Wake up at 6:30 every day, wash up and clean up, and make breakfast for each member of the employer's family. At 9:30 a.m., after breakfast, family members arranged for a driver to take the child to school, the employer to the company, and if necessary, to take the elderly to the hospital for regular physical check-ups.
Then arrange for the nanny to clean the mansion daily, inform the chef to buy food, make lunch, and then deliver the lunch to the school and company of each family member.
In the afternoon, the time is mainly spent on washing and storing clothes, and when it is time to get off work and school, arrange for the driver to pick everyone up and let the chef prepare dinner. Every night at around 10 o'clock, I convene a regular meeting with the nanny, driver, and private chef at home to summarize the day's work.
This is the most ordinary day for Billy, the butler of the mansion, and this tedious job is matched by an income far beyond the average person.
Walking on the edge of the circle of the rich, the rich butler who specializes in serving high-net-worth individuals has become a crack in the door for ordinary people to peek into the wealthy, but when the wealth of high-net-worth individuals is affected by the times, their careers have also become erratic.
Work as a housekeeper in a 1000-square-meter mansion
Alex, who studied abroad in high school, tried to find a career direction that really suited him. Compared with majors such as computers and flight attendants, Alex became interested in the more comprehensive profession of housekeeper. He is willing to take care of people, likes to wear uniforms, and is passionate about all kinds of unknown challenges, so after graduating from a European higher housekeeper college, he officially embarked on the road of a wealthy housekeeper.
Contrary to the popular imagination of maneuvering in a gorgeous villa mansion, Alex started out in the industry as a under butler, and his main job was to help his employer with countless inconspicuous things, such as cleaning the toilet, doing hygiene, and cleaning the pool. Until now, Alex gets frostbite on his hands every winter, a sequelae of brushing dishes with cold water every day while working at an ancient castle in Europe. "That place used to be the residence of the Queen of the Netherlands, and there was no hot water tap, so if you wore gloves and brushed the dishes, it was not very efficient, so you had to wash with your bare hands. ”
The experience accumulated in these trivial matters can still help Alex after he became a full-fledged housekeeper, and he helped his employer repair the big iron gate, "because the rich area is generally relatively remote, and it is not always possible to find a professional to repair it immediately, so you have to find a solution yourself." As for day-to-day management, Alex believes that if the housekeeper himself is not familiar with routine tasks such as cleaning, preparing meals, and storing clothes, it will be difficult for him to come up with detailed and specific work standards for nannies and cooks.
Compared with the housekeeping industry in foreign countries, which is well-ordered and has clear recruitment and promotion channels, this very niche profession in China seems to lack due industry norms.
Seven years ago, Billy, tired of the fashion design industry, first learned about the profession of a wealthy personal butler on social media, and he was already interested in doing housework. First, he honed his skills through counterpart administrative work, then introduced by an intermediary, and finally through a probationary period drawn up by his employer, and in this way, he got his first job as a housekeeper.
In Billy's observation, most of the families who will hire a private housekeeper have an annual income of 10 million, a total asset of about 50 million, and the area of the mansion they live in is basically more than 1,000 square meters, in addition to the housekeeper, there are usually 4-6 employees such as drivers, cooks, nannies, and tutors.
The biggest difference between the work of a private butler and the traditional workplace is that it is "non-standardized". As a housekeeper for high-net-worth individuals, Billy's job does not have a clear KPI, and he needs to form a bond between his employer and his employees to help employers save as much time as possible in managing the family. "Family is a warm and harmonious place, and you need to be more careful, gentle, patient, and flexible when you do everything. ”
It is important to be familiar with the needs and likes and dislikes of each member of the employer's family. Billy mentions that you need to know everything about their food tastes, their hygiene, their physical condition, their hobbies, and their way of speaking. Billy likens the work of a good housekeeper to a running water, "One of the ways I judge the results of my work is if the employer will talk to me alone, and if he doesn't feel anything wrong or uncomfortable, that's the best." ”
After working abroad for a while, Alex took a fancy to the housekeeping industry, which was still a blue ocean in China, and decided to return to China to start a business. In his observation, although the majority of the needs of domestic and foreign wealthy will not differ much, there will be some peculiarities for domestic high-net-worth families.
"For example, we think that high-net-worth people will smoke a pack of cigarettes for hundreds of yuan, but some old men just like Double Happiness for 10 yuan a pack. Some tycoons can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire companies, but they are very sensitive in the face of small money, and the monthly utility bill will break the defense if it exceeds the budget. Some foreign tycoons really go on a daily tour, but most of the domestic upstarts are still very self-disciplined. ”
Dealing with the "second generation" should also be done in an equal way, "We don't call him baby, or young master, or young master, generally called a nickname or English name." "They are all precocious and very sensitive, and although they are born with a golden spoon, many children start to be anxious and have psychological problems at the age of eight or nine. ”
24-hour on call, but "more learning than business school"
Behind the meticulous and tedious work is a high salary that is the envy of ordinary people. In the seven or eight years in the industry, Billy and Alex have both reached a monthly salary of 50,000 yuan.
