The work of a housekeeper is one of the most difficult, and if we are talking about a wealthy family, then not always decent problems or quirks are added to a decent pay.
Alina, a girl who worked as a housekeeper in several wealthy families, told the correspondent about the juicy nuances of her work. By the way, the non-disclosure clause is the first in the contract with the employer. So, all coincidences, as they say, are random.
Often, says Alina, men are looking for housekeepers. True, their duties do not include cleaning the premises at all.
“When posting an ad, I never would have thought that there would be so many offers of intimacy. Once, having already settled down, on the first working day I was offered 100 dollars for sex, ”says the girl.
Fortunately, there are also real job offers. However, even here there are curious situations.
“In one family, I was asked not to clean the toilet, as the wife of the employer usually cleans it. I didn't understand what was the matter. But she learned from the nanny that she washes it, pretending to be a housekeeper in their role playing", - Alina recalls the juicy details.
In fact, housewives are not always so kind that they remove some of the duties from their housekeepers. For example, one of the girl's employers decided to demand the maximum for the money paid.
“I thought I would come, work and leave. But she did not give a minute to rest. Strictly from 9 to 6 without a break gave tasks. Once I got sick. At work, the temperature rose to 39. So she did not let me go home.
She blocked the outer gates of the mansion and expressed her dissatisfaction, explaining it by the fact that "once you came to work, then work." She also paid the least. Then I called the police, they took me to the police department, but I refused the application. And, as a result, she ended up in the hospital with pneumonia, ”recalls the housekeeper.
The duties of domestic servants usually include dry and wet cleaning of the entire house, washing windows, ironing clothes and keeping the wardrobe clean and tidy. Sometimes they are asked to look after the garden, says Alina, but it is unrealistic to complete such a volume of work in a day.
Despite the fact that payment in wealthy families, as a rule, is quite pleasant in terms of money, there is always a risk that it will be deducted from it for some wrongdoing.
“Once I broke a vase. Looks chic. I was asked to pay $500 for it. I repaid the debt from my salary, but took the broken vase with me. I have a friend who works in this area.
In general, he estimated it at 13 thousand tenge. It turns out that family friends gave this vase to the owners, saying that it was from Egypt. But it turned out that the vase is from China,” says Alina.
Now it all looks funny. Then it was no laughing matter.
In another family, the employer asked Alina to take out her diamonds in front of her and spray them with a special cleaning and protection agent. Having once read the composition of the product, the girl was very surprised - it included ordinary liquid soap and flavored substances.
The girl admits that she always left her employers herself, a few months after starting work. The fact is that many of them came up with new duties for the housekeeper, more and more, and, as a rule, not previously specified in the contract.
The clauses in the contract are very diverse, up to instructions on what and how to do. For example, another housekeeper, Aizhan, said that the contract with one of the employers included a point that was obvious to every housewife - to wash white linen separately from colored ones. It turned out that the previous servant managed to ruin the master's blouse in this way.
For Aizhan herself, for example, the most unusual thing was that she had to wash and dry the decorative pebbles that adorned the corridors and halls of the house. At the same time, stones had to be carried from the second floor to the first, in order to arrange water procedures for them, and up; and they weighed a total of about 30 kilograms.
Illustrative photo
PHOTO: Flickr/by WageIndicator.org - Pictures from Pa
Let me tell you something that everyone is interested in: how rich people actually live.
I worked for a cleaning company for over two years. I had a flexible schedule and a good salary. I never perceived this work as a career, did not identify myself with it.
I didn't spy on my clients. But when you regularly clean them at home, you willy-nilly notice things that are very unusual for you.
I drove up to these houses along small winding roads, and there were gnomes and green "carpets" around - everything was like in a fairy tale. I parked the car in a special parking lot far from the clients' houses: so that, God forbid, the oil from my car would not spoil the look of the asphalt for them. I enjoyed the view of the pier and the boats that glittered in the bay opposite their houses. I cleaned the house and drove to a new address. I had 20 clients. Two or three houses a day.
