Letters to the Editor

“I thoroughly enjoy your monthly newsletter and I look forward to each new issue – congratulations on a job well done, it’s truly a wonderful resource for all of us.” JG

Ed: Comments such as these make it all worthwhile, thank you.

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“I always learn so much from your newsletter and am so grateful for its existence. I was saddened by the gossiping backbiters that exist in our field. The ‘too little too late”’ [mentioned in the last issue] was not lost on my perceptions of an undutiful human being.

“My contracts are very clear about confidentiality. I suppose it is an ethical character flaw to put an employer in a scandalous light. Are these colleagues looking for a small payout, notoriety maybe? I am not sure. Who would want to hire someone who wasn’t a trustworthy individual to their last principal?

“Though I prefer to put my principals in a positive light, I would and I have had to report abuses that I have encountered and witnessed. I am skilled enough to know I can find another position—which I have done because of sexual harassment, but I don’t sue, I leave.” DS

Ed: Many thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts in support of the key qualities of private service professionals

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Continuing the letters with Alex Parker for his article on Batman’s Batman:

“I see Alfred as kind of the quintessential or stereotypical British butler—he is always uniformed, polite, reserved, seems to work full-time to attend to every household need, lives on-premise, and is essentially a member of the family. Do butlers like this still exist in North America, or the world? If not, how has the role changed?

Ed: Yes, butlers definitely still exist who are quintessential butlers—or in America, they are generally called Household or Estate Managers. The role requires that one have this attitude and approach, otherwise one cannot be of real service and also be accepted in the family as a resident alien—I just came up with that term, being one myself as a Green Card holder before I became an American citizen, but it has some applicability in the domestic environment—and perhaps also in the world of Batman.

Would you have replied with anything substantially different?

The Institute is dedicated to raising service standards by broadly disseminating the mindset and superior service expertise of that time-honored, quintessential service provider, the British Butler, updated with modern people skills, and adapted to the needs of modern employers and guests in staffed homes, luxury hotels, resorts, spas, retirement communities, jets, yachts & cruise ships around the world.