I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butler We all think we know what a butler is: the traditional, stiff starched fellow perpetually dressed for dinner who expresses himself only by the occasional raising of an eyebrow. In fact, the role has evolved a great deal over the years, and there are many different types of butler…
Household Staff Dress Code Household staff are often very visible members of a domestic home. It is quite common therefore for either a formal (or less so) uniform or a dress code to be implemented amongst them. After all, they’ll be seen by and will interact with not only members of the principal family, but…
Job Focus: Palace Manager We’ve written about house managers before, these are sometimes known as household managers or estate managers, depending on the role and the property in question. However, what does it take to go a step beyond this into the world of the Palace Manager? A palace manager will be a very experienced…
Job Focus: Executive Housekeeper A large home or estate with many and varied staff is a diverse organisation and a place of employment for many people. It can be seen as a living, breathing machine with the function of providing a home for the principals and their family. With this in mind, one of the…
Job Focus: Governess / Governor There has been a noticeable uptick recently in the number of people looking for a governess (or the male equivalent – a governor) to join their household staff. However, it has come to our attention that many people don’t know what the job entails – either they think it’s an…
City vs. Rural Working We have placed household staff into roles in many countries around the world, into widely varying positions and every type of home, family, entourage and estate conceivable. Taking the huge number of variables into consideration there’s still one either/or factor that often seems to apply: is the role city based or…
The Queen Akin to the rest of the United Kingdom – and indeed the world – we at Pembury Partners were deeply saddened to learn of The Queen’s passing. We therefore thought it might be appropriate to suspend our usual blogging activities and instead prepare a small tribute. Queen Elizabeth II – or to give…
Job Focus: Household Manager A large and perfectly appointed home is undoubtedly a wonderful thing to own, it’s where you’re able to spend time with your family and entertain friends. However, the responsibilities of keeping the house as you envision, administering to the reams of paperwork it generates and managing the staff you’ve hired to…
The Executive Search Process: How We Place Household Staff Here at Pembury Partners we place the very best candidates into positions in the world’s finest households and estates. Many people think of this simply as the business of recruitment, but what we do is, in fact, Executive Search. This requires a different approach and is…
Job Focus: Chief of Staff There are a multitude of different roles within a household, from head housekeepers to nannies, nutritionists, chefs, chauffeurs, PAs and physiotherapists. A large or diverse team of household staff requires a leader, without whom structure, order and efficiency would be compromised. This is the Chief of Staff (often acronymised to…
