# If You Were Wealthy, Would You Hire Servants?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-wealthy-would-you-hire-servants/812408>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 14, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-wealthy-would-you-hire-servants/812408 "2018-04-14T13:45:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 7

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sveltington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@Sveltington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sveltington)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-wealthy-would-you-hire-servants/812408/121 "2018-05-15T11:16:04Z")

</div>

Yes

1. cook
2. pastry chef if #1 can only do savory dishes
3. gardener
4. laundry/ironing/wardrobe maintainer
5. court jester type of person whatever they call that job now. They must be able to juggle, make balloon animals, tell jokes well; but NO CLOWNS NEED APPLY!
6. (should be #1) a classical pianist to play Chopin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-wealthy-would-you-hire-servants/812408/122 "2018-05-15T14:11:25Z")

</div>

Growing up in Peru you either had a maid or you were one. I wouldn’t have any problems going back to that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-wealthy-would-you-hire-servants/812408/123 "2018-05-15T18:32:44Z")

</div>

> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> What are the rules? You can’t ask her to do stuff after work hours. No late night pizza.

I can’t speak for the rules everywhere, but here’s how it works in Indonesia: if your staff live out, they aren’t around at night anyway (typical work day is something like 7:30 to 3:30). So if you want late night pizza you figure it out that morning and ask them to get it ready for you before they go home. Alternatively, you can ask them to work late and pay an hourly overtime rate.

If your staff live in, working hours tend to be more “on call.” You might be able to ask for some late-night cooking, but also the cook might have spent her entire afternoon napping. Anytime there is work above and beyond the usual amount (say, having house guests or hosting a dinner party), people usually pay their staff extra money for the extra work.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-were-wealthy-would-you-hire-servants/812408.md?page=6)