A few months after my employment, my boss asked me to clean houses "slow down". (We don't say that, of course. We call it "more careful.") There was a lot of turnover at the company, and the boss explained that I needed to stay at houses for longer lines. The firm was paid hourly for our work.
If I cleaned houses faster than other girls in my department, clients were no longer willing to pay for their "inefficient" work. The stakes immediately began to seem too high to them.
Therefore, I tried to simply “kill” part of my working time. I looked into the master's bedside tables, trying to understand the essence through them american dream. Then, having nothing to do, she would go to the cabinets and look at the empty wine bottles.
I also saw how many pills they take every two weeks. Doctors once prescribed them for treatment, but now it was their way of relaxing.
Rich people have pills for everything: pain, anxiety, insomnia, depression, impotence, allergies, high blood pressure, diabetes. Pile of drugs. My personal favorite is the testosterone booster cream. (I had to see what it was. This thing eliminates the lack of libido in women. You apply the cream anywhere on your body except for the genitals.)
Hustler porn was regularly filmed in one of my clients' homes. Every nightstand was filled with bottles of lube, piles of underwear and cum-stained sheets. Someone even tried to cook here: once I found a pot full of beef. The whole house stank of caramelized ham.
Other customers had a separate fridge with cat food. This rude animal even had its own bedroom!
There was a garden house next to the porn house. Across the road. Both had large garages the size of living rooms and ocean views.
I was in the garden house every other Wednesday. This is rare. The owner spent most of his time at the hospital so it was always clean. Unless it was necessary to shake off the dust and wipe the dining table.
His wife died many years ago. I guessed this from the photographs placed throughout the house. They were made in the 80s. But every little thing that she once collected continued to be carefully stored in its place.
On the cork board in the kitchen, there were sticky notes of her to-do lists: Get a new hose from the courier, Find someone to fix the cracks in the sidewalk, Install a new gate latch.
She was forced to deal with "male" affairs, because her husband spent the whole day at work. And here's what it all led to.
The bathroom has two sinks. One still has a hair dryer attached. It hangs on a special hook. On his side was a cup with a comb and all the medicines he took in the morning and before bed. Each time they were different.
Opposite the sink was a wicker shelf. On it was a picture of their eldest son. He wears a green scarf and a beard. He shows the victory sign. And the signature: “Do not stand and do not cry on my grave. I'm not there. And I don't sleep." This is how the owner of this house starts each day.
The amount of money my clients spent was amazing to me.
In one of the houses, I saw a receipt for a blanket I had just bought. It was more expensive than my car. I vacuumed children's rooms, larger in size than my entire apartment.
Rob - my demanding client, whom I went to on Fridays and who adored me - spent $3,000 every month on TV and the Internet. At Christmas he sent me a card with $100 inside.
I usually never meet my clients. Once I saw a lady from a porn house once in a store. She wore a huge coat of wool dyed red. She chose her steak. I stood five meters away with cough syrup and baby juice for my daughter and pretended not to notice her. But she had no idea who I was. I knew that right now she was being treated for a protracted genital infection.
I saw a woman using testosterone cream in a restaurant. A tall, slender lady in good shape, with fluffy blond hair. She was wearing high heels and had way too much makeup on. She met her lover in a restaurant. They smiled at each other, but did not hold hands.
Once he left the bag at her house and did not pick it up until the children and their dad returned home.
This bag contained a vibrator and lube. I stood in front of this couple at the bar and thought how sad it must be to lose your libido.
After a while, I got used to the loneliness that reigns in these houses.
I'm used to wives smoking and cheating on their husbands the same day they leave town for a few days.
One such client kept a box of cigarettes in her garage freezer. Long thin cigarettes. I don't remember the brand.
Her entire pantry next to the kitchen was stocked with fat-free soups, crackers, and salad dressings. There was never anything in the fridge but water and salads.
