To hope that in this day and age in the UK, servants no longer exist?

[angelos02]

I know the aristocracy will have chefs and cleaners etc but I hope that servants as they used to exist, don't any longer. I'm thinking of people sat eating at a table while their minions stand waiting behind them to cater for their every whim? Surely not anymore? Who in their right mind would bow and scrape to another human being, day in, day out?

Waiting staff at dinners ckeaners butlerscooks valet dressers andP A s paid to serve and if they are in a household then they are servents same job different titles

Just look up 'au pair' jobs on gumtree and you'll see plenty of modern day slavery there

My brother has just started work as a Butler / Housekeeper for a guy who owns a B&B.

He has to cook breakfast for the guests, clean the rooms, co-ordinate the laundry which is sent out, walk the dogs and generally whatever else is required (including picking up his boss from airports etc).

I don't think he has to bow and scrape as such though - oh and he gets paid £18k per year, plus gets a flat, use of a car and a clothing allowance.

I have a mother's help and someone who helps in the garden. They're paid. I see them as professionals. Servant is just a word.

It's a job. Probably a nicer job than working in a busy fast food place or cleaning public toilets, so long as your employer is a reasonable person and pays fairly.

liberty People in these "servant" type roles usually have a pretty decent wage (though as I mentioned about, some are exploited awfully, like in a scary amount of 'au pair' roles). And more people have "servants" than you'd think if we count cleaners and nannies!

I'm a nanny/housekeeper, paid quite well and proud to do what I do. I've worked for a nice mix of people too.

Op it just shows how ignorant you are about what's happening in the rest of the world. Who in their right minds would do this job? Er... People who desperately need a job, countries where there is no government help, where poverty is rife and any job will do. I'm sure it's very difficult to understand this from your privileged position

Servants everywhere, and plenty who are slaves.

I'm not sure how these jobs on The Lady - www.jobs.lady.co.uk/ are more demeaning than working in McDonalds or Dominos on a zero hours contract for minimum wage and cleaning vomit out of the toilets after the nightclubs close on a Saturday night? Would you mind explaining to me, OP?

We don't have the physical need for the more menial "Downton Abbey" sort of things - scullery maids etc, because we have kitchen appliances and buy our food pretty much ready to eat, but lots of large or well off families need and can afford a bit of household management in the form of a housekeeper/cook.

Not sure that this job is quite what I would call demeaning, what with the three bedroom flat you get etc.

And on a more normal level, lots of people on here have paid cleaners and childcare. The language has changed (we don't call them servants) but some of the roles still exist.

(I got the impression that the OP was just referring to the UK, not overseas)

the bowing and scraping still goes on but now it's to our corporate employers rather than individual families.

What about this job - £19k plus free accomodation for a housekeeper role, cleaning and cooking, 2 other part time staff reporting into you to help with the above and the family aren't there for most of the year. Sounds pretty full on when they are visiting, rather more of a 'caretaker' role for the bulk of the year.

It's not for everyone, but I can't see that this role would be any more 'demeaning' than working in a hotel.

Actually, looking at the adverts, it's interesting how many are looking for carers, or cooks/housekeepers for elderly people, drivers for disabled people etc. It seems there is a lot of people employed in traditional 'service' roles for families where there's a need for care, for whatever reason families cant do it themselves and don't want to put older people in care homes. Thinking about it, some 'posher' care homes can be £1,500-£2,000 a month for a place, if you had the money, wanted to stay in your own home and didn't want to/couldn't rely on family, spending the same amount on someone to look after you seems terribly sensible choice.

Am I a servant? I'm a nanny. I don't bow or scrape though, I just happen to work in a house rather than a dedicated 'work' building.

I think servant is a kind of class thing, very old fashioned. People do still do the same jobs, but in entirely different conditions. You think of servant, you think bad conditions, very poor pay, a day off every other month, inherited job roles. Doing a job for life just because your mum did it, and her mum before her? It goes back to lower classes not attending school past a certain age, jobs for life etc.

In the classic age of servants, I wouldn't even have my own surname. You take the surname of the family you work for- nanny smith for example. Then you'd be there for life, probably raise the kids of the kids you first looked after. And in the unlikely event you changed to a differ t family, you still keep the same name. Nanny smiTh for life!

I'm getting staff when i win the euro millions.

I hate cooking, cleaning etc and I fully plan to buy a lot of silver that needs polishing.

"I'm thinking of people sat eating at a table while their minions stand waiting behind them to cater for their every whim?"

You're confusing 'Downton Abbey' with 'real life'....

Im made for staff im so l lazy

My FIL has a housekeeper and her husband who live at his country house and oversee cleaners and gardeners.

They have been with the family for decades and believe me, if there was the tiniest whiff of anyone treating them as whim-catering minions, they'd be looked on very dimly indeed.

They are respected, trusted and loved.

There are plenty of homes in the UK with live-in servants, and not just stately homes.

Plenty of upper-middle class, and well-off (but not necessarily upper-middle), families.

It's not as rare as you might think.

They're just not really called 'servants' any more.

DS was at nursery with a child whose father was a butler. He'd worked for Serious Household Names, London clubs, and hotels. No sign if being downtrodden, and every sign that he'd really enjoyed a varied and fascinating career (he was planning posts on cruise ships when his DC was older).

It is very common. I've been a cleaner, a nanny, a mother's help, an au paire,

I know gardeners, caterers, farm hands, drivers, carers, house keepers, etc etc

It depends what you call servant, if you mean someone paid to work in a domestic situation, yes, there are many many many, and it can be a good job.

Well the Royal Family still has servants as do some of the aristocracy but I think it's structured a bit differently nowadays. Many stately homes are run almost as corporate business/charitable foundations.

Add into the mix corporate entertaining and the number of firms who employ butlers/chefs/ etc in the formal dining suites, nannies, housekeepers, drivers. For us lesser mortals:

au-pairs, cleaners, ironers, organisers, life coaches, taxis, gardeners, the man who cleans the oven, delivers and puts up the Christmas trees, caretakes a second home perhaps. But we respect all those people hugely, they are not entirely dependent on us, and on the whole we are very very grateful for their help.

Go have a look at the au pair section of mn.

A fair few slave drivers in there,

I love re-reading Margaret Powell's two books on her experiences as a Domestic Servant (after WW1, pre WW2).

You really were a Servant in those days - but no comparison with conditions and pay now - plenty of jobs available and certainly not "slavery".

*Go have a look at the au pair section of mn.

A fair few slave drivers in there,*

Maybe so, but if an employer is not treating you as they should, you are free to change employers (better still, sign up with a Domestic Agency, who will protect you from twats).