Musings about service workers in India

You were tired of a travelogue anyway, right? So here are some thoughts about service workers. Let's clarify what I mean. I don't mean the US sense of "non-manufacturing workers" which includes everyone from McDonald's window people to software engineers. I really mean the sort of people that we might tip. Indians have no problems calling them "servants" but it sticks in my craw. I mean the driver, the security guard, the maids, the guy that takes the laundary, etc.

There is always the question about tipping, which is hard enough for me in the US. How much is too much? How much is too little. It seems like the system depends on incomplete knowledge on the part of the tipper. But I actually have less trouble with that here. Given the magnitude of tips I don't mind overtipping. I've been told that you give the guy that brings the bags Rs 10 per bag maybe. 20 cents! So what if I give him a dollar?

What I really want to write about is the relationship between service worker and employer. For example, one co-worker who usually eats in the cafeteria but brings her own lunch was in the café line one day last week. I asked her why she was going there and she told me that her cook was sick and while she managed to get breakfast, she did not get lunch. Now this could mean that she was unable, but more likely she did not have time. However, you can bet that the cook is really sick; I don't think service workers make enough to just arbitrarily skip out.

There was a letter in the paper a couple weeks ago decrying the difficulty of getting good servants. Apparently that is a topic of discussion among the reasonably well off. Reminds me of Bertie and Jeeves, one person keeping close tabs on the servant of another to be able to leap if said servant is ever let go.

Another co-worker has a wife who does not work outside the home, and his mother also lives with them. They women do the cooking, but they hire someone to wash dishes, and also give the dish-washer the leftovers. Obviously they get a lot out of this person and he or she is helped by them, although obviously not earning a "good" living.

And finally, Chuck (mentioned earlier) has two service workers (cook and server is the role I see them in; I suppose they keep house etc as well) in the guest house that he shares with other co-workers. He says that they came from another state in India because they make enough money here as service workers to send money back to their family.

What are we to make of these relationships? There are billions of people in India. The fact that there are so many servants means that more than you would expect have jobs. There is a big trickle-down factor in B'lore where there are lots of noveau-riche high-tech workers who hire lots of servants, not to mention the folks that sweep the increasing number of streets, pick up the increasing amounts of trash, etc. And yet we middle-class Americans are programmed to feel that only the snooty rich have servants. It is an enormous change to get used to here. I'm still not used to it, and have not figured out how I feel about it either.

And finally, there is Stanley. This was a really curious situation to Ellen and me. We did not understand what the rules of the game, the expectations, and it was kind of vexing. For example: Suppose we had rented a drive-it-yourself car. If we chose not to go anywhere one day and just left the car outside the room, that would be fine. We pay a day's rent, but all is well. However, when the rental car comes with a driver, what does that mean? Does he get paid by the day? By the hour? And is he supposed to be available to us any time? If we decide one day not to go out, is he prevented from getting another client since we are renting the car, and yet not getting paid? Sometimes he seemed to be unhappy when we only wanted him for a short time on a day. But I'm not sure I could even tell that for sure. I can't even tell after-the-fact because while we signed a sheet each day to say that we had used the car, we never got any sort of receipt. The bill eventually showed up on my credit card (and it was incredibly low) but we just don't quite understand. That makes be a bit reluctant to use this method again.

Burns