What would you do to your housemaid if you were me?!?

Question

My baby kitten died just because my housemaid didnt feed it. All this time i was thinking that she would feed the kitten when my mother and I could not. I got so busy with my final projects and my mother was always out of the house these past days. Now that i'm officially on vacation, time to make up for the kitty....and I just learned that my kitty died! aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!! I even planned to take pictures of it this afternoon!! I confronted her and she told me that she didnt feed the kitten coz she didn't like it... !!! Ugh, i'm mad at her even more!! How could she stand a baby kitten crying and wanting to be fed and just ignore it all the time?! Grrrr.... She could have just told me she wouldnt feed it!!

Thank you everyone for your answers. It really helped me a lot. Uff, some answers do hurt, but it's ok.

It's not that i got this kitty on purpose. I adopted this kitty coz i found it crying the whoooole night while i was making a project. My neigbor's kids brought it at home from school and abandoned it near our yard. It was still days old, it couldnt walk yet. So the next day, i took it home. It stayed with me for 5 days... and it died yesterday... I'm not going to fire my housemaid because of that... i'm mad because she was unkind. She just ignored it. She can spend lots of time sending sms (yes, while working) but she couldnt feed a kitten that would just take her less than 5 minutes. A housemaid is called "katabang" in my language and katabang means "helper". She should have helped me by feeding the kitty herself coz i was so busy to do so. Anyway, she is paid to help . And we dont have such thing like contracts here.

Answer 1

I would not fire her over this episode alone. I gather your employee may have some issues with cats or kittens. I think whatever the issues she has with the animal will get worse if she loses her job over them.
Give yourself sometime to cool off so that you would not make a decision when you are emotionally charged up. If there's any, focus on the good quality of your employee while you are deciding what to do with her.
I am sorry about your loss.

Answer 2

I read this question and couldn't believe my eyes. YOU should be ashamed of yourself. There is no one to blame here but yourself! There is absolutely no excuse for not feeding YOUR cat. If you didn't have time to take care of the cat then you shouldn't have gotten it in the first place.

It is not the housekeepers responsibility, it is yours. If anyone should be reported for animal cruelty it is you. How could your schedule be so busy that a minute or two could not have been taken out to throw a cup of food in a dish?

I don't understand why people have animals that they do not have time to poperly take care of. And proper care is not just feeding, but also playing and stimulation for the animal. If time for the cat was an issue that you should have waited to get the cat.

I suggest in the future you wait until you are more responsible to own a pet. Final projects and busy schedules are no excuse. I own dogs, ferrets, rats, degus, birds, a turtle and a rabbit(17 pets total) and have never not been able to fit feeding them into my schedule, which is filled with, full time classes, full time job, a thesis paper, midterms, term papers, group projects(and that is only this semester).

Blaming the housekeeper may make you feel less responsible for the cats death, but you are responsible. And if you are a child, than your mother should be ashamed of herself as well, for taking an animal into her home and not providing proper care.

Answer 3

Of course, you fire here, and make it clear that you will not be giving her good references. Unfortunately there is little more you can do. You can't really accuse her or murder, it's a cat and that doesn't come under murder, but sometimes I wish it did as that was total neglect. I don't even think there is any way to take her to small claims court over this. Wish I could come up with something that you could sue her over. What an absolutely horrible story. Do you know anyone else that she works for, if so spread the word of what she did and try to get her fired from as many jobs as possible. Yes, I am a very vendictive person, especially when it comes to someone hurting my babies.

Answer 4

fire her. that's unforgivable. Even if no one specifically told her to feed the kitten, she should have responded to its cries or at least, asked your mom or called you up to ask and confirm about it. This is NOT about what her job specifications are - its about humane treatment of animals - especially an animal which she knows is a pet in your household. What if it were a baby or toddler in your household - will she refuse to attend to it becuase it is not in her job specifications. Its just common sense and common humanity for pity's sake!!! This incident shows that there is something hard and uncaring about this woman.

I have grown up in a home which uses the services of house maids... live-in servants. My mom would fire any servant that was mean or cruel to any of our animals. She always said that such a person will hit and maltreat a child when no one was looking or when she is certain she will not be held to account for it. My mom was a good judge of character.

Answer 5

First, it is not a maid's job to feed and care for an animal that you, by virtue of buying said pet, are responsible for. You are responsible. If you can't even spare enough time to feed the poor thing, you have no business having a pet. Also, from what you said, YOU DIDN'T EVEN ASK HER TO FEED IT. What is she, psychic?
Look, I'm sorry your pet died, really I am. But maybe you should take a lesson in responsibility from this. Poor little rich girl.

Answer 6

Did you specifically ask her to feed the kitten or just ASSUME she would know to feed it? How could you and your mother not even notice the cat was weak and obviously sick from not eating?? Obviously it is YOUR fault as much as it is the maids fault if you did not even look at the kitten for as long as it took it to starve to death!!

Answer 7

I'm from New York where what she did would be considered a felony punishable by imprisonment. Such a punishment is for a good reason; anyone who could be so cruel, cold and inhumane is sick and needs to be incarcerated. I would never in a million years want to be associated with such an individual and firing her is the very least that should be done.

Answer 8

I know I will get a few thumbs down for this but:

WHAT HAPPENED W ACCOUNTABILITY????? WHY CAN'T PEOPLE BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN ACTS?????

Why ppl try to find scapegoats? It doesnt take that long to feed a kitten!!!!!! IS YOUR FAULT. Unless you specifically told the maid to feed the kitten: IS YOUR FAULT. You were not responsible enough. Nobody forced you to get a kitten. If you were not ready for one, then why you got him? Next thing, you are going to tell me you will sue McDonalds for making you fat, NO?

Answer 9

Your first mistake in this matter was *thinking* that she would feed your pet.

The first thing you would want to do would be to fire her, but here's my question....is there anything in her contract that says she's required to feed the kitten or any other pets you have? Generally maids are only supposed to clean your house, not care for any pets, whether they like them or not.

Now, if it was specifically stated in her contract that she was expected to feed any and all pets, and she didn't, then yes, the correct thing to do would be to fire her since she didn't do her job as required, HOWEVER, if there was nothing in her contract that stated she was expected to feed any and all pets, then she shouldn't be held liable for the death of your pet. The blame should be left to you, for *thinking* that someone was feeding YOUR pet. Take this as a hard lesson learned...never assume someone else is assuming responsibility for something that you should be caring for.

Answer 10

I am sorry for the loss of your kitty. Did you ask her to feed it? If not, the death is on your hands. If your not capable to handle a responsibility to feed a little kitten, don't have one!!!! The maids main job is cleaning, not taking care of your duties. She didn't ignore your kitten, YOU DID!!!!! Don't assume anything......make sure!!!