The high salary included a high degree of uncertainty about working hours, and Alex sometimes encountered his employer throwing a dinner party at home, which ended at 2 a.m. After the guests dispersed, he had to clean up the mess with the nanny and stay busy until three or four o'clock in the morning before resting. "If your boss has been losing weight lately and has to get up at 5 a.m. every morning for a morning jog, you have to get up earlier than he does. ”
Unlike employees in a company, Alex felt that being a housekeeper could not be tied to his boss about working hours and overtime pay. If any employee in the family makes a mistake or fails to do any little thing, the housekeeper has a certain responsibility.
"You have to learn to anticipate in advance, for example, if a child accidentally bumps into a piece of furniture while playing at home, you should think about why you didn't plush each corner of the furniture in advance. ”
For Alex, in addition to the high salary, the biggest attraction of this job for him is to be able to get close to high-net-worth individuals and learn from them how to work and do things.
"I earn 50,000 yuan a month, but I eat and live at the boss's house, and it costs very little. What is more important in this job is the improvement of my horizons, and I can learn more than I did in business school. I don't think that work is taking away from my personal time, and some people want to spend money to spend money with these big guys. ”
The so-called "vision" is big enough to follow the boss to make investments, and small enough to understand the maintenance and custody of private jets, the brand of furniture, and the number of fabrics for the four-piece bed set, which is the most comfortable...... "People think about 100,000 things, you think about 5,000, that's not good." You must have at least seen the life of the rich, and with that vision, it is impossible for Mr. Ba to imagine it. ”
Part of the work of a housekeeper is similar to the administration of a normal company. "Maintaining family harmony" is one of Alex's responsibilities. "A lot of businesses in China are family-owned, and in the era when there was no family planning, a generation had many brothers and sisters, and there were many heirs under them. After the company becomes a group, several branches may be in charge of property, real estate, and investment, but they are 'incompatible'. In order to ensure a harmonious family atmosphere, Alex will organize family sports meetings, visit graves, make family micro-films, and so on.
Butler is one of the ordinary people closest to the rich circle, and for people in this profession, protecting family privacy is a more important quality than service quality and comprehensive ability. During his time as a housekeeper, Alex would turn off all his social media and not post a single post on his Moments. A work photo inadvertently sent by the housekeeper conveys a lot of information to those who are interested: "For example, if you send a photo of a hotel, someone who wants to take a smug will come and give a gift to your boss." ”
In order to strictly screen qualified nannies, chefs and other employees, Alex will conduct home visits to understand their financial situation and living environment. He asked employees not to lock the doors in the rooms assigned by their employers, "Of course I don't just go into the rooms of female employees, I just want them to take care of their housekeeping." And you have to always know that this is the boss's home, and you have to have a sense of boundaries. ”
Of course, living at his employer's house all year round, Alex also felt that he was missing time to spend with his family, and when his grandmother passed away, he couldn't rush home to see him for the last time because of work. But now he sees it more openly, "I value the quality of my family more than staying with each other every day." What's more, these high-net-worth individuals, many people spend money and can't get in touch with them, what else do I have to complain about?"
The salary has shrunk by half, and the rich housekeeper can't do it anymore?
In her seven years in the industry, Billy has served three clients, all but one of whom was originally on a short-term contract, and the rest of the families have served for two to three years. High-net-worth families need to build trust with their housekeepers, and it takes at least four to six months for that trust to build, so they are reluctant to change housekeepers frequently. Billy's previous resignations were basically because his employer wanted to go abroad or change cities, and he couldn't renew his contract.
This year, he clearly feels that the industry has entered a period of relative depression. Three or four years ago, there were still very few people on the market who could provide personal butler services, and a housekeeper like him who had a few years of experience could basically get a new job within five days; the interval between the second job and the third job was one month, mainly because he was considering whether the salary was suitable; and since he left the third job, he has been waiting for three months, and there is still no suitable opportunity.
"It's not that there isn't, it's just that it's not suitable, some need to go overseas or Hong Kong, some are not satisfied with the salary, and some are not qualified for me. He also felt the decline in the salary of the private butler industry, and now most offers can only provide a salary of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. In his observations, many high-net-worth families have begun to lay off their staff, and they have preferred to hire only one multi-skilled nanny after hiring three nannies.
But according to Alex, who is engaged in housekeeping training and entrepreneurship, "during the economic downturn, the valuation of the boss's company will shrink, but his personal wealth will not necessarily shrink." There has always been a demand for employment from high-net-worth families, and good housekeepers are still hard to find in China. ”
Image courtesy of Visual China
Interview/Text: Echo
Editor: Bela