Butlers in the Media
by Steven Ferry
Several articles this month quoted the usual “butler” doing real butlers no favors by mouthing off about the British Royal Family.
And now another butler is putting the profession in a bad light by spilling the beans on famous guests who once visited his former employer. The fact that this employer was a convicted pedophile makes this butler going public at this point in time “too little too late”: A prosecutor in Paris is currently looking into allegations of abuse of girls as young as 12, and yet this butler, who worked for that employer for 18 years, says of “the numerous very young, very thin and very tall girls” who visited, that he “believed none were under-age and everything was above board.”
Given that this employer’s butler in the US was very much aware of the goings on and even kept a little black book that he attempted to use for his own ends, it is unlikely that the French butler was not aware of what was going on; it’s unfortunate that he did not have the decency and the expected ethic level of a butler to go to the police on his own initiative.
Instead, he compounds his destructiveness by irresponsibly talking to the media about the guests who visited his former employer, making them guilty by association—whereas they may simply have been visiting for a cup of coffee and to talk business.
On the positive side, those who have and continue to represent the profession in a good light include Mr. Rick Fink, covered in this article. He may or may not be the “Last Great Butler,” as the article claims, but he is certainly one of the few remaining old-school butlers upon whose basic know-how of the role of the traditional butler the profession bases itself today.
The same magazine has another good article on the profession that depicts it accurately, although one person quoted talks of “commercial” butlers versus private-service butlers: A true understanding of the profession would see the fundamentals stretching across both hospitality and private-service butlers and would not feel it necessary to denigrate half the butlers who work hard every day around the world. Yes, they may be short on training and experience in fine estates, but they are at least on the road of superior service and could probably teach even the traditional butlers a thing or two about service—starting with a small dose of humility.
An excellent article on the need for soft-skills training in the hospitality world (applies to private service, too).
And a couple of articles showing how technology is taking over in hotels and the Chinese hotel manned by robots. “The one-meter high robot … an artificial intelligence (AI) system, follows guests around, takes orders, helps to buy groceries, orders meals, and picks up laundry through voice command, touch, or simple gestures.” Concierge and front desk are robots, too. Kitchen and cleaning staff are still humans. Why bother? The article claims: “These futuristic features are measures to increase efficiency, response time, and reducing the expensive workforce.” Presumably they mean “decrease” response time.
Lastly, we have two new misnomers this month to add to the many: “Closet Butler” and “Taxi Butler.”
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.
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