Why a written role brief prevents most helper disputes in Jamaica

Ask around and you will hear the same story with different names. A helper starts on Monday. Things go well for a month. Then somebody adds ironing, or the children start needing collecting from school, or a Sunday gets requested. Nobody renegotiates, because nobody agreed anything in the first place. Resentment builds on both sides. Three months later she leaves, or is let go, and both parties tell the story as though the other person changed.

Almost none of these are dishonesty disputes. They are expectation disputes — and expectation disputes are entirely preventable with one page of writing.

Why unwritten arrangements drift

Jamaican helper arrangements are usually built on trust and word of mouth, which is a genuine strength. But an unwritten arrangement has three structural weaknesses:

• Scope creep is invisible. No single added task feels unreasonable. It is the accumulation that does — and because nothing was written, there is no baseline to compare against.
• Both sides remember it differently, honestly. Nobody is lying. Two people simply left the same conversation with different pictures in their heads.
• There is no fair way to raise a problem. Without an agreed standard, raising an issue feels like a personal criticism rather than a reference to something both sides signed up to.

What a role brief actually covers

It is one page. It is not legal drafting. It answers the questions that otherwise get answered by assumption:

• The duties, room by room and task by task. “Clean the house” is not a duty; it is a hope. Which rooms, how often, and what “clean” means in your household.
• Which days, and the start and finish times. Including what happens when you are running late.
• Your household standards and preferences. How you like the laundry done, which products are used on what, whether shoes come off at the door.
• Meals, breaks, and live-in arrangements. Whether lunch is provided, when the break is, and — if live-in — the room, the bathroom, and the private time.
• What is not part of the role. The most valuable line in the document. Windows? The yard? The dog? Ironing? Say so now, either way.

It protects her as much as it protects you

Households sometimes assume a role brief is a control document. It is not, and if it reads that way it has been written badly.

For the helper, a written brief means the job cannot quietly expand without a conversation about pay. It means she knows what a good week looks like. It means that if she is doing everything agreed and someone is still unhappy, there is a concrete thing to discuss rather than a vague sense of dissatisfaction. Professionals in every other field work to a defined scope. Domestic work should not be the exception.

When the role needs to change — and it will

Households change. A new baby arrives, a parent moves in, someone starts working from home. The brief is not meant to freeze the job forever; it is meant to make changing it a conversation instead of a drift.

When something needs to change, say so directly, agree what comes off the list if something goes on it, and revise the pay if the workload genuinely grows. Then update the page. That single habit prevents most of what ends these arrangements badly.

A one-page template you can copy

Write these seven lines and you have a working role brief:

1. Role: [live-out helper / live-in helper / nanny-helper / cook], starting [date]
2. Days & hours: [e.g. Mon, Wed, Fri · 8:00 AM–4:00 PM]
3. Duties: [list them concretely — room by room, task by task, with frequency]
4. Not included: [the things that are explicitly not part of this role]
5. Household standards: [products, preferences, anything specific to your home]
6. Meals & breaks: [what is provided, and when the break is]
7. Pay & review: [amount, how often paid, and the date you will both review how it is going]

Both sign, both keep a copy. That is the whole exercise.

The legal side sits alongside it

A role brief is not a substitute for a written employment contract, which Jamaican labour law requires and which covers wages, notice, leave, and termination. Use our free Jamaican contract template for that, and the NIS, NHT & PAYE guide for what you owe as an employer.

Every CareLink household placement comes with a written role brief agreed before day one — it is included in the placement fee, not an extra. But whether you use us or hire independently, write the page. It is the cheapest insurance in the whole arrangement.