If you could have one (already paid for) full time servant/employee, which would you choose: a cook, a butler or a chauffeur?
What does a butler do?
I don’t need a driver. We don’t eat at home enough to justify a full time cook. So, a butler it is! I’m not sure what I’d have them do, but I’d think of something.
Buttles of course!
Lays out your clothes, answers the phone, tells the maids what to do, generally runs the household.
Other: Maid. I don’t need someone to answer the door but someone dusting the shelves would be nice.
Cooks only cook.
Drivers only drive.
Butlers do all kinds of things! Including helping you cover up your shenanigans! And get you a cook or a driver when you need one!
Def Butler!
A housekeeper who did my cleaning chores, like vacuuming, dusting, taking out the trash, making beds, laundry and stuff like that.
I picked chauffeur. I’ve got places to go, things to do and horrible night vision.
Wikipedia says the butler can be used as a chauffer, and the list of duties seems like you can ask him to cook something. So everyone should, logically, choose butler.
Maybe I’m just not getting into the spirit, but it seems that a butler without a staff is kind of a wasted position.
That said, I’d go with groundskeeper/maintenance person. Mow, weed, stack wood, shovel snow, fix the fence, that kind of thing.
I went with the cook. A cleaning lady coming in once every two weeks suffices for the vast majority of our housecleaning needs, so having a full-time housekeeper seems like way overkill. (ETA: And I don’t mind driving, so no desire for a chauffer.) And a butler seems kinda pointless if you don’t have other servants for him to manage. But someone to fix all our meals and clean up afterwards would be a big deal.
Yeah, how about all those mysteries where “the butler did it”?
No way I’m getting a butler - don’t want to wake up dead some morning!
I don’t need help with the things listed but I could use a part-time masseuse - preferably a pretty 20 something woman with strong hands that can engage in witty banter.
In the DL Sayers books, Bunter, Lord Peter’s valet, does a bit of everything: he drives, he cooks, he waits at table, he cleans, he shops, he even assists with his master’s hobby of amateur criminology. So I’d like a Bunter.
A cook and it’s not even close.
Someone who knows which foods I like, how I like them prepared and can make it for me when I don’t have to? Hell yes.
Also, if they cook then they know more about food than just how to make it warm, so I can have someone with the knowledge of food to make me healthy, filling meals that taste good and are good for me.
Also also this is happening 3 times a day every day? Again, not even close!
Definitely housekeeper. Someone who enjoys dusting.
I would want a factotum, so I voted “other.”
I like to cook and drive. So butler provided he will shovel snow and lives off property.
Someone like Jeeves, who does it all, would be splendid. If it has to be narrowed down, a housekeeper who is responsible for the home and does the shopping and some of the cooking would be amazing.
I hate to drive, but my SO likes driving me around, so that’s covered.
I voted “other,” because I could wear out a full-time, on-call masseur.