Cum On Feel the Noize

It is that time of the year, again. SPRING BLITZ!!

It is one of just a few times a year when the Ps are out way long enough for us to do some serious damage (read: Deep Cleaning). This year we are celebrating variations on the theme of Painting. The exterior of the Hamptons house is getting a pressure wash and the trim painted. The interior of the house and the New York City apartment are getting touched up, too.

The landscapers are cleaning out yard, edging and primping the property, despite the small snow piles that are stubbornly not going away. And, the pool company is making repairs to the tile, coping and filtration system

For those keeping count, that's 3 painting crews of 4-6 guys, 4 landscapers, 2 masons and my maintenance guy. I feel like I am on the wrong side of the walls at Helm's Deep.

Next week should be a bit quieter. It will take the "Charge of the House Brigade" to put everything back in its place.

Now, if I could just get the leaf blowers and power washer to hum in opposing frequencies. Where are those earplugs?

Title by: Quiet Riot

Song for the Dumped

The Ps big summer party is coming up soon. All the guest rooms will be filled for the weekend, plus a few other nooks and crannies. The party itself is on a Saturday evening with the teens making an overnight party of it. In all, there will be 150 guests or so.

Needless to say, there is plenty of planning and coordination with the band, tent company, caterer and others. The house and grounds are primped to the highest standard. The property has been a flurry of activity with housekeepers, maintenance, landscapers, pool & court vendors all doing their part to make the environment ready.

Everything goes into a master document. I amalgamated an assortment of documents together as a sort of punch-list for preparation and execution of events. As my sister says, it is the "Oh we ALMOST forgot..." list.

Did I forget to mention the septic backed-up yesterday? ...DANG, that bites!!!

Title by: Ben Folds Five

Blessed Relief

The couple of weeks with the new housekeeper went well. With the Ps off on travel, it helped that we could focus on just the house for the first few days.

Ms. D is a much shyer version of Ms. C. She has a great eye for what needs to be done and is self-motivated to do it. Ms. C and I are both relieved to be back to full staff. It was a crazy 6 weeks.

Title by: Frank Zappa (Can you believe it has been 15 years!?)

Deadline

It has been so crazy at work. I did not realize that I was pushing myself so hard. Fortunately, the Ps absense gave me a chance to breath and catch up on the back-log of tasks and small projects on my desk and floor. Yes, my floor. It turns into a rolling "to-do" list when things get hectic. Now, I can see my floor! It is the small things at work, sometimes.

Next up, my House Managers Book. I have a self imposed August 6 deadline (one year anniversary). Wish me luck.

Title by: Blue Öyster Cult

On the Wing

The Ps took a 6 day trip to Paris recently. It was a rather quick thing. Mr P had been knocking the idea around for a few days. I found out they were definitely going at 5 PM on a Monday. Departure day was Thursday.

The air travel was set by 6 PM on Monday, but we had to wait for Paris to be awake to set the room.

Tuesday morning we changed travel agents to American Express and re-booked the flight. By that afternoon, the air travel and hotel were locked in. The hotel and American Express concierge services helped me get dinner and theater reservations all set on Wednesday. We had Euros in hand by Wednesday afternoon. Everything was packed before I left on Wednesday, too.

This would be expected or even a bit slow if we were in Manhattan. But, no, it was all done from the Hamptons. Thanks in very large part to American Express Travel and Concierge and the banking team.

Title by: Owl City

Make It Easier

Since I am down one half of my housekeeping staff, Ms. C and I have to make up the difference. I probably missed that introduction. Ms. C started with us just after Thanksgiving last year. She generally covers the Monday through Friday shifts.

Ms. C has been working 6 day weeks on and off since the beginning of June. She even pulled a 17 day-in-a-row jag. She can be contentious and difficult at times; however, she definitely knows how to pull up the slack when I ask her. She has the right kind of heart for the job. I will have to be sure to not burn her out during this transition.

Title by: Indigo Girls

Everybody Ought to Have a Maid

One of the housekeepers left suddenly at the beginning of June. For complicated reasons, she was unable to return to our service in a timely manner. I had to replace her. Thankfully, she was able to refer friends and relatives. The new housekeeper starts next Wednesday.

