Hiring a Maid

Start this activity by telling the family to pretend that they will hire a maid to do their chores for them. Each maid will be paid for how thorough of a job they do. Have them come up with specifics of what constitutes a very good,  an average, and a poor job of doing typical chores at home. (Typically, when critiquing someone else’s behavior their expectations are much higher!) Discuss the consequences of leaving out parts of a chore such as not putting in a new can liner when you take out the trash and why that makes it a poor job.
Ask them to think about the type of job they do on their household chores. If they were being paid or evaluated on this same scale, where would they be? Would they keep their job or be fired? Why should their parents expect less than they expect of the imaginary maid they have hired? Discuss what factors make doing the jobless thorough: Did you put if off until you didn’t have enough time to do it thoroughly? Were you too tired? Were you distracted by the TV?
Since the exercise started out by pretending they were hiring someone, relate this to job performance. Most teen jobs are a step up from household chores. The same evaluation guide that the family comes up with for judging the performance of their maid is the same criteria that bosses use to evaluate employees for raises, promotions, or even keeping the job.

After you finish the activity, process it with these or similar questions:

• If you are a slacker in doing homework and household chores and then get a job, how easy will it be for you do a good job if you haven’t been practicing being thorough and conscientious?
• What about the ‘chores’ of being a believer? Prayer and worship can be done haphazardly or thoroughly. Which do you think is better?