Housekeeper: my employers earn from $ 1 million a year, they are great. Housekeeper's revelations: I saw things in villas that I never want to become rich I am a housekeeper, but once I cried with resentment

Unlike the previous heroes of the column, Oksana is not ashamed of either her status or her stories. The person asks not to take pictures for security reasons: in her bag are the keys to the apartments where the money is. Oksana has been working for Belarusian moneybags for almost 15 years - she prepares food, cleans houses, and babysits children.

Keys and phone are always with me 24 hours a day, they can call at any time, even at night.

- Why? If they get hungry?

The alarm will go off, for example. One family is now abroad.

They gave a lot of money, but my brakes worked

- The Household Faculty is not open anywhere. How did you get into this environment? And have you won such trust?

In the early 2000s, I received a higher education and went to work in a Brest school as a psychologist. Money was symbolic and teenagers difficult. I went to interrogations, talked with investigators. For 2 years I got pleasure for the rest of my life and decided: enough.

I was looking for a job for half a year. Until I came across an ad for a housekeeper. They hired me, probably because I had a higher education.

- What kind of people were they?

Some of the wealthiest in Brest are “sewing machines”. Their clothing brand is still in the top.

It was a large house of 300 squares, plus animals - a dog, a cat, and fish. Couple with a child. I did everything there. I cleaned, cooked, nursed the child when my mother went to work. Since then I no longer work with children. Not because I'm tired - I don't want to let it in my heart, and then part. Since then, I have stopped taking my work to heart. These first employers were my family, now they are just work.

At first I was paid $ 100 - 5 times more than at school.

- Seriously, why? When you were studying to be a psychologist, was cooking or cleaning included in the program?

No, but I was a quick learner, finished cooking courses. In general, I would gladly go to work as a cook now, but they do not take it by age - soon 40.

They brought me to 9-10 o'clock, and left at 16-17. Once a week, the chauffeur drove to the market to buy groceries. Fresh food had to be prepared daily.

It was also necessary to clean up in the first half of the day. After dinner I sat with the child - to put him to bed, read. While I was sleeping, there was time to quietly rustle, and when I woke up, I became a nanny. The next day the same thing, only without the market.

- Did you throw out a lot of expensive food at the end of the day?

No. They had a cat and a dog. And there was little unusual on the menu. You will be surprised, but everyone's tastes are home-like, familiar. Menus are often written by nutritionists.

For example, here's a list for the week:
cucumbers;
tomatoes;
avocado;
soup with meatballs and rice (small saucepan);
soup without meat with mushrooms (some pasta);
pancakes with and without meat;
pancakes with and without cottage cheese;
sea bass or several (bake);
shrimp on skewers;
hake in Greek;
schnitzels;
avocado salad;
chicory;
almond milk.

Well, employers buy something themselves.

Once a week I reported how much I had spent. Nobody limited me in money and did not force me to save. I did not litter with them, because I myself am very practical. Until now, the toad is strangling to buy tomatoes for 25 rubles. And my employers buy such ...

Believe it or not, I often travel to Poland (from Brest!), Where I buy household chemicals for work. I can't buy Lenor here for $ 10 when it should be $ 2.

How to ask for a raise

Your work in the first family was paid on a monthly basis. Didn't you want to relax in the middle of the day? They won't pay any more.

There is always, it is normal for a person to want to be lazy. But I dealt with this desire differently. A year later, I approached the owners and, as a psychologist, correctly asked for an increase in salary.

- Teach?

Wait for the good mood of the employer and ask: "Do you want to increase my salary?" It is necessary that there is no denial in the question. I studied this for a long time. She left the family with a salary of $ 400. Banquets were paid separately ($ 50-100), birthday or New Year bonuses were the norm. I didn’t deny myself anything. And that's with two days off a week

Families are different everywhere. I already had up to 10 employers, and each with its own cockroaches. But it is the former that I remember with greater fondness. They insisted that I get my license and helped me buy a car. It was cool. I worked for them for 6 years. But then a tragedy struck in the family. They had no time for cleaning. I was fired.

