Conakry - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability and cost of household help, and what types of help are typically employed by expatriates?
Full time staff costs 2.5 – 3.0 million GNF/month ($250-$300). You can hire cooks, drivers, housekeepers, nannies, gardeners. - Sep 2022
A full time salary for household staff runs about 3.5M Guinean francs per month, so maybe US$350. You can also get tutors, teachers, yoga instructors, masseuses, any kind of professional, for maybe US$15/hr (this is generous on the local market, but hell, you're getting an in-home professional for a tenth of the price you'd pay in the States). There are plenty of people in Conakry who are looking for a job, and will gladly accept work even in something they are not particularly good at. It is best when you find someone that's worked before with other people from your national community (for instance in the classifieds at your Embassy), so that they'll start out with a better idea of what kinds of things you might care about as priorities. Even if you do find someone that's a bit more attuned to your expat preferences, there are bound to be some missteps and misunderstandings. As a sincere way of showing their dedication, your household employee may spend 3 hours a day assiduously sweeping your patio or burning all the leaves from your garden, or devote an entire hour to lovingly grinding some hot peppers in a pestle, or eagerly share the latest Youtube videos on their phone with your 2 year old, when all you want is for them to leave the mulch on your soil, or Cuisinart the damn peppers for 30 seconds, or stick to a strict no-screen policy. These are honest mistakes, at least the first two or three times. Keep the lines of communication open; be straightforward, respectful, and unintimidating in explaining what you want, and work to gain your employees' confidence (and let your own walls down to confide in them) so they can honestly explain why they might not agree with or understand the way you want things done, and it will greatly improve everyone's work quality and general attitude. This may seem like more effort than most of us would desire. Can't people just do what you ask them to? (forgetting for a moment that in most of our home countries there'd be no one available at an affordable rate to do any of our work for us, other than ourselves). But frankly I don't see any other way to do things than just to be open and honest and patient. No one can read your mind, and you'll just be miserable if you spend all your time dwelling on what isn't done exactly your way as opposed to appreciating that someone else has left your house looking decent and clean and with a pretty good meal waiting for you. I have to admit that there is a stubborn, confrontational streak in Conakrika culture; I think it's seen as a sign of weakness or something if a person doesn't try at least one or two times to do the opposite of what they've been asked, or if you don’t try to take advantage of the other person in some small, symbolic way. This is admittedly exhausting, and it is even worse if you're a woman, because people give you five times more flak, and it takes five times as much insisting on a basic fact before the other person will acknowledge that you're right. It happens pretty much everywhere you go; in the person who tries to sell you something that's broken, or who cuts in line, or whatever, but it comes most to a head with your domestic employees, since they're in your house and you're trying to get them to do what you want. It is not a pleasant part of Conakry life, but if it gets unbearable, and your employees are draining more energy from you than they're saving, don't feel bad to look for someone else to replace them. There are fairly strong labor laws in Guinea, at least on the books, and it's the legal and the ethical thing to do to give someone their advance notice, their months of severance, etc. But don't feel bad about them losing the job if they're not the right person for it. There are thousands of other people out there that could use that job, and the person you happened to stumble upon first has no more right to it than any of them, if that first person is not willing or able to do what you need them to. That said, don’t expect that the next person will not also need lots of guidance and occasional arguing from your end, just like the prior one did. On this note, it's a good idea to do a probationary 3 month contract or something initially so you and the putative employee can test one another out and see if it's a fruitful work relationship. - Jun 2021
The cost of household help varies. There are plenty of people who want jobs but the quality of their work is often low. Americans will pay about three times what Guineans would pay for the same service. A full-time nanny/housekeeper is the USD equivalent of about $250 - $400 a month. A part-time gardener is about $80 USD per month. Part-time pool cleaner is about $80 a month. A part-time cook is about $225 a month. - Nov 2019
Inexpensive but of varying abilities, choose wisely. - May 2016
Available and affordable- about US$250/month, plus overtime. - Dec 2014
I've been very happy with my housekeepers. They run about $100 per month. - Sep 2009
Lots of available and inexpensive help. - May 2009
Domestic help is readily available and skills range from excellent and experienced, to just starting out and have to be taught. Because they leave for mosque at about noon on Fridays, most domestics offer to work a half day on Saturday. A housekeeper should be paid about US$125 a month. A good cook who can cook American and European standard meals and traditional African dishes should be paid about the same, and can be expected to go to market to do the shopping. Nannies should be paid about US$100-110 a month, and they often eat lunch with the child/children from the employer's food supply, usually whatever the child is having for lunch. - Mar 2008
