A series of leaked messages between a woman looking for part-time domestic work and a potential employer have left us scratching our heads over here at Coconuts HQ.
The domestic helper, who has asked to be identified as Mary, posted an ad on AsiaXpat shortly after Christmas to earn a little extra cash. In the ad, she failed to specify an expected wage, but asked potential employers what they would consider a reasonable hourly rate for household chores.
What began as an innocuous answer to her ad quickly soured after a potential employer, who we will refer to as Mona (because she’s a bit of a moaner), refused to discuss payment until after Mary’s work was completed.
Despite Mary’s polite requests to know how much the job would pay, Mona continued to avoid giving an estimate, instead saying “payment is only discussed after work is done” with all the condescension of a withholding schoolmarm, dismissing Mary’s reasonable requests with a curt “this is the way I operate”.
Mary, who appears to have far more patience than we could ever hope for, politely declines the job, arguing that it would not be prudent for her to do work without first ironing out an hourly wage, lest she end up (in scientific terms) stiffed. Instead of gracefully accepting that, Mona then rants about Mary’s perceived insolence, calling her a “greedy fool” and a “senseless idiot”, and saying that nobody else would hire her.
In a final show of extreme maturity, Mona then sent a string of nonsensical emojis, confirming our suspicions that she is #TheWorst.
Mary’s boyfriend, Leo, said she received some lecherous responses to the ad asking her to “do a little extra” for additional cash, but Mona’s tone deaf sense of superiority was what took him the most by surprise.
Despite Mona’s perception of her own behaviour as acceptable, Redditors have not altogether agreed. At the time of writing, the top comment on Leo’s Reddit thread calls Mona “foul”, a sentiment echoed by Leo, Mary and many of Mary’s friends and family. One particularly vindictive netizen said, “What a dipsh-t. Hope she steps on Lego”, which has gone down in our books as “best put-down ever”.
Speaking to Coconuts HK, Mary said that even though she and her fellow domestic helper friends had experienced awful things, including perverted propositions and being deprived of food during their time in Hong Kong, Mona’s messages made her feel “humiliated and sad”. Leo went further, likening Mona’s behaviour to a “Master-Slave” mentality in an ad on AsiaXpat.
We attempted to contact Mona for a statement via email, but just received word that her inbox was over capacity. Must be all those people clamouring to discuss their belated payment.
Got a tip? Send it to us at hongkong@coconuts.co
