Violating the code of a butler

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, July 2018, Message from the Chairman

Message from the Chairman

by Steven Ferry

Last month’s message acknowledging the silent majority of butlers who quietly go about their business, rather than expressing their opinions about their former employers in public, was appreciated by many in the profession, some of the responses being noted in this edition’s Letters to the Editor. It is encouraging for the integrity and future of our profession that so many reaffirmed their commitment to upholding the standards.

The chairman has recently written a series of three articles on checking standards in hotels and resorts, with the notion that they could be improved — if for no other reason than the big players in the Quality Assurance industry still do not include standards for hotel butlers, even though 400+ luxury properties around the world now offer butler service. The first article in this series was published last month in various online venues, originally in Hotel Business Review.

Otherwise, plenty of interesting material in this newsletter, including how to clean candlesticks in the 21st Century, and the way our predecessors addressed the problem a couple of centuries ago. The observation that silver-cleaning duties for butlers is decreasing in modern times is what prompted the ongoing column on “The Butlers Speak”, to find out exactly what butlers are doing these days.

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.

The Modern Butlers’ Journal, June 2018, Message from the Chairman

Message from the Chairman

by Steven Ferry

For several months now, one ex-royal butler after another has stepped forward to express their learned opinions in the tabloids on the lives, preferences, private statements and actions, etc. of their former employers. I have commented often on Mr. PB, who is the most egregious in his outpourings, but anyone else who uses their former position to reveal private information to the rumor-mongering, tittle-tattle media stumbles on the same slippery slope of self-aggrandizement at the expense of the majority of us in the profession who continue to keep our own counsel about what we see, hear, and feel, and so retain some measure of public trust.

The sheer volume of declarations by multiple butlers/ex-butlers concerning the royal wedding in May has brought the subject to the fore again, and while I do not expect those guilty of the violations of the code of a butler to do anything but justify their actions, I do want to reiterate for the majority that what you are most probably thinking privately about the actions of our putative colleagues, is correct, and to stand fast by the code.

The short-term notoriety and possible financial remuneration enjoyed by those who have forgotten (or perhaps never knew) the code, may seem to vindicate the violating of the code, but codes exist for a reason, and long term, their violation just results in degradation of the individual—and for the profession, if the majority do not stand fast. Already, we have concepts in society like Butlers in the Buff and who knows what else that derail the public perception of the profession.

So to end on a positive note, I would like to thank deeply the majority who quietly perform their duties and derive satisfaction from bringing smiles to the faces of those they serve.

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.