Wayne Fitzharris
The Modern Butler can follow or lead a new path and a new purpose.
Traditions evolve just as job descriptions evolve because not all services and traditions are needed in a modern world.
We teach the next generation to weave their own path in life without fear of being judged, just as we teach that those who prefer to follow are welcome to do so. Each will have a purpose, one will lead with intelligence and one will follow usually without.
Those who prefer to think, and challenge the status quo. I am right behind you.
Traditions are important if they carry weight such as etiquette and deportment and making people feel they belong. But looking to the past can often be a barrier to transforming luxury services when asking which aspects are more important in a modern world.
But rules are meant to be questioned and challenged to provide a service in keeping with a clients and guest requirements. The classical traditional Butler has a place in a modern world only because a client wishes for this type of Butler.
Having worked in Private Service and in Commercial service at the highest level, I have learned that we have to bend the rules of engagement, and provide guests and clients with what they want, rather than what we think they want. Traditions, formality and luxury sophisticated standards, each come with different expectations on behaviour and interaction. We fit a global world and we adjust to the cultures and traditions that each part of the world requires. One size does not fit all.
Butlers can remain subservient if that is what an employer or guest requires, or, as in most cases, we can provide services which are more engaging and more rewarding.
In a modern world, luxury services require fast thinking proactive and emotionally connected people to pamper and delight guests with the flexibility of intelligent engagement to give people precisely what they want, need and expect without the passive formality of tradition getting in the way.