If the job of domestic for the ultra-rich is well paid, it is also very hard according to several testimonies.
The cliché of a servant in a black uniform is far from out of fashion. It is even appreciated by certain very wealthy people who are keen to respect it. The daily life of butlers and other household staff is often a well-kept secret. But the testimonies of the little hands give a glimpse of this special world where the staff rub shoulders with luxury while enduring sometimes humiliating working conditions.
Servants-in-chief of the ultra-rich, butlers take care of everything from managing property and finances to catering to their employers’ every whim. But behind the luxury and glamour, there is often a difficult daily life, full of humiliation and abuse of power.
Marc, 49, has been a butler for 17 years; he confided in France Culture, in a report by Antoine Guirimand: “We are a simple servant, without saying slave, at the mercy of our boss”, he explains. His contract forces him to be single, childless and unattached, but these are not the only things he has had to give up: “You have to be ready to accept everything, even the most humiliating things.” In return, he benefits from a very comfortable remuneration of “120 to 160,000 euros per year” and this “without the sidelines” which can reward him with a salary of more than “300,000 euros” per year.
“My boss and his children did not have the same conception of the world as we, normal people, have. Because for them, a baguette is worth 50 euros,” underlined this former butler of a very wealthy client of the Middle East. His contract ended in a surprising way: “The story ended when a member of my family had a serious health problem. I took vacation to be able to go to his bedside, my boss took it badly and simply decided to fire me, overnight.”
Daily humiliations
A man called Damien also spoke about his experience in this environment, in the report by journalist Antoine Guirimand. This servant was forced to wear diapers so as not to have to leave his post to go to the toilet, which was too far from his post, and at the express request of his employer. “I immediately told myself that it was a test, to see if I was ready to accept anything. Without thinking, I accepted,” he explained, before adding: “It’s when we clean all day that we keep our diapers. As servants, we weren’t allowed to use our masters’ toilets, so when we wanted to, we had to cross all the castle and up to our rooms, which was too long for them. They saw it as a waste of time, which is why she made us wear diapers. At first, there was no question that I use it, and then after a while, you inevitably have to. It’s a feeling you don’t forget the first time you do it.”
To keep this job, paid 5,000 euros – that’s more than a woman’s salary for the same position – he had to agree to be called Murielle and to wear a maid’s outfit: “It was about culottes with a white blouse and a navy blue cardigan.” As for the change of first name, it “was systematic for the servants. It was the first names of the maids of several generations who had been there before me: when one leaves or dies, we rename the new one by his first name”.
He also witnessed abuse of power by his employers, who behaved like tyrants towards their servants. “It was a terrible humiliation,” he says. “But I had no choice, I needed the money.” Damien finally left his job to return to a normal life. But he has bitter memories of this experience.