My most important client asked me to visit him twice a week for a few hours. In addition to cleaning, I did many other things: I folded his mother, father and two young sons, ironed him.
His mother left her office next door only to pay me off and ask about the midwife in town. “I'm pregnant,” she said. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this, you are the first person who knows about this, except for my husband.” She was afraid that my master would find out about it. That is, she did not think that he would be delighted with the idea that he would have a brother.
While I cleaned her stainless steel appliances and wiped down the granite countertop in the kitchen, she and I chatted.
She said that she wanted to give birth at home, despite her mature age. I told her how dangerous it was, by my own example, but she did not believe me.
A week or two later I noticed blood stains in the toilet. She told me that she had a miscarriage. Now I saw a completely different person in front of me: hunched over, “nailed” to the ground. I don't even know what else to say here.
After a while, I quit the cleaning company and began to work for my clients without intermediaries. It was more difficult, but
I got the opportunity to not mess with idiots who asked me to clean their house in a "special" suit while they walked around it naked.
I stopped spying on my clients. There was no need for this now: I cleaned their apartment quickly, and I did not have to spend time doing nothing. They all send gifts to my daughter and me for the holidays that we could never buy with our own.
And I vowed that I would never again want a house that was too big for me to clean on my own.
The Village continues to find out how much people of different professions earn and what they spend money on. In the new issue - a housekeeper. Ten years ago, it was believed that only representatives of the upper middle class could afford an au pair, but now, despite the crisis, many people with average earnings have housekeepers. Their services no longer seem prohibitively expensive, but they save a lot of time and effort. An assistant to rich Muscovites told The Village how she lives, how much she earns and how much she spends.
PROFESSION
Housekeeper
SALARY
48 000 rubles
per month
Expenses
20 000 RUBLES
providing for a son
400 RUBLES
phone payment
10 000 RUBLES
refueling and car repair
3 000 RUBLES
8 000 RUBLES
3 000 RUBLES
vitamins
1 000 RUBLES
2 000 RUBLES
cosmetics
600 RUBLES
transport
How to become a housekeeper
My name is Natalia, I am 51 years old. By education, I am a technologist of leather products, I worked in a leather haberdashery association, first as a seamstress, and then as a master. I didn’t even think about becoming a housekeeper until last year, when my son began to live in Moscow with his father, and I, a resident of Pushchino, wanted to be closer to him. Then I began to look for a job with accommodation in the capital.
I have always liked doing housework, so I decided to try myself in this area. Turning first to one agency, then to the second, I did not get a real result. Everywhere they took money, offered to undergo training, but there was no sense. Then I began to look for ads directly. After writing a response to the vacancy of a housekeeper and indicating in the questionnaire that I had no work experience, I immediately received a response with an invitation to an interview. This surprised me, because everyone is looking for people with experience. Subsequently, I learned that my employers, Alexander and Natalia, were impressed by the fact that I spoke in such detail and honestly about myself in the questionnaire.
It seems to me that a housekeeper is chosen based on intuition: the client either likes the candidate or not. In addition, employers give preference to women of Slavic appearance. Often they even write that Russian citizenship is required to get a job. As a rule, those who do not have enough money and have nowhere to live go to housekeepers. For them, such work is serving time. But if a person gets a job helping around the house only because he has no money, if it is difficult and unpleasant for him to do this work, the client will feel it.
Housekeeping is really interesting to me, and I went to work not because I needed money, but because I needed to occupy myself with something and, probably, feel needed. I lived for myself for so long that I wanted to become useful to other people. I consider myself an assistant: I help when a person has no time. Doing what I love, I also earn good money.
I, as a citizen of Russia, do not need a patent, it is necessary only for visitors from other countries. But I work unofficially, because for official registration you need to open an individual entrepreneur for the provision of services. Then I will pay taxes, and I will have seniority. But in order to open an individual entrepreneur, you need to find a person who understands accounting, because for me this is a distant area. My hosts are not against this payment format, but how else? I have never heard of housekeepers opening individual entrepreneurs, although in the future I would like to do this: in five years I am retiring, and seniority is important to me.
