.

     We're slacking off, Filipinos.  I sometimes have trouble believing our labor force is as good as we claim.  There's really still this lackadaisical attitude...it's often "pasensya na", "puwede na".  Many customers and business owners are returning OFWs from Singapore---I just wonder if they are frustrated coming from the nearly uptight efficiency there, coming home to the smiley excuses here.