Title by: Stephen Sondheim

Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here

Staffing has been an issue for me from the very beginning at the P's. I have a, relatively, stable staff; however, I am always looking to "upgrade". Some things I can train; however, there needs to be an inherent ability. The industry calls it a "Service Heart". An innate desire to please and see a job done, thoroughly.

One of neat things about my training was being in a room where the majority of the people had "Service Heart". It was comforting to be with people that also felt compelled to do a proper job, properly.

(It is funny, but apparently the only way I have to explain this ability is with the use of adverbs, precisely. HA!)

Title by: Grammar Rock

April Showers

I hired a new landscaper for this season. The previous vendor just did not seem to be on our agenda. The lawn looked terrible and he just did not see that it was his responsibility to do something about it. The crab grass was the pool guy's fault; the moss was from too much water (never mind the fact that he controlled the sprinkler system); the budget for the stones too small. I call it the 2-syndrome: too much water, too much sun, too little time... You get the idea.

The new landscaper would have ideally been in during the Blitz, unfortunately, the timing and weather did not cooperate. This and the Wednesday only restriction means the landscaper has been playing catch-up for the past 3 weeks. His crew has done a fantastic job of squeezing what would have been 2 weeks of cleanup and setup into 3 very long days. I hope he is successful.

Title by: Sugarland

Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.

Vendors are only allowed in the environment on Wednesdays. It is a privacy thing for the Ps. This means that Wednesdays turn out to be coordinated chaos.

There are usually 3 or 4 vendors on the property, plus the normal maintenance crews for the tennis court, pool and lawn. Wednesdays sometimes remind me of software deployment weekends at Manpower. Or, like running downhill. You cannot really slow down and there is the nagging fear that your head will get ahead of your feet.

On a completely different note, the ticks here are thick as ants! They are everywhere. I'll have to get the property sprayed here before long. We are on a nightly tick check for the Ts and Luci. I just plucked one off of the wall. It was sitting there, like a spider. Unbelievable.

Title by: Simon & Garfunkel

Yes I Am

I've been brooding over this post for a couple of months. Well, a month anyway. I have probably already attested that this entire experience has been a test for everyone from the Ts to grandparents, friends, associates, etc.

However, I believe the person that was pushed the hardest was ma cherè. She was a single Mom for three-quarters of a year. She did it with a cool efficiency; however, not without harboring a level of resentment.

My half was perhaps the riskier side of the equation, lots of unknowns. Will the school be easy or hard? Will I get a job in the field with no experience? Where will I end up? What will the principals be like? Will I be able to handle the responsibilities, the hours, the staff, the contractors...? Some unknowns were exciting, most were the mundane things of everyday.

Ma cherè, on the other hand, had all the "heavy lifting". We knew what her day/nights/weekends would be like. It is the routine of a middle-class family. We thought we understood what she was in for. Unfortunately, we seriously underestimated what it would take for her to pull it off alone. Frankly, we underestimated both our roles.

Thank goodness we know how to communicate. It might not always be pretty. It certainly is painful, but the results make the trial worth it. I had to promise not to remind her "I do that for a living, you know." She let go of the thought that I was drinking Dom Perignon poolside every night. (Just on weekends...I swear).

Title by: Radiohead

Highland Laddie

One of my central roles is managing vendors. I am, generally, responsible for finding two or three vendors for a given project; getting estimates and references; and, making sure the work is done at the appropriate level of professionalism.

We recently had the floors done in the Hamptons. The company uses the new "dustless" system. While it was not dust free, there was a fine powder on most flat surfaces. However, it was a quick cleanup and was limited to just where the floors were done.

Why is it that as customers we have to force contractors to complete a job? The workmanship was sloppy. Stain and poly-coat left on base boards and stair risers. The sander apparently brushed up against the base boards leaving grooves. They could not keep to promised time frames, like showing up at 3 PM for an 8 AM to 9 AM window. They sent 1 guy back to move the furniture, 1 hour late (of course).

My complaints were at first met with shock. "But, look at how good the floors look." As if, after the pilot dumps the plane in the ocean, the airlines gets to say, "But look at how smooth the flight was." The best was, "You should just plan on the contractor showing up an hour later than they say." No accountability, no ownership.

