Letters to the Editor

“Excellent response to the “conspiracy theory” commentator. The three articles were interesting and valuable reads for sure. I always enjoy your newsletter, BTW.” RP

“Thank you for this article, all very well stated. The prospect of actually catching the virus is less stressful than navigating through all the agendas every day. Hopefully, this works itself out soon, with sensible solutions that allow adults the option for gathering and conducting business as we choose.” JG

“Very timely and informative article, and true in my estimation!” PS

“I very much agree with all you have written. It will be very interesting to hear & read from all—including Governments & Pharmaceutical/Tech companies—concerning what hopefully has been learned with hindsight from this sorry state of affairs. I would be most grateful for a copy of the full report.” RS

“If you would be so kind, I would appreciate the complete article on COVID-19. I did encounter separately a medical paper from early 2019 written by Chinese physicians predicting an outbreak in the Wuhan area based on earlier experiences and other Covid related viruses.” PH

“I wonder if the service skills that I have acquired and kept while in health care, could be applied to becoming a butler?” EMH

ED: Thanks for your question—not the first time this has been asked and with good reason. A good health-care professional has a key quality that is of great value in private household service—solicitousness or caring for the welfare of another. However, in a health-care setting, by my observation, while the patient is the ultimate “client,” the health-care worker’s point of view is that he or she is the boss and does what he or she considers to be best for the patient. This particular perspective would need to be shifted to caring to give the principals what they consider they need and want, even if one may disagree, in order to transpose successfully the care factor to the private household. There are many other elements that go into running a household, as detailed in my various books, so these skills would need to be acquired, but I would suggest that, all things being equal, a health-care worker is on firm ground for learning the profession and being a success at it.

“Recruiters don’t want to see why people work for a short time for royal families, whether in Great Britain or Luxembourg, and then change jobs—it’s only to build their CV and more easily find a position later that is better paid. When people comment that they don’t want to work for the kind of salary being offered at Buckingham Palace, they don’t have service in their heart. Every family wants a specific style of service but given the choice between a professional with a heart for service and a person who only wants to be hired to make it easier to find a better-paid job, I would always choose the person with the service heart.” CK

Ed: Thanks for sharing your experiences and perspective. I agree with you, those who cycle through royal palaces to build their resumes (such jobs are indeed an excellent resume, perspective, and skill builder) yet lack the solicitous approach to service, tend to show their true colours through their commercial efforts and failure to continue to follow the code of a butler or other service professional thereafter (in terms of loyalty and discretion, for instance).

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.