Maids and other domestics in Hong Kong are increasingly expected to be computer-literate and provide tech support to the households they service.
According to some maids, the phrase “computer-literate” is fast becoming as essential an entry on the job-seekers’ flyers as cooking skills and excellence at household chores.
Computer courses have boomed to meet demand, with one Hong Kong course taken up entirely by domestic workers, mainly from the Philippines but also from Indonesia.
Some employers are paying their maid’s fees so they can help out afterwards with computer chores at home, but they rarely talk about it because contracts stipulate the maids are in Hong Kong only for domestic work. The finest exponents of the profession, equally adept at catering for a dinner party of 12, cleaning the house and sorting out a dodgy disk drive, can earn four times the standard monthly salary of HK$3,270 (£250), one maid said.
The demand for maids who are able to clean up the fridge and the hard drive has been driven by the surge in computer use and the numbers of children now doing their homework on computer.
(via BoingBoing)