Features of work
When I first arrived at the four-story house that I am currently cleaning, the hostess Natalya told me about her cleaning preferences. The entire first floor of this mansion is reserved for an entrance hall and a garage, on the second floor there is a living room, a dining room and a kitchen, on the third floor there is a hall and three bedrooms, and on the fourth, attic, there is one large playroom for children. There are two adults and two children living in the house. Despite the fact that the structure has four levels, it is very compact. In the hall on the third floor there is a simulator, which the owners periodically work out on. When no one is at home and I want to take a break from cleaning, I also use it - Alexander and Natalya do not mind.
I live on the territory of the mansion in a separate guest house. This is a one-story building with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, where I have a computer and a router.
Every day I clean only bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and stairs. Otherwise, my duties include cleaning one floor per day. I also have cooking, so I have enough to do. The beginning of my working day is not clearly defined in terms of time: if the owners need breakfast, I can come at 07:30. But since they rarely order breakfast, I usually start work at nine or ten in the morning by cleaning the kitchen after the family has already had breakfast. Before two to three hours I work during the day, then I go on a break, and at four or five in the evening I return to business, put things in order where necessary, and cook dinner. At 19:00 I go to my room and return only at 21:00 to clean the kitchen after dinner. This is where my work day ends. IN free time I do what I want, I surf the Internet, I watch movies.
My employers do not consider themselves superior to those who help them. Perhaps we have such a relationship because they were not always rich: they used to live in an ordinary Moscow apartment, and when the owner began to earn good money, they bought this house. We are very similar in character to them, and we immediately established a trusting relationship, as if some kind of soul mate. I try not to interfere in the personal life of my owners. Alexander has some kind of business, he runs it from home. His wife does not work and devotes herself entirely to children.
Salary
When I first got a job, I was offered 25,000 rubles a month. I went for such a salary because I knew that I had no work experience, and without it they would not take anywhere. Two months later, Alexander raised my salary to 40 thousand. At first I worked six days a week, then I realized that it was a lot for me, and we agreed that I would work four days. For such a download, I get 24 thousand rubles a month.
I decided to use the weekend for a part-time job and found a family that needs cleaning once a week. Their house is located within the city, its owner is a high-ranking official, he is rarely at home, and his wife takes care of the children and does not work. They have their own security service there, and they checked me when I got a job.
The house itself is two-story, but very long. On the ground floor there is a gym and a sauna in one wing, and a large dining room and kitchen in the second. On the second floor in one wing - an adult bedroom and an office, and in the other - children's rooms and a nurse's room. I simply don’t have the opportunity to work out in the gym in this house: I clean up from morning to evening.
There is a lot of glass in this house, all the ramps and stairs are made of it. Cleaning there is actually washing several windows. It is difficult to put all this in order in a day, and I get very tired. When I came to them, they immediately told me: because of the amount of work, you will have a ten-hour working day. When I began to manage to do all this faster, they began to add work to me, not taking into account that, having removed everything that was supposed to, I was already tired. After such a hard day, I need another day to recover. Working in this house is hard for me not only physically, but also mentally. The owners do not have such trusting relationships with me as in the first family, and in their house I feel tense. But this part-time job brings me another 24 thousand rubles a month.
spending
Of course, costs change every month. My son is studying at the institute, I help him with money, so the lion's share of my budget (about half) goes to him.
I have a car. Now I ride it more often than public transport. It takes about 10 thousand rubles a month to refuel and repair it, and about 600 rubles to travel by minibus and metro.
With clothes, everything is very simple for me, I'm not picky, and it takes an average of 3 thousand per month. It’s more difficult with food: I don’t always eat what my owners eat, I have my own preferences, so part of my budget goes to food - fruits, vegetables and dairy. Another part of the cost goes to vitamins: in our lifetime we can’t do without them.
I do not like decorative cosmetics, so I almost do not spend money on it.
