Thursday, December 01, 2011
A delicious lunch of dim sum started with the normal chatter among the four of us – all of us colleagues, current and former. After placing our order, we sipped at our cups of Chinese tea as the topic turned to maids in Hong Kong. Managing them seemed to be a difficult task. My fellow diners were all young mothers, and for the next hour, the discussion at our table centred on the attracting and retaining of talented maids.
Seems like a banal topic, but what surprised me was that after knowing two of them for more than a year and one of them for half a year, I had never imagined that these women who were so professional and confident in the workplace could go through so much at home in terms of managing their various roles. At work, they were the perfect example of committed employees. One would think that what mattered most to them work was. I hadn’t seen even a glimpse of their home life in all these months. Suddenly I heard the various concerns, responsibilities, juggling of priorities, and much more.
I felt lucky to be single and not have the responsibility of looking after a family in Hong Kong, but at the same time, I couldn’t help admiring the grit, tenacity, and capability of my professional colleagues, who took multiple competing priorities in their stride, with a broad smile, almost every day.