I took the recommendations and went to the agency. With my experience, a new job was found very quickly. I worked in the second family for 2 years. The hostess was engaged in cargo transportation - a very profitable topic for that time. So for the first time I saw a sofa for 14 thousand euros, a chandelier for 25 thousand, a kitchen for 80 ... She told me about it herself. She probably wanted to impress. Although I still don't understand it, it seems to me that this is a very poor value for money.

- Did you sit down on the sofa and feel nothing?

There were some goose down pillows. Well, I would have paid $ 100 for it ... I did not say that to the hostess, of course. It would upset her. She was proud of the sofa.

Then came the crisis, the salary began to be cut. And I refused to work. By that time, too many responsibilities were laid on me. Up to attending parents' meetings and some meetings of building cooperatives.

Realizing that no one else would pay in Brest, I fled to Minsk.

I am a service staff, but once I cried with resentment

I always parted peacefully, because this is my resume and reputation. In principle, there was "hell" once - work in one Minsk "village". It was enough for me for several days. For $ 50, I was offered to clean a two-story cottage with a basement and an attic once a week. Every time it was just a shit. It seems that until my next visit, no one there put a finger on a finger, but demanded an ideal. This is not possible if you do not at least maintain cleanliness.

By the way, have the men in your families never bothered that their wives (usually called housewives) don't actually do anything around the house?

No. There are different families. Somewhere children require more attention. Now I have employers where the wife does nothing. She looks after herself and occasionally shows up at work. This is normal and does not bother anyone.

I currently work with two families. I come to cook and clean 2-3 times a week.

My owners with incomes of $ 1 million per year. Nobody told me that, but the idiot won't notice. If a husband gives his wife an expensive car on March 8, it is not bought on credit. By the way, when the agency gives the contacts of the employer, I don't know anything about him. Details can only be found in the process.

- There were situations when you were asked: "Oksana, where did the ring go?" or "Why is there less caviar in the jar?"?

No. But I found money in places where it shouldn't have been. Under the sofa, a large bill, for example. This is not lost money, of course. This is a test of honesty. And I don't eat the master's products. I bring a link. Coffee-tea - please, but soup with cutlet - no.

You have said "mistress" and "master" more than once. Considering that you were brought up in a country where the masters were dispersed at best, does the status of a servant not jar you?

Yes, I am a service staff, and it does not bother me. I do my job honestly and get paid for it. And I did not come across the outright rudeness of the "gentlemen". Sometimes they communicate with arrogance. But these are not my problems, but the other person's.

- Didn't you snap?

This is out of the question. No matter how offensive it is, no matter how it hurt me, emotions are only at home. There was a time when I came and cried.

- What's happened?

I was presented with an expired cream. It was humiliating and not by mistake. I didn't expect this. But it wasn't discussed at work.

- Do you feel yourself a wealthy person?

Not anymore. When I first arrived in Minsk, I received $ 1000 a month. I felt good. Now salaries have dropped. For departure they pay 30-40 dollars. It turns out 600-700 per month. A crisis…

That is, the man who gave his wife a car for the holiday cut your salary from $ 45 to $ 30? Didn't you want to tell him that he was a greedy man?

No. I like my job. Well, I understand that rich people count their money. That is why they are rich. I respect them for how hard they have worked and continue to work. Money did not fall on them from the sky.

Moreover, I see that inside they correspond to their condition: successful businessmen without show off, without swearing and public clarification of relations. Therefore, for another 5-6 years I run without vacation, sick leave and pension. Then, probably, my back will hurt, and I will go to the village, plant tomatoes and have geese.

There are many other professions in life. Tell the truth about yours. We are not looking for complainers and whiners - we just want to tell the truth to learn more about each other and become wiser. If you are ready, we guarantee anonymity. Write to [email protected].

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Wealthy people tend to be busy individuals. They stay late at work, so there is no time for household chores. The best way out of this situation is to hire a housekeeper.