Regular cosmetics that maintain skin tone cost 2-3 thousand rubles a month.
The owners pay for the Internet, and I only spend money on paying for a cell phone - only 300-400 rubles a month. I also enjoy reading business magazines. On average, they spend a thousand rubles a month.
On the whims of clients
I worked in many families, I had to meet with the quirks of rich people. In the house of a family of musicians, in which I worked for about two months, the bathroom was decorated in the style of "golden toilets": white faience is covered with gilded drawings. In my opinion, a gilded toilet is an unnecessary show-off, because such a design is short-lived. Yes, and cleaning such places is much more difficult than ordinary bathrooms: on the one hand, everything is in gold, and on the other, in calcium stains from water.
Usually clients treat me with respect, but anything happened. In one family, for example, a lunch break was not provided for a housekeeper.
Where and how I will eat, they did not really care. There, standing in the laundry compartment, I was not very pleased.
Once I got a job in a family of lawyers - a lawyer and her daughter. They had two cats, and there was an incredible amount of wool in the house. It became unbearable for me to come in order to clean up after the cats, then I said to myself: I will not serve the cats. If a person gets a cat, this is his whim, not mine, and therefore the person must take care of him himself. I help people when they really need the help of a housekeeper, and when they just don't feel like doing it themselves, an internal protest arises in me. For this reason, I soon left this family.
There are many women in our country who love to do housework, but nevertheless they sit within four walls and do not know what to do with themselves. If at least twice a week they help someone, it will be useful for them both financially and in terms of realizing their usefulness. But more and more visitors from other cities and countries are becoming housekeepers, it is still difficult for our women to overcome their pride and become an au pair. Although there is nothing shameful in this work, and I perceive it as mutual assistance: clients have the opportunity to help me financially, and I have the opportunity to help them with housekeeping. My own family does not require much attention from me now, so my home is the home of the families where I work.
illustrations: Dasha Koshkina
The theme of servants in the 19th century is truly inexhaustible; it is not possible to cover it in one article. But don't eat so bite :)
So, the story about the servants is dedicated to Wodehouse fans.
Servants in the 19th Century
In the 19th century middle class was already rich enough to hire servants. The servant was a symbol of well-being, she freed the mistress of the house from cleaning or cooking, allowing her to lead a lifestyle worthy of a lady. It was customary to hire at least one maid - so at the end of the 19th century, even the poorest families hired a "step girl" who cleaned the steps and swept the porch on Saturday mornings, thus catching the eyes of passers-by and neighbors. Doctors, lawyers, engineers and other professionals kept at least 3 servants, but in rich aristocratic houses there were dozens of servants. The number of servants, their appearance and manners, signaled the status of their masters.
(c) D. Barry, "Peter Pan"
Main classes of servants
Butler(butler) - responsible for the order in the house. He has almost no responsibilities associated with physical labor, he is above it. Usually the butler looks after the male servants and polishes the silver. In Something New, Wodehouse describes the butler as follows:
Butlers as a class seem to grow less and less like anything human in proportion to the magnificence of their surroundings. There is a type of butler employed in the relatively modest homes of small country gentlemen who is practically a man and a brother; who hobnobs with the local tradesmen, sings a good comic song at the village inn, and in times of crisis will even turn to and work the pump when the water supply suddenly fails.
The greater the house the more does the butler diverge from this type. Blandings Castle was one of the more important of England's show places, and Beach accordingly had acquired a dignified inertia that almost qualified him for inclusion in the vegetable kingdom. He moved--when he moved at all--slowly. He distilled speech with the air of one measuring out drops of some precious drug.
Housekeeper(housekeeper) - Responds to bedrooms and servants' quarters. Supervises the cleaning, looks after the pantry, and also monitors the behavior of the maids in order to prevent debauchery on their part.
Chef(chef) - in rich houses, often a Frenchman takes very expensive for his services. Often in a state cold war with the economy.