I used a line from the Ps play book. "If you provide a less than perfect job, I'll provide a less than perfect check." I finally got their attention with that. They came back and cleaned up most of the mess. I still have some touch-up painting to do.

The floors look great.

Title by: Burl Ives

Too Country

I was not prepared for the transition to such an intensely inter-personal communicative position. The challenge for me was to learn to suspend my reaction to my principals’ body language and tone and focus on just the content of the message. It took a while to understand that by reacting to more than the content I was actually “feeding the fire”. I am coming to believe that one of the biggest challenges in personal service is just saying “Yes, ma’am” or “No, sir” and fighting the urge to elaborate or justify.

Title by Brad Paisley

New York Minute

My housekeepers both left on Thursday. One worked one day. The other never really got started. They each gave a number of reasons, but I believe it boiled down to buyers remorse.

The first woman panicked when she realized she would have to leave the comfort of being a chambermaid and actually work harder for her money than she was used to.

The other one thought she might slip by without my noticing her documents were expired. She could have worked that out if it weren't for the fact that she really preferred to work in Manhattan, not the Hamptons. She probably would not have made the summer anyway.

What does a guy have to do to catch a break in this city!

Title by Don Henley

Long Time Comin'

I FINALLY hired 2 housekeepers. They both start this week. I really hope these two work out. It has taken 4 agencies, over 40 interviews, 10 weeks and 1 false start to get to this point.

Title by Bruce Springsteen

I Get the Job Done

I cannot seem to get staff. It is frustrating for both me and the Ps. I need a part-time person for the city and a full-time person in the Hamptons. I have 4 placement agencies that specialize in domestics and one that provides housekeeping services plus several professional contacts beating the proverbial grass. All this, and I've only interviewed 5 or so candidates. I spent the day Thursday with someone I wanted to hire. She called me on Friday and turned down the job. She does not want to make the early morning commute into Manhattan; not safe enough apparently.

I am stuck on how else to generate leads for interviewing. The Ps are paying me way too much to be a housekeeper and dog-walker. Plus, the job is just not getting done. I personally cannot cover 7 days in the Hamptons plus another 5 days in the city per week. What I am doing is good work, but it is not enough.

Title by Big Daddy Kane

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Last night found me once again preparing to board a flight back to New York. It's been 9 weeks since I first left for the Hamptons. I am facing some hard challenges both at home and at work.

It is getting harder to get back on the plane to go back to work. The breaks are great, almost enough. We have to nail down the housing situation, quickly. The boys are resilient, but I do not want to take advantage of their hearts and up-bringing too much longer. 21 weeks and counting of this and counting.

Work is creeping into my personal life more and more. I have to work on keeping that boundary better. My role is the equivalent of a director or upper level manager in the corporate world. I understand that the hours will be long, the demands more intense and the performance expectations higher. Being live-in, however, means there is much less chance to escape the work environment. I need to get my staffing situation under control, if only to be able to relax on my days off knowing service is being provided to the Ps and work is getting done around the property.

Title by U2

Suddenly I See

This may be old news for some of you.

Starting the last week of August, the Ps and I opened negotiations to make my placement with them permanent. The negotiations wrapped up on September 13^th with me taking a contract to be their Household Manager. The benefit package is particularly nice for any industry and very good for this business.

For anyone keeping track, it was 18 weeks from when I left my job to being hired in a new industry. I am sure someday it will seem a speck of time. Right now, it feels like 18 months. The 2 months of training and the month of waiting seem like they took place so long ago. As I've stated before, some days on the property are a week and then the week flies by. It is also 18 weeks since I spent more than 2 days in my own home. I miss my space.

Ma cherè and I put all of our faith in this being the right course of action. I still feel this is where I am supposed to be. I truly enjoy what I am doing. Do not get me wrong; it is still work. There are really good days and really bad days. There are days I go to my room wiped and whipped. 10 to 12 hour days are the norm. There have been a few 14s and just as few 8s. This is management, after all.

There is still a lot of work to be done to reunite our family. I will also have to mend the stress my being gone so long has placed on the Ts and our family.

