Every household with staff runs into the same ten problems sooner or later. For each one: what is usually behind it, what to do, and what cover or a replacement costs in a typical Indian city.
1. Absent without warning, again
Usually: a child ill, a water-supply day in her own locality, a family function, or a second house that ran late. Sometimes a late salary last month, in which case the absence is a message.
Do: agree the number of paid leave days a month, two to four for part-time, and ask for a morning message when a day is being taken. Beyond the agreed days, a pro-rata deduction said in advance is fair. Pattern absences on Mondays or after salary day are a conversation, not a deduction.
Cover: a helper for the day is ₹700; most neighbours' maids will take a day's extra house for about that.
2. "That was never part of the job"
Usually: it was not. The task was added by someone in the family without adding to the salary, or the sheet was never written.
Do: write the sheet today, one line per task, salary beside it. New task, new line, new amount. The three maid units run from ₹4,500 for cleaning to ₹8,000 with dishes and clothes; a cook moving from one meal to two goes from ₹6,000 to ₹9,500. If the sheet shows the task and the pay, the dispute is over.
3. Something is missing
Usually: it was moved, lent or mislaid; most "missing" items turn up within a week. Occasionally, it was taken, and the household's instinct is to confront or to withhold salary, both of which are wrong.
Do: look properly first. Then say what is missing to everyone in the house, without accusing. If you genuinely believe there was theft, file a police complaint and let them handle it. Do not withhold wages, do not search belongings, and do not announce it in the society group; an accusation without evidence ends a livelihood, and the worker who is innocent, which is nearly always, will leave and should. Prevent the next one with a lockable cupboard and a grocery-money notebook.
4. Hygiene in the kitchen or the bathroom
Usually: nobody showed her the house's standard, and the supplies to meet it were not there. A kitchen with one scrubber for everything and no gloves for the toilet will be cleaned accordingly.
Do: supply separate buckets and brushes for bathroom and kitchen, gloves, enough cleaner, and show once how you want vessels dried and the counter wiped. For a cook, say the rules about hand washing, hair tied, tasting spoons and covering food. Most hygiene complaints end after one clear, kind demonstration and a shelf of supplies.
5. Left without notice
Usually: a reason that was never said: salary paid late twice, a task added without pay, a family member who was rude or unsafe, a better offer two floors up. Occasionally a genuine emergency back home.
Do: call once, kindly, and ask. Pay what is owed to the last day. If she comes back, write the sheet. If she does not, a replacement through TheHire is a verified profile with reviews, and a trial of two or three paid days before the month starts. Expect a live-in replacement to take a week to find; a part-time one a day or two.
6. The salary advance that never ends
Usually: a real first need, a school fee or a hospital bill, followed by a second advance before the first was repaid, and then a third. The worker is now working to repay and cannot leave, which is bad for her and, in time, for the work.
Do: one advance at a time, a week's or a month's pay, repaid in small fixed deductions written on the sheet. Say no to the second until the first is cleared, and say why. If the need is medical and large, a basic health policy in her name costs a few thousand rupees a year and prevents the next spiral.
7. Society and gate trouble
Usually: the worker was not registered at the gate, the society's staff hours or lift rules were not explained, or the app was never set up for her, and the guard turned her away or held her at the gate for twenty minutes while her next house waited.
Do: register on day one with photo and ID, get the app entry done, and tell her the rules before she hits them. If the society's rules for staff are degrading, separate lifts with no alternative, no toilet access, that is a matter for the association meeting, and households that raise it usually find they are not alone.
8. The worker brings her own replacement
Usually: she is going home for a month and has arranged her sister or a neighbour to keep the house for her. In the trade this is normal and responsible.
Do: accept it for the leave period, with an ID copy and the gate registration for the stand-in. Do not accept a permanent swap by default; a new worker needs her own verification, her own sheet and your agreement, and her own reviews if she came through TheHire.
9. The attendant is out of her depth
Usually: a parent's condition has changed. What was help with bathing and walks is now a bed-ridden patient with a catheter and pressure sores, and the attendant hired at ₹15,000 was never trained for it.
Do: move to a trained patient attendant at ₹18,000 for bed-ridden care, hygiene and vitals, or to 24-hour live-in care at ₹24,000 if the nights have become the problem. Injections, drips, wound dressing and oxygen are a home nurse's work, under the nursing category, and no attendant should be asked to do them.
10. The agency is the problem
Usually: the placement fee was paid, the worker left in week three, and the promised replacement has not appeared. Or the agency collects the salary monthly and the worker, asked privately, receives much less than you pay.
Do: read the placement contract for the replacement period and hold them to it in writing. If the arrangement is a monthly deduction model on a home job, finish the contract period and hire direct next time; the whole salary then reaches the worker, and verification and reviews are on the profile rather than on the agency's word.
Two rules that apply to all ten
Say it early, kindly, once. Most of these problems were visible for weeks before they became a crisis. A two-minute conversation on the day the task was added, the salary slipped or the absence became a pattern is the whole fix.
Never use the salary as a lever. Not to punish absence beyond the agreed deduction, not over a missing item, not over notice. Withholding wages is not a remedy, it is not lawful, and it is the single fastest way to turn a small problem into an empty kitchen the week before a festival.