Is it any wonder there is so much Petty Theft, Begging and general Misery in the Philippines

[Jack Peterson]

 Odd Topic Subject? Not really when you read on 

My helpers asked at breakfast for an Increase in salary. Not an Unusual request one would think BUT the reasons shocked me a little.

One of them sends Money Home to her Husband and the other to her Mother, Now they gave us a list of things that have risen in costs over the last month but the One that raised my eyebrows was the serious Hike in Tobacco cost. Apparently, the Husband smokes a cheap brand (As many do) but cheap is no longer a word that signifies his particular Brand, up from she tells us in April from 36p per pack to 42p per pack. From Monday (Yesterday 1st May up to 50p per pack, now that is about 15% of the norm daily rate of Pay here in Negros oriental give or take.

One would think that if the President is going to be hard on illegal Drugs he would make the alternative better/cheaper for those that do indulge in "Smoking"

Overall the cost increases, seem to be way above the reported cost of Living increases. Either the Government is Lying to it's people or the Suppliers are making Western style profits pro-rata. For us I guess, it is just something that happens and does not come as a surprise, but these people just can't cope with this and this is what I mean about petty theft ( Which is on the Increase in some Dumaguete Areas) Over time I think we all realise and understand that Everything here has some value and many are just taking what they want, Pick Pockets are on the up and I don't just mean the team ones. Talking to my neighbour (A supervisor at Lee Plaza) Shoplifting is also on the up. Just lately I have seen more begging on the Streets and now in my Barangay, people are asking for money again all types not just kids.

We did a scour of Shops that sold what my 2 itemised and in deed found remarkable increases. Of course this has already had a Knock-on for the  Sari Sari's in my immediate area. So I am now guessing it is the Supplier that is doing this.

 Anyway I am sure others have noticed these more than Gradual increases of late.

We did give both our helpers an Increase on this occasion as we felt it was warranted  

 

Jack

 Morning All 

 

BTW it is Fiesta week here in JUNOB so if you live in the Area be aware of Strangers as these events seem to draw the opportunists 

[intrepid]

35 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

Anyway I am sure others have noticed these more than Gradual increases of late.

We did give both our helpers an Increase on this occasion as we felt it was warranted  

 

Jack, may I come work for you?  I could set on the front porch and let you know when a visitor is coming.  I'll do this every fifth Thursday of the month and you only need to pay me each Friday for a full weeks pay!

Seriously though, you are kind to them.  I only get a small increase in my retirement every two years of about 2%.

[Snowy79]

It's a sin tax added by the President as I know he's pushing for a complete smoking ban. I'm surprised as you pay for your medical treatment here unless the Government pick up some of the bill for cancer etc. http://business.inquirer.net/221583/unitary-tax-cigarettes-take-effect-jan-1-2017

[Jack Peterson]

14 minutes ago, intrepid said:

Seriously though, you are kind to them.  I only get a small increase in my retirement every two years of about 2%.

Please don't take this the wrong way as they are both very Honest in the main but we felt that it was better to meet them on this rather than have things disappear as we have experienced before, they also know that we will check out what they are saying on any subject. So it hopefully won't come up often.

It is hard to find Good people and harder to keep them so we felt that doing this it kept up morale and we can only hope it ( The good work) continues as "A" is Tired now after the Death of her Mother and all that went with it, Last thing I want is for her to be ill so the devil you know and can help comes to mind 

[AlwaysRt]

1 hour ago, Jack Peterson said:

We did give both our helpers an Increase on this occasion as we felt it was warranted  

How many pesos per week was the increase? Just curious.

[intrepid]

52 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

Please don't take this the wrong way as they are both very Honest in the main but we felt that it was better to meet them on this rather than have things disappear as we have experienced before, they also know that we will check out what they are saying on any subject. So it hopefully won't come up often.

It is hard to find Good people and harder to keep them so we felt that doing this it kept up morale and we can only hope it ( The good work) continues as "A" is Tired now after the Death of her Mother and all that went with it, Last thing I want is for her to be ill so the devil you know and can help comes to mind 

Jack, I fully understand we have a good one also who would be hard to replace. She is young with enough energy and initiative to to the work of two. Has a good record with us this past year. she does anything asked and then finds things to do. Not much of a cooker but helps my wife with that and is learning. She is paid 3k this past year and my wife will increase that 500 monthly this year and next.  Also  Phil health $ SSS. We prefer only one even after moving into the larger house in a few months. 

Dont want to loose her either. Like you said hard to find and harder to keep. 

[Dave Hounddriver]

2 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

My helpers asked at breakfast for an Increase in salary. Not an Unusual request one would think BUT the reasons shocked me a little.

What surprises me is that anyone would give reasons for asking for a pay increase.  Most employees expect to get increases after a certain time has elapsed.  I would suggest 6 months to be one such time period.  I believe this is why employers like to keep their staff on 6 month contracts, so they don't get the standard request of:  I have been here 6 months now.  If you think I am doing a good job then I would like a pay raise.

I got pay raises every year during my entire 30 year career (except for one contract where we took a 10% cut because we had been getting a bit greedy in the previous contract) 

[Jack Peterson]

52 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

What surprises me is that anyone would give reasons for asking for a pay increase.

 Mainly because they knew the last person that worked for us and asked in a short while of being here and I always ask questions, guess they decided to come up front and say why?

Many times we talk about Staff and their Needs and Wants, Needs I will talk about, wants are what Kids are all about. most of us are on Fixed incomes and we felt that our helpers should not be if we can do something about it, we can and we did.

 There is a ceiling to this but we will be monitoring all things. As was said, rises were paid for inflation, this round was more than usual on a lot of things but we won't let greed be a factor 

[Jack Peterson]

2 hours ago, AlwaysRt said:

How many pesos per week was the increase? Just curious.

150 per month for the Younger one 250 for the Elder one. 

[scott h]

2 hours ago, intrepid said:

It is hard to find Good people and harder to keep

That's the rub Jack. Pay to much your an easy touch for the foreseeable future, don't give in and we run the risk of them either leaving or robbing you blind to make their wages up to what they think they should get. All of us are the Great Wallendas' in this regard .

Speaking for Me, myself and I, I think I would error on the side of paying to much. As has been noted many times in many topics here. Good help is just to hard to find and/or keep. My wife gets frustrated (rarely) with our maid. When I mention we could fire her and start looking for a new maid, she says I am crazy and stops talking to me for the rest of the day.

Hmm maybe its time to remind her of it again