Next up, of course, is relocating ma cherè and the Ts to Long Island.

Title by K.T. Tunstal

Be Our Guest

I know some of you are curious what my day is like. The Ps entertained 12 guests for dinner recently. Like any household, there is plenty of preparation that goes into a dinner event. This usually starts well before the day of the party. Here is what entertainment day is like.

The event was scheduled to begin around 7:00 with dinner at 7:30. My day started at Noon.
Two round tables, a 7 top and an 8 top were used. The 7 was a bit crowded. For service flow it is customary to keep a minimum of 24 inches from center of plate to center of plate. (Yes, 24 inch on center!). However, the 7 top worked better than a 6 at one table and 9 seated at the other for other reasons.

One each of two different dinner settings were templated by Mrs. P the night before. This gave me the visual of what all the settings would look like. The two settings were alternated between seats at both tables.

Wine was moved from the cold cellar to the refrigerator for proper chilling first thing. There was a pre-dinner white plus a white and red served with dinner. A sauterne was served with dessert.
Next came preparation for setting the table.

White & red wine glasses plus water stemware was pulled, washed and staged for setting.
Silverware was pulled, washed and staged for setting.

Chasers, main course plates, appetizer plates, salad bowls and bread & butter plates were pulled, washed and staged for setting.

The linens were washed, dried until just damp and then pressed on Thursday (5 hours, gads my back hurt on Friday!)

Bar glasses were pulled, washed and staged for the bar. Wine decanters were pulled, washed and staged for the bar.

Serving dishes for the appetizer, salad & main course service were pulled, washed and staged in the kitchen for service.

On to flower settings. Mrs. P decided on sunflowers as the center piece for each table and 2 other tables in the room. We cut them very short and used pebbles and water in 12 inch vases. With her help, it looked very nice.

Next came setting the table. By now, you should have the impression this in not George Webb with the silver wrapped in a paper napkin. It took 90 minutes or so to get the 2 tables dressed and set to the proper standard. It was time well spent for the hosts received compliments later that evening.

Next I stocked the bar, filled the beverage refrigerator, setup drink garnishes, ice bucket, etc.
I made a quick pass through the entertainment spaces to straighten up, took out the garbage. I then took a short break and waited the next 10 minutes for the caterers and 2 extra staff to arrive at 6.

Did I mention the flood in the furnace room and the HVAC emergency service call in the middle of the afternoon? I wet-vac'd two and a half gallons of water off the floor and called to the vampires of emergency service. 1 second to blow some algae out of the dehumidifier line. I won't even tell you how much they charged. They should be ashamed! Total time was one precious hour. All the best laid plans, etc.; good thing I had time in the schedule for an extra hour for things like the bar and the flowers (which I forgot about) and one more hour for contingencies.

Starkey does have an excellent form. We used it during the weeks leading up to our formal dinners. I pulled it out the morning of the event. Next time, I will use the bloody form well before the day of the event to make sure these things are accounted for. That should save me over an hour on entertainment day.

Dinner went very well. We had some hiccups and could have used one more person, but it was a great effort by the team considering it was all our first time doing this together.

Living Loving Maid

I am starting the search for a housekeeper. The environment here calls for at least one and probably two more staff people to properly cover the service standards. This will be a challenge for me. While I have participated in the hiring process at a company level, this will be my first foray into hiring for a home.

This is one of the training gaps in the Starkey curriculum. We were given plenty of training in formal dining preparation and service, the "Ballet of Service", (see me in my penguin costume); however, the training and roll playing for the hiring of new staff was woefully small in comparison.

I am learning that job and work expectations are very different for domestic workers and their employees. This is particularly true when dealing with immigrant workers. My middle-class expectations for what a work day or work week looks like do not necessarily apply to this niche. I do not mean to suggest my principals, or I by extension, will be unfair. I will just have to be careful to find the balance that offers the workers dignity and balance to their job with the need to get the job done to the service levels of my principals. Sounds easy…right?

By the way, you have to love pulling out Led Zeppelin once in a while. Now I'll have that song going through my head all day. "Livin', lovin', she's just a woman…"