I described how it all began. However, I did not describe how it all ended 6 months later with a woman named Dayanara Martinez, Dayana Martinez of Wasco, CA. The following are factual events and is not to be construed or interpreted as opinion or otherwise.
Dayanara Martinez was employed as a live in housekeeper for me for nearly 7 months. She cleaned, did the laundry, took care of the pets, ran errands and cooked. While most of her work was satisfactory, there were some observations as noted below.
My video/audio cameras captured her having several long telephone conversations in Spanish with personal friends/family while she was cleaning over the span of several months. Some of the calls were over an hour. The work shift started at 8 am and rarely was she on time even though she was a live in. Most of the time she would start work 10-15 minutes late. On days were she had medical appointments in Wasco, she would start work in the afternoon, anywhere from 1-4 pm. Time less than 8 hours in a day was to be made up. But it was never made up as more time accumulated due to regular tardiness and she refused to be paid anything less than her weekly salary. This was every week for a period of at least 6 weeks towards the end of her duration of employment at my house. She would buy groceries and had a company issued credit card to do so. On occasion she would buy cookies for herself and justify the spending as a minor purchase on the company issued credit card. Dirty dishes were left in the sink every night and not cleaned until the morning. Once, deliveries of groceries were not delivered to my elderly parents. Calls and texts were ignored until the next morning. The groceries were never delivered or reimbursed.
Once Majestic Domestic Staffing opened its doors, our first client was served. She went to the deep clean that house for two days, yet she expected to be paid her regular salary at my house for zero work during those two days. After discussing this with her, she was upset that I would not allow it to happen again. She took a medical leave of absence of 2 weeks and left her personal belongings in the maid’s room where she stayed. Multiple extensions of absence transpired and it was apparent after two months that she was not coming back anytime soon. She came back once to ask for money as a gift of funds without repayment. When I refused and told her it was an advance of one week’s salary. She was not pleased but agreed. I hired temporary substitute housekeepers in her absence. Out of the kindness of my heart, I held the position for her for over 2 months. She told me she would come back to work only if I give her more money and she would work less days in the same amount of time. I declined her offer and asked for the return of the advanced loan. She proceeded to become angry and said that it was her severance payment which it was clearly not. She never returned to the house to retrieve her personal belongings even after exchanged correspondences nor did she return the keys to my house or pay back the advanced loan.
Unfortunately, what seemed like the perfect housekeeper for the first couple of months quickly showed her true colors within 6 months. Out of that, Majestic Domestic Staffing Agency was formed. It remains a small, boutique agency with its sole purpose to assist other estate households with finding good, honest and hardworking people who won’t take advantage of the owner’s kindness and generosity.