4. The Day Off Policy , ‘Reverse Domestication’, and Emotional Labour among Indonesian Domestic Workers in Singapore

This chapter reflects upon Singapore's 'Day Off' for domestic workers and how it has disrupted long-held notions of how and when domestic workers should undertake their emotional labour in the households in which they work. Specifically, this chapter examines how domestic workers negotiate the legal possibility of a weekly day off within domestic workplaces underpinned by a high degree of emotional labour. We show how the 'Day Off' brings with it the threat of 'out of place' bodies, while also speaking more broadly to the pre-existing inequality that exists between employers and employees in Singapore's domestic worker landscape.