The Butler Did It: Now Where Did He Go?

7 February 2018
 Categories: Business, Blog


Butlers were once employed by the wealthy to manage the household staff. In fact, they still exist, but their titles have changed to reflect the times. Some businesses that provide household staff for the wealthy use various job titles to refer to butlers. If you need a butler, and you want to employ one from a household staffing agency, you should ask for any of the following titled positions if you hope to find your butler.

Estate Manager

An estate manager is a butler. It makes sense, does it not? Since the job duties of a butler include managing the kitchen, pantry, wine cellar, dining room, and, more often than not, the whole housekeeping staff, they are in every way estate managers. This is just one title used by an estate manager's agency to describe the job and its role in your home.

Majordomo

Staffing agencies that want to sound more upscale may refer to their available butlers as majordomos. This is a combo word that combines major with domo. Major, obviously, refers to the head of command. Domo refers to domicile, or home. Ergo, this butler title means "major head of household." If the agency does not have butlers or estate managers on their employee rosters, ask about majordomos.

Butler Administrator

In the position of butler administrator, the male servant that fills this position manages all of the male servants in the household, and may also manage record keeping of finances and an inventory of household goods. The additional title of administrator means that he does much more than act as a butler, and that the majority of the extra work regards money, payroll, etc. However, if you ask for a butler from an agency that offers butler administrators, you will still get someone who can manage the household staff and particular tasks on the estate.

The Butler Is Not Hiding--He Is In Plain Sight

Now that you know that butlers have not vanished, only that their job titles have changed for the modern world, you know what to ask for when you need one. There are few other titles that may be used, but the ones above are the most common for this type of employment. If you have no other male servants in the house, then the butler is head over the housekeeping staff, even though the head housekeeper is head over the rest of the housekeepers. Contact professionals like Helen's Agency for more information on household staffing.


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