Ever Had a Nightmare Ayi? Let Off Some Steam by Taking Our Annual Beijing Ayi Survey

Mina Yan | Nov 18, 2019 3:12 pm | Add a comment | 413 reads

About seven years ago a neighbor introduced me to my first Beijing ayi. In hindsight, maybe they did it out of spite. Ayi was in her 40s, I think, though we never did discuss her age, nor did we say much of anything at all before I was forced to have the awkward conversation to let her go.

She was officially the worst ayi I have ever had.

I’m pretty low-maintenance, especially when it comes to the number of work hours and general availability, but this ayi pounced on my language limitations and general inexperience like a hungry lioness.

Her rate was reasonable but she’d take her sweet time with every task, while taking constant breaks to chit-chat on the phone. It’s not the first time I’ve seen an hourly worker procrastinate, milking every minute until it's time to punch out, but to make things worse I got the sense that she was gossiping to her friend about me in her local dialect while she’s still in my apartment.

The final straw came after a particularly tiring day at work, and ayi was cleaning/gossiping and left without saying good-bye. After she left I found out that she had completely forgotten to clean the bathroom (but somehow still spent the same amount of time cleaning as always). That’s when I decided that enough was enough. I needed a new ayi.

When I first told my now-husband – a local Beijinger – about her, he just laughed. “You were being overcharged and taken advantage of. It's easy to see now how what I should have done differently, but back then, I didn't have a clue.

In the spirit of improving transparency, and helping others avoid nightmare ayi situations like the one I've described, we are once again running the Beijing Ayi Survey.

What is the Beijing Ayi Survey?

Now in its seventh year, the Beijing Ayi Survey was started to provide a basis for comparison among Beijing's ayi-hiring population. Each year, we collect a wide variety of data about ayi working hours, conditions, salaries, responsibilities, and expectations, and compile this into a report that is designed to help you make the right choices about your ayi, as well as understand your responsibilities as an ethical employer.

To take the survey, click here or scan the QR code below, and don't forget to include your WeChat ID or email address so you can stay in the loop when the survey results are released.