Valet(valet) - the personal servant of the owner of the house. She takes care of his clothes, prepares his luggage for the trip, loads his guns, serves golf clubs, drives away angry swans from him, breaks his engagements, saves him from evil aunts and generally teaches the mind to reason.
Personal maid/maid(lady "s maid) - helps the hostess comb her hair and dress, prepares a bath, looks after her jewelry and accompanies the hostess during visits.
Lackey(footman) - helps bring things into the house, brings tea or newspapers, accompanies the hostess during shopping trips and wears her purchases. Dressed in livery, he can serve at the table and give solemnity to the moment with his appearance.
Maids(housemaids) - they sweep the yard (at dawn, while the gentlemen are sleeping), they clean the rooms (when the gentlemen are having dinner).
As in society as a whole, the "world under the stairs" had its own hierarchy. At the highest level were teachers and governesses, who, however, were rarely ranked as servants. Then came the senior servants, led by the butler, and so on down. The very same Wodehouse describes this hierarchy very interestingly. In this passage, he talks about the order of eating.
Kitchen maids and scullery maids eat in the kitchen. Chauffeurs, footmen, under-butler, pantry boys, hall boy, odd man and steward "s-room footman take their meals in the servants" hall, waited on by the hall boy. The stillroom maids have breakfast and tea in the stillroom, and dinner and supper in the hall. The housemaids and nursery maids have breakfast and tea in the housemaid's sitting-room, and dinner and supper in the hall. The head housemaid ranks next to the head stillroom maid. The laundry maids have a place of their own near the laundry, and the head laundry maid ranks above the head housemaid. The chef has his meals in a room of his own near the kitchen.
Jeeves played by Stephen Fry.
Children with a nanny
Henry Morland, A Lady's Maid Soaping Linen, OK. 1765-82. Of course, the era is by no means Victorian, but it is simply a pity to miss such a charming picture.
The washerwomen came for water.
A maid in the kitchen of a rural cottage. Judging by the photo, this is still a very young girl. However, at that time, 10-year-old children were sometimes hired to work, often from orphanages (like Oliver Twist)
Hiring, Paying and Position of Servants
In 1777, each employer had to pay a tax of 1 guinea per male servant - in this way the government hoped to cover the costs of the war with the North American colonies. Although this rather high tax was only abolished in 1937, servants continued to be hired. The servants could be hired in several ways. For centuries, there were special fairs (statute or hiring fair), which gathered workers looking for a place. They brought with them some object denoting their profession - for example, roofers held straw in their hands. To secure an employment contract, all that was required was a handshake and a small upfront payment (this advance was called a fastening penny). It is interesting to note that it was at such a fair that Mor from Pratchett's book of the same name became Death's apprentice.
The fair went something like this: people looking for work,
broken lines lined up in the middle of the square. Many of them are attached to
hats are small symbols that show the world what kind of work they know
sense. The shepherds wore shreds of sheep's wool, the carters tucked
a strand of a horse's mane, interior decorators - a strip
intricate Hessian wallpapers, and so on and so forth. Boys
wishing to become apprentices crowded like a bunch of timid sheep into
in the middle of this human whirlpool.
- You just go and stand there. And then someone comes up and
offers to take you on as an apprentice,” Lezek said in a voice that
managed to banish notes of some uncertainty. - If he likes your look,
Certainly.
- How do they do it? Mor asked. - That is, how they look
determine whether you qualify or not?
“Well…” Lezek paused. Regarding this part of the Hamesh program,
gave him an explanation. I had to strain and scrape through the bottom of the internal
warehouse of knowledge in the field of the market. Unfortunately, the warehouse contained very
limited and highly specific information on the sale of livestock wholesale and in
retail. Realizing the insufficiency and incomplete, shall we say, relevance of these
information, but having nothing else at his disposal, he finally
made up his mind:
“I think they count your teeth and all that. Make sure you don't
wheezing and that your legs are all right. If I were you, I wouldn't
mention a love of reading. This is disturbing.(c) Pratchett, "Mor"
In addition, a servant could be found through a labor exchange or a special employment agency. In their early days, such agencies printed lists of servants, but this practice declined as newspaper circulation increased. These agencies were often infamous because they could take money from the candidate and then not arrange a single interview with a potential employer.
