Private Service
What on earth is private service? It sounds so stuffy. And conjures images of uniformed house-servants carrying gilded trays through mansions while people scrub marble floors by hand. You know, à la Warbucks Mansion.
The reality of a career in private service is typically far from that stereotype. Private Service employees work to support a principal family in their home environment. That home can be a teepee in the Colorado Mountains, a family yacht that circles the globe, or a simple suburban home with a one-car garage and busy working parents.
Housekeepers, nannies, babysitters, gardeners, estate managers, personal assistants, butlers and drivers all work in this field. The positions are wildly varied- from informal, part of the family types to uniformed housekeepers and classic social secretaries in business suits.
Rarely visible in gossip magazines or paparrazi shots of starlets are the hardworking, loyal support teams behind these high-profile individuals. The world doesn’t have access to the behind-the-scenes of wealthy estates, or reality of the many possibilities on the other side of their iron gates: that a butler can be a woman (called a Household Manager in the US), and that her prowess with computers can be much more important than her understanding of silver polish. Or that she can be fairly paid, and a valued and respected member of a team that supports hard-working parents simply achieve their goals. Nothing scandalous or worthy of Page Six. But a career outside the cubicle, where each day varies wildly and glamour and the daily grind collide.
The industry is wildly misunderstood and stigmatized, simply due to a lack of information. The sensationalistic nature of the concept of domestic employees working for high net worth families makes for muddy waters when it comes to PR: labor and immigration rights, women’s lib, class structure and even indentured servitude come to mind. These are obviously important matters and the structure and treatment of domestic staff varies wildly between countries. Several member-driven associations have cropped up in recent years to attempt to educate the public about the fascinating world of private service, and to address the need to unify and define the core values of the industry, and demand protections for the vulnerable.
Here are links to organizations that are working on various aspects of this nationally:
International Association for Private Service Professionals (IAPSP)
