I think I have less work to do during the coronavirus outbreak because I do not need to wake up earlier to send my ward to school or prepare for her lunchbox. It is easier for me because I can relax for a while after I finish my housework and there is no need to hurry to meet her activity schedules. Taking care of my ward become easier because she only stays at home, watches television or plays her toys. We have more time to bond with each other when we prepare snacks together.
— Jonah Cabangbang
My workload has increased a bit at present. For instance, I need to change the beddings of my employer’s family every day and steam them. My employers go to work almost every day but sometimes they are at home. What causes me stress is that my ward spends more time on her gadgets than doing her online school work. Also she scatters her things all around the house so I need to tidy up several times a day. Sometimes she hits me and screams at me. I told my employer the problem and she apologised to me. My contract finishes in July and I do not want to continue. However, my employer asked me to reconsider since her daughter will be in secondary school at that time. They urged me to extend my patience because she is at a stage when she wants to decide things on her own.
— Jenelyn Celes
It is normal to have additional work during the pandemic. I need to clean the house, especially the toilet, more frequently. Staying at home whole day every day is another adjustment as my ward is super active and disobedient sometimes. My employer’s family sleep late this time because my ward do not need to go to school. So I work late, which makes me tired as I still need to wake up early to do my work.
— Daphne Corpuz
Child minding is the only additional chores in this pandemic as my wards do not need to go to school. It is stressful since my wards always want to play, run and chase after each other. It is easy for me to get tired while watching them and ensure their safety. But I hope that this pandemic will end and our lives will be back to normal. It will be good to go out and gather with friends on Sundays so as to relax from six days’ work.
— Crisel Deniega
Before the pandemic, I do not need to prepare lunch because my employer and I will just eat the leftover from the previous dinner. Now since the whole family are staying home, I need to prepare. They now sleep late and wake up late so I need to start my cleaning late. There are additional cleaning to do because of the scatterings after the family eat or play. I can say my workload has doubled. But I am still grateful for the blessing of a job. And I look with optimism that this pandemic is only temporary.
— Cristina Dimaunahan
The pandemic has made me really busy with the household chores and child-minding. My priority is my wards. If my employer has spare time she can help me take care of my wards so that I can do my household work. However, since they are always at home I cannot finish my routine work on time because they will ask me to do something else before I am able to finish what I am doing. They may do extra baking and some activities with the children that cause more tidying up and cleaning but I cannot complain as we do not have a choice.
Apart from that I am unable to have proper sleep because I share my room with a baby. I have not got a holiday since the pandemic started. But the good thing is that my employer don’t pressure me to finish everything on time and they are not selfish when it comes to food sharing.
— Janet Longan
Before the pandemic, I had a time schedule of my work for cleaning, marketing or cooking. However, my schedules need to be changed because of the pandemic. Now my employers stay at home to do their office work. I cannot vacuum the house in the morning as I will wake them up from their sleep. I cannot make noise when they are doing their office work at home either. However, the good thing is my employer is satisfied with my work attitude and they do not ask me to stay at home on my day off. The choice of going out or not is mine.
— Nicoreta Lumelay