Among the servants, there was also their own "word of mouth" - meeting during the day, servants from different houses could exchange information and help each other find a new place.
To obtain a good place required impeccable recommendations from previous owners. However, not every master could hire a good servant, because the employer also needed some kind of recommendation. Since the favorite occupation of the servants was washing the bones of the masters, then bad reputation about greedy employers spread fairly quickly. Servants also had blacklists, and woe to the master who got on it! In the Jeeves and Wooster series, Wodehouse often mentions a similar list compiled by members of the Junior Ganymede club.
“It's the Curzon Street valet club, and I've been a member of it for quite some time. I have no doubt that the servant of a gentleman who occupies such a prominent position in society as Mr. Spode is also a member of it and, of course, told the secretary a lot of information about
its owner, which are listed in the club book.
-- As you said?
-- According to the eleventh paragraph of the statute of the institution, each entering
the club is obliged to reveal to the club everything that he knows about his owner. Of these
information is compiled fascinating reading Moreover, the book encourages
reflections of those members of the club who conceived to go into the service of the gentlemen,
whose reputation can not be called impeccable.
A thought struck me, and I shuddered. Almost jumped up.
- What happened when you joined?
- Excuse me, sir?
"Did you tell them all about me?"
“Yes, of course, sir.
-- As everybody?! Even the case when I ran away from Stoker's yacht and I
did you have to smear the face with shoe polish to disguise it?
-- Yes, sir.
-- And about that evening when I came home after Pongo's birthday
Twistleton and mistook a floor lamp for a burglar?
-- Yes, sir. On rainy evenings, club members enjoy reading
similar stories.
“Oh, how about with pleasure?” (With) Wodehouse, Wooster family honor
A servant could be fired by giving him a month's notice of dismissal or by paying him a monthly salary. However, in the event of a serious incident - say, the theft of silverware - the owner could dismiss the servant without paying a monthly salary. Unfortunately, this practice was accompanied by frequent abuses, because it was the owner who determined the severity of the violation. In turn, the servant could not leave the place without prior notice of departure.
In the middle of the 19th century, a mid-level maid received an average of £6-8 a year, plus extra money for tea, sugar and beer. The maid who served directly to the mistress (lady's maid) received 12-15 pounds a year plus money for additional expenses, a livery footman - 15-15 pounds a year, a valet - 25-50 pounds a year. In addition, servants traditionally received a cash gift at Christmas.In addition to payments from employers, servants also received tips from guests.Tips were distributed at the departure of a guest: all the servants lined up in two rows near the door, and the guest handed out tips depending on the services received or on his social status (i.e. generous tips testified to his well-being).In some houses, only male servants received tips For poor people, tipping was a nightmare in reality, so they could decline the invitation, for fear of appearing poor.After all, if the servant received too stingy tips, then the next time he visited the greedy guest, he could easily give him a dolce vita - for example, ignore or twist all orders guest.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, servants were not entitled to days off. It was believed that when entering the service, a person understood that from now on every minute of his time belongs to the owners. It was also considered indecent if relatives or friends came to visit the servants - and especially friends of the opposite sex! But in the 19th century, masters began to allow servants to receive relatives from time to time or give them days off. And Queen Victoria even gave an annual ball for palace servants at Balmoral Castle.
By setting aside savings, servants from wealthy households could accumulate a significant amount, especially if their employers remembered to mention them in their wills. After retirement, former servants could go into trade or open a tavern. Also, servants who lived in the house for many decades could live out their lives with the owners - this happened especially often with nannies.
