A full-time housemaid's job description generally covers cleaning, laundry, ironing, and kitchen upkeep, with cooking and childcare as optional add-ons depending on the candidate's skills — the specific scope is something you agree with your maid before the hire begins. There's no single, standardized job description across the UAE market, though the government's official domestic-worker services page does set out the general employer obligations that apply regardless of task scope, which is exactly why agreeing scope in writing matters: "housemaid" means different things to different households, and mismatched expectations are one of the most common sources of friction in a new hire.
At minimum, most candidates listed as housemaids cover general cleaning (floors, surfaces, bathrooms, kitchens), laundry and ironing, bed-making, and basic tidying. Beyond that baseline, scope expands based on what a candidate lists on her profile — cooking ranges from simple daily meals to more elaborate home cooking, childcare ranges from light supervision to more hands-on care, and some candidates also list pet care, grocery organizing, or errand-running as part of what they offer.
The type of hire also shapes the job description in practice. A full-time maid working a complete daily shift naturally covers more ground than a part-time maid booked for a few hours a week, and a live-in maid may take on tasks a live-out arrangement wouldn't, simply because she's present in the home for longer stretches.