What is required of you

If you decide to perform the duties of a housewife for rich people, get ready for:

1) an interview with an HR manager. Bring a copy of your passport, medical certificate, autobiography and some photographs to the meeting. This data is necessary, because for future employers you are an absolutely stranger whom they will let into the house;

2) verification by the security service. The absence of a criminal record, connections with criminals is an important condition for obtaining such a position;

3) an interview at the owner's house. You may be asked to cook a dish or tell you how household appliances function in order to see the future helper “in action”. Business hours are usually paid;

4) a probationary period. It is 3 months old. Show your best side by strictly adhering to these rules:

neat appearance. Tidy hair, clean uniform (at least 2 sets a day in case you get dirty), suitable makeup, clean-shaven legs, etc.;
lack of bad habits. No one will like a housekeeper who goes out for a smoke break every hour or wipes crystal glasses while intoxicated;
high-quality performance of direct duties. The ability to handle household appliances and correctly use cleaning products, respect for the owner's things - the main "commandment" of a hired assistant;
good mood, restraint. Forget about gloom and gossip - these are your "enemies" in your new workplace.

Myths and reality

Often, young girls are afraid to take up such a position because of false fears. Let's try to figure it out and dispel them.

Worries about your own safety. Some persons believe that the owners can mock the subordinate ("they are rich, they are allowed to do everything"). In reality, the relationship between employer and assistant is good, because nobody needs black PR.
Cheating money. Girls are afraid of damaging property and “working for food” all their lives. To prevent this from happening, perform your duties as efficiently and accurately as possible. Pay attention to the contract: it is better to prescribe the relevant clauses in it.
Intimate relationship with the employer. Such cases are rare, because no one wants to ruin their reputation, destroy a family and lose a good housewife. If the boss is interested in additional services, he looks for private housekeeper with sex. These responsibilities are negotiated orally or specified in the contract.
The boss's wife claims. You must understand that the spouses of rich people can be hysterical or very pleasant to talk to. To build a relationship with the mistress of the house, you have to be a bit of a psychologist. Guessing the mood, not asking unnecessary questions, not allowing too much in conversations with the employer are simple rules that will help you get used to and stay in a new place.

I have worked for a cleaning company for over two years. I had a flexible schedule and a decent salary. I never perceived this work as a career, did not identify myself with it. This is what I needed to do in order to be able to finish college as a single mother.

I didn't spy on my clients. But when you regularly clean them at home, then, willy-nilly, you notice very unusual things for yourself.

I drove up to these houses along small winding roads, and around there were gnomes and green "carpets" - everything was like in a fairy tale. I parked my car in a special parking lot far from the clients' house: God forbid, the oil from my car would not spoil the look of the asphalt for them. I enjoyed the view of the marina and boats that sparkled in the bay in front of their houses. I cleaned the house and drove to a new address.

I had 20 clients. Two or three houses a day.

A few months after my employment, my boss asked me to clean the houses "slower" (We don't say that, of course. We call it "more thorough"). There was a lot of turnover in the company, and the boss explained that I needed to stay in the houses for longer lines. The firm received an hourly wage for our work.

If I cleaned houses faster than other girls in my department, clients were no longer willing to pay for their "ineffective" work. The stakes immediately began to seem overstated to them.

Therefore, I tried to just “kill” part of my working time. I looked into the master's bedside tables, tried to understand through them the essence of the American dream. Then, out of nothing to do, I got to the lockers, looked at the empty wine bottles.

I also saw how many pills they take every two weeks. Once upon a time, doctors prescribed them for their treatment, but now it was their way to relax.

Wealthy people have pills for everything: pain, anxiety, insomnia, depression, impotence, allergies, high blood pressure, diabetes. A pile of medicines. My personal favorite: testosterone boosting cream.

(I had to see what it is. This thing neutralizes the lack of libido in women. You apply the cream anywhere on your body, with the exception of the genitals).

In one of my clients' houses, they regularly filmed porn for Hustler. All the nightstands had bottles of lubricant, piles of underwear, and semen-stained sheets. Someone even tried to cook here: one day I found a saucepan full of beef. The whole house smelled of caramelized ham.

Other customers had a separate refrigerator with cat food. This rude animal even had its own bedroom!

Next to the porn-house was the House-Garden. Across the road. Both had large garages, the size of living rooms, and ocean views.

I was in the Garden House every other Wednesday. This is rare. The owner spent most of his time in the hospital, so it was always clean there. Unless it was necessary to shake off the dust and wipe the dining table.

His wife died many years ago. I guessed this from the photographs placed throughout the house. They were made in the 80s. But every trifle that she once collected continued to be carefully stored in its place.

Stickers with her to-do lists were on the corkboard in the kitchen.

"Get a new hose from the courier".

"Find someone to cover cracks in the sidewalk.".

"Install a new latch for the gate".

She was engaged in "men's" affairs, because her husband spent 24 hours at work. And this is what it all led to.

The bathroom has two sinks. One still has a hairdryer. It hangs on a special hook. On his side was a cup with a comb and all the medications he took in the morning and before bed. Each time they were different.

Opposite the sink was a wicker shelf. On it was a picture of their eldest son. He is wearing a green shawl and beard. He shows the "Victory" sign. And the caption: “Don't stand and cry at my grave. I'm not there. And I am not sleeping. " This is how the owner of this house starts each day.

There was also a photo of his wife here. The signature was also in the spirit of a funeral home. I think these photos comforted him as he brushed his hair.

How much money my clients were spending amazed me incredibly. In one of the houses I saw a receipt for a blanket I had just bought. It was more expensive than my car. I vacuumed children's rooms larger than my entire apartment.

Rob - my demanding client, whom I went to on Fridays and who adored me - spent $ 3000 every month on television and the Internet. For Christmas, he sent me a postcard with $ 100 inside.

I usually never met my clients. Once I saw a lady from the Porn House once in a store. She wore a huge coat of wool dyed red. She chose her steak. I stood five meters away with cough syrup and baby juice for my daughter and pretended not to notice her. But she had no idea who I was. I knew that right now she was being treated for a lingering infection of the genitals.

I saw a woman who uses testosterone cream in a restaurant. A tall, slender woman in good shape, with fluffy blond hair. She was wearing high heels and was wearing too much makeup. In a restaurant, she met with her lover. They smiled at each other, but did not hold hands.

Once he left the bag at her house, and did not take it until the children and their dad returned home. This bag had an egg vibrator and lubricant. I stood opposite this couple at the bar and thought: how sad it must be to lose my libido.

After a while, I got used to the loneliness that reigns in these houses. I got used to the fact that wives start smoking and cheating on their husbands on the same day when they left the city for a few days.

One of these clients kept boxes of cigarettes in the freezer in the garage. Long thin cigarettes. I don't remember the brand.

Her entire pantry next to the kitchen was crammed with fat-free soups, crackers, and salad dressings. There was never anything in the refrigerator except water and salads.

My most important client asked me to come to him twice a week for a few hours. Apart from cleaning, I did many other things: I folded the linen of his mother, father and two young sons, and ironed it.

His mother left her office next door only to pay me off and ask about the midwife in town. “I'm pregnant,” she said. "I can't believe I'm telling you this, you are the first person who knows about this, except for my husband." She was afraid that my master would find out about it. Those. she didn’t think he would be happy with the idea of having a brother.

As I cleaned her stainless steel appliances and wiped the granite countertop in the kitchen, we chatted. She said that she wants to give birth at home, despite her mature age. I told her how dangerous it was, by my own example, but she did not believe it.

The Village continues to find out how much people from different professions make and spend on. In the new issue - the housekeeper. Ten years ago, it was believed that only representatives of the upper middle class can afford an au pair, but now, despite the crisis, many people with average earnings have housekeepers. Their services no longer seem prohibitively expensive, but they greatly save time and effort. An assistant to wealthy Muscovites told The Village how she lives, how much she earns and how much she spends.

PROFESSION

Housekeeper

THE SALARY

48,000 rubles

per month

Expenses

20 000 RUBLES

providing for the son

400 RUBLES

phone payment

10 000 RUBLES

refueling and car repair

3,000 RUBLES

8 000 RUBLES

3,000 RUBLES

vitamins

1,000 RUBLES

2 000 RUBLES

cosmetics

600 RUBLES

transport

How to become a housekeeper

My name is Natalya, I am 51 years old. By education, I am a leather goods technologist, I worked in a leather haberdashery association, first as a seamstress, and then as a craftsman. I didn't even dream of becoming a housekeeper until last year, when my son began to live in Moscow with his father, and I, a resident of Pushchino, wanted to be closer to him. Then I started looking for a job with living in the capital.

I have always enjoyed doing housework, so I decided to try myself in this field. Having applied first to one agency, then to the second, I did not get a real result. Everywhere they took money, offered to undergo training, but there was no sense. Then I started looking for ads directly. Having written a response to the vacancy of a housekeeper and indicated in the questionnaire that I had no work experience, I immediately received an answer with an invitation for an interview. This surprised me because everyone is looking for people with experience. Subsequently, I found out that my employers, Alexandra and Natalia, were impressed by the fact that I described myself in such a detailed and honest way in the questionnaire.

It seems to me that the housekeeper is chosen based on intuition: the client either likes the candidate or not. In addition, employers give preference to women of Slavic appearance. They often even write that Russian citizenship is required to get a job. Housekeepers, as a rule, go to those who do not have enough money and nowhere to live. For them, such work is serving a sentence. But if a person gets a job helping around the house only because he has no money, if it is difficult and unpleasant for him to do this work, the client will feel it.

Housekeeping is really interesting to me, and I went to work not because I needed money, but because I needed to occupy myself with something and, probably, feel needed. I lived for myself for so long that I wanted to be useful to other people. I consider myself a helper: I help when a person has no time. Doing what I love, I also make good money.

As a citizen of Russia, I do not need a patent, only visitors from other countries need it. But I work unofficially, since for official registration it is necessary to open an individual entrepreneur for the provision of services. Then I will pay taxes and work experience will go to me. But in order to open an individual entrepreneur, you need to find a person who understands accounting, because for me this is a distant field. My hosts are not against this payment format, but how else? I have never heard of housekeepers opening individual entrepreneurship, although in the future I would like to do this: in five years I am retiring, and seniority is important for me.

Features of work

When I first arrived at the four-story house, which I am now cleaning, the hostess Natalya told me about her cleaning preferences. The entire first floor of this mansion is reserved for an entrance hall and a garage, on the second floor there is a living room, dining room and kitchen, on the third there is a hall and three bedrooms, and on the fourth, attic, there is one large playroom for children. The house is home to two adults and two children. Despite the fact that the structure is four levels, it is very compact. In the hall on the third floor there is a simulator on which the owners periodically train. When no one is at home and I want to take a break from cleaning, I also use it - Alexander and Natalya do not mind.
I live on the grounds of a mansion in a separate guest house. It is a one-story building with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, where I have a computer and a router.

I only clean the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and stairs every day. The rest of my responsibilities include cleaning one floor per day. I also have cooking, so I have enough to do. The start of my working day is not clearly defined in time: if the owners need breakfast, I can come at 07:30. But since they rarely order breakfast, I usually start work at nine or ten in the morning by cleaning the kitchen, after the family has already had breakfast. Until two or three o'clock in the afternoon I work, then I leave for a break, and at four or five in the evening I return to business, put things in order where necessary, and cook dinner. At 19:00 I leave my room and only return at 21:00 to clean the kitchen after dinner. This is where my working day ends. In my free time, I do what I want, surf the Internet, watch a movie.

My employers do not consider themselves superior to those who help them. Perhaps we have such a relationship because they were not always rich: they used to live in an ordinary Moscow apartment, and when the owner began to earn good money, they bought this house. We are very similar in character with them, and we immediately established a trusting relationship, as if some kind of kinship of souls. I try not to interfere with the private life of my owners. Alexander has some kind of business, he runs it from home. His wife does not work and devotes herself entirely to children.

The salary

When I first got a job, I was offered 25 thousand rubles a month. I went to such a salary because I knew that I had no work experience, and without it they wouldn’t take anywhere. Two months later, Alexander raised my salary to 40 thousand. At first I worked six days a week, then I realized that this was a lot for me, and we agreed that I would work four days. For such a download, I get 24 thousand rubles a month.

I decided to use the weekend as a part-time job and found a family that needs cleaning once a week. Their house is located within the city, its owner is a high-ranking official, he is rarely at home, and his wife takes care of the children and does not work. They have their own security service there, and they checked me when I got a job.

The house itself is two-story, but very long. On the ground floor in one wing there is a gym and a sauna, and on the second there is a large dining room and kitchen. On the second floor in one wing there is an adult bedroom and an office, and in the other there are children's rooms and a nanny's room. I simply do not have the opportunity to work out in the gym in this house: from morning to evening I clean up.

There is a lot of glass in this house, all ramps and stairs are made of it. Cleaning there is actually cleaning a few windows. It is difficult to put all this in order in a day, and I am very tired. When I came to them, I was immediately told: because of the volume of work, you will have a ten-hour working day. When I began to manage to do all this faster, they began to add work to me, not considering that, having removed everything that was supposed to, I was already tired. After such a hard day, I need one more day to recover. Working in this house is hard for me not only physically, but also mentally. The owners do not have such a trusting relationship with me as in the first family, and I feel tense in their house. But this part-time job brings me another 24 thousand rubles a month.

Spending

Of course, the costs change every month. My son studies at the institute, I help him with money, so the lion's share of my budget (about half) goes to him.

I have a car. Now I use it more often than public transport. It takes about 10 thousand a month to refuel and repair it, and about 600 rubles to travel by minibus and metro.

With clothes, everything is very simple for me, I'm not picky, and it takes an average of 3 thousand a month. It is more difficult with nutrition: I do not always eat what my owners eat, I have my own preferences, so part of my budget is spent on food - fruits, vegetables and dairy products. Another part of the costs goes to vitamins: during our life we cannot do without them.

I do not like decorative cosmetics, so I hardly spend money on it.
The usual cosmetic products that maintain skin tone cost 2–3 thousand rubles a month.

The owners pay for the Internet, and I only spend money to pay for a cell phone - only 300-400 rubles a month. I also enjoy reading business magazines. On average, they spend a thousand rubles a month.

About customer quirks

I have worked in many families and had to deal with the quirks of rich people. In the house of a family of musicians, in which I worked for about two months, the bathroom was decorated in the style of "golden toilet bowls": white faience is covered with gilded drawings. In my opinion, a gilded toilet is an unnecessary show-off, because such a design is short-lived. And cleaning such places is much more difficult than ordinary bathrooms: on the one hand, everything is in gold, and on the other, in calcium stains from water.

Usually clients treat me with respect, but things have happened. In one family, for example, there was no lunch break for a housekeeper.
Where and how I would eat, they didn't really care. It was not very pleasant for me to eat while standing in the laundry compartment.

Once I got a job in a family of lawyers - a lawyer and her daughter. They had two cats and had an incredible amount of fur in the house. It became unbearable for me to come to clean up after the cats, then I said to myself: I will not serve the cats. If a person gets a cat, it is his whim, not mine, so the person should take care of him himself. I help people when they really need the help of a housekeeper, and when they just don't want to do it themselves, an inner protest arises in me. For this reason, I soon left this family.

There are many women in our country who love to do housework, but nevertheless they sit within four walls and do not know what to do with themselves. If they help someone at least twice a week, it will be useful for them both financially and in terms of realizing their usefulness. But more and more visitors from other cities and countries are joining housekeepers, it is still difficult for our women to overcome their pride and become an au pair. Although there is nothing shameful in this work, and I perceive it as mutual assistance: clients have the opportunity to help me financially, and I have the opportunity to help them with housekeeping. My own family does not require