The position of the servants was ambivalent. On the one hand, they were part of the family, they knew all the secrets, but they were forbidden to gossip. An interesting example of this attitude towards servants is Bekassin, the heroine of comics for Semaine de Suzzette. A maid from Brittany, naive but devoted, she was drawn without a mouth and ears - so that she could not eavesdrop on the master's conversations and retell them to her girlfriends. Initially, the identity of the servant, his sexuality, as it were denied. For example, there was a custom when the owners gave the maid a new name. For example, Mall Flanders, the heroine of Defoe's novel of the same name, was called "Miss Betty" by the owners (and Miss Betty, of course, gave the owners a light). Charlotte Bronte also mentions the collective name of the maids - "abigails"
(c) Charlotte Brontë, "Jane Eyre"
With names, things were generally interesting. As I understand it, the higher-ranking servants, such as the butler or personal maid, were referred to exclusively by their surnames. A vivid example of such treatment we find again in the books of Wodehouse, where Bertie Wooster calls his valet "Jeeves," and only in The Tie That Binds do we recognize the name of Jeeves - Reginald. Wodehouse also writes that in conversations between servants, the footman often spoke of his master familiarly, calling him by name - for example, Freddie or Percy. At the same time, the rest of the servants called the said gentleman by his title - Lord such and such or Earl such and such. Although in some cases the butler could pull the speaker up if he thought that he was "forgetting" in his familiarity.
The servants could not have a personal, family or sexual life. The maids were often unmarried and without children. If the maid happened to become pregnant, she had to take care of the consequences herself. The percentage of infanticide among the maids was very high. If the father of the child was the owner of the house, then the maid had to remain silent. For example, according to persistent rumors, Helen Demuth, the housekeeper in the family of Karl Marx, gave birth to a son from him and kept silent about it all her life.
Wealthy people tend to be busy people. They stay late at work, so there is no time for housework. The best way out of this situation is to hire a housekeeper.
What will be required of you
If you decide to perform the duties of a housewife for rich people, get ready for:
1) an interview with an HR manager. Bring a copy of your passport, medical certificate, CV and some photographs to the meeting. This data is necessary, because for future employers you are an absolutely stranger, whom they will let into the house;
2) checking by the security service. The absence of a criminal record, connections with crime is an important condition for obtaining such a position;
3) an interview at the owner's house. You may be asked to cook a dish or tell how household appliances function in order to see the future assistant “in action”. Working hours are usually paid;
4) probationary period. It is 3 months. Show yourself with better side strictly adhering to the following rules:
- neat appearance. Neat hair, a clean uniform (at least 2 sets a day in case you get dirty), appropriate makeup, clean-shaven legs, etc.;
- no bad habits. No one likes a housekeeper who goes out for a smoke break every hour or wipes crystal glasses while drunk;
- quality performance of direct duties. The ability to handle household appliances and correctly use cleaning products, careful attitude to household things - the main "commandment" of a hired assistant;
- good mood, restraint. Forget about gloom and gossip - these are your "enemies" in the new workplace.
Myths and reality
Often young girls are afraid to occupy such a position due to false fears. Let's try to understand and dispel them.
- Worrying about your own safety. Some persons believe that the owners can mock a subordinate (“they are rich, they are allowed to do everything”). In fact, the relationship between the employer and the assistant is good, because no one needs black PR.
- Money scam. Girls are afraid to damage property and "work for food" all their lives. To prevent this from happening, perform your duties as efficiently and accurately as possible. Pay attention to the contract: it is better to prescribe the relevant clauses in it.
- Intimate relationship with the employer. Such cases are rare, because no one wants to spoil the reputation, destroy the family and lose a good housewife. If the boss is interested in additional services, he seeks private housekeeper with sex. These responsibilities are negotiated orally or specified in the contract.
- Claims of the boss's wife. You must understand: the spouses of wealthy people can be hysterical or very pleasant people to talk to. To improve relations with the mistress of the house, you will have to be a little psychologist. Guessing the mood, not asking unnecessary questions, not allowing too much in conversations with the employer - simple rules that will help you settle in and stay in a new place.
