Servants in the recession: Suits you Sir
"The crucial thing to remember when storing wine,” says Graham, a soft-spoken assistant butler, “is to always keep it on its side. The wine must always touch the cork to prevent it from drying out.”
A butler of eight years, Graham is attending a four-day housekeeping training course run by Greycoat Placements, a domestic staff training and recruitment school, to “polish up his skills”.
Graham’s 13-member class has covered fl ower arranging, shirt ironing, shoe polishing, suitcase packing and phone answering. “Never, ever, say ‘OK, can you hold the line’,” he says.
Domestic staff keep many households running smoothly, but as the recession bites they could be among its victims.
RE-EVALUATION Butlers, cooks, nannies, personal assistants, cleaners, chauff eurs, maids, bodyguards, gardeners – during boom times a wealthy family might employ 15 permanent and temporary staff , with a wage bill of €500,000 (£445,000).
Graham, who preferred not to give his surname, says his employer has not been badly aff ected by the crunch, but plenty of other households may not be so fortunate.
The recession has forced many of Europe’s wealthy individuals to reevaluate their expenses. Stephanie Rough, managing director of Greycoat, says: “Chauffeurs and permanent chefs have been hit the hardest. Many families are setting up cab accounts rather than having a driver, and some are getting their house manager to cook or booking freelance staff to reduce permanent overheads.
“In the City bonus market redundancies mean some people are now able to look after their children and no longer need a nanny. However, some have had to go back to work, so demand for childcarers has stayed pretty stable.” While she says few being made redundant, wages may be cut.
Lily Simpson, head of business development at Quintessentially Estates, which provides a vetting service for temporary domestic staff , says she knows of several families that have made permanent staff redundant and opted for cheaper, temporary help instead.
Temps will be paid between £10 and £60 an hour with Quintessentially. Simpson says demand for temporary domestic staff has increased by 25% in the past three months, with household overseers, who turn their hand to anything from walking the dog to household maintenance, being particularly popular.
However, Rough says demand for permanent staff still exceeds supply and Greycoat has seen the number of individuals registered on its books double to more than 5,000 in the past five years.
The company has thousands of vacancies, ranging from a live-in nanny role in Madrid, taking care of two children for £600 per week, to a vacancy for a couple to look after a family’s five-hectare holiday home outside
Toulon, France, where the owners spend two months each year. At the top end, a live-in general manager of a house can earn up to £45,000 in London and £35,000 in Europe.
A London-based housekeeper with limited responsibility can earn up to £25,000 abroad. Contracts normally run for a year.
NEW SKILLS The profile of domestic staff has changed to suit the cosmopolitan, globetrotting lifestyles of the new wealthy.
In the US, Denver-based Starkey International Institute for Household Management runs training courses for “household managers”, rather than butlers. Founder Mary Starkey says the traditional concept of a butler no longer exists.
Her school trains a new generation to be skilled linguists, good with children, technology-savvy and able to travel extensively. Starkey places staff mainly in the US, but has seen growing demand from abroad.
Despite the financial crisis, Starkey believes the market for domestic staff will grow: “The household management industry is somewhat recession-proof. There will always be wealthy people and they increasingly need help to coordinate their busy lives.”
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