Customer case study. A real AskMandla household, from the WhatsApp thread, June and July 2026.
Not every employment lasts. This household signed up a new part-time domestic worker in June 2026 and the arrangement ended inside the month. It is here because a short employment that ends badly is exactly when households do something unlawful, and this one did not.
Why they needed us at all
They had employed a live-in domestic worker for 18 years, and she had just retired. Their words: "part time live-out is new to us."
Eighteen years of one arrangement, then a completely different one. They did not know how leave works for someone who comes three days a week, or what a public holiday falling on a work day means. Both are things the household is expected to know and almost never does.
For the record: leave is pro-rated to days worked, so a three-day-a-week worker earns nine days a year rather than fifteen. A public holiday that falls on her normal work day is paid whether she works it or not, and if she does work it, she is paid double.
They asked for references before paying us anything
Their second message: "Can you send me reference customer so that I can check that they are happy with the service and how this works please?"
We would rather be asked. A household is about to route a person's wages through a company they found on the internet.
Two days later, after the contract was drafted and the worker was signed up: "Thank you, I have loved the service so far and will be recommending you all my friends!!"
Then the arrangement fell apart
Their new worker lost her SIM card, which meant she stopped receiving WhatsApp messages. For a service that runs on WhatsApp this is a real failure point, and it broke the chain at the worst moment, during a first month when the household and the worker were still establishing whether the arrangement worked at all.
Over that weekend the household made a decision: "it is with much sadness and disappointment that we will no longer be continuing." They had tried to reach her over the weekend and could not.
The part that matters
They had already agreed the contract, and they did not try to walk away from it. "Yes I agreed to the contract... Happy for the contract to be binding."
That sentence is the whole case study. A household that decides an arrangement is not working, one month in, with a worker they cannot reach, is at the exact point where most people simply stop. No notice, no final pay, no record, and a worker who finds out she no longer has a job when nobody answers.
Instead:
- She gave notice properly and worked out what the last working day should be, checking the arithmetic with us rather than guessing.
- She paid a week's notice, in full, for a week not worked.
- She did not want the worker travelling in to be told: "I will be letting her know tomorrow, I need to get our keys and she still needs to pack her things." She told her in person.
- She confirmed the payment to us afterwards so it went on the record, naming it as the week's notice payment rather than leaving it as an unexplained transfer.
A week's notice is the BCEA minimum for someone employed six months or less. She was inside her rights the whole way, and she used them properly.
What the worker walked away with
A contract for the time she worked, wages for every day worked, a week's notice paid, and a documented month of employment she can point to. Not much. Considerably more than nothing, which is the usual outcome of a first month that does not work.
Because there is a record, the reason the arrangement ended reads as a contactability problem rather than as a dismissal with something behind it. That protects her too.
They hired again
A month later: "We have interviewed someone and we are likely to hire her!!" They set up the next worker on the same terms.
That is the reasonable end of this. A household is allowed to end an arrangement that is not working. What it is not allowed to do is end it informally, and the difference is a week's pay and a piece of paper.
What this cost
R450 once-off onboarding per worker, then R49 a month. The notice calculation and the ending were part of the service, not an add-on. If an arrangement is going wrong, message us before you act, not after. The ending is the part households get wrong, and it is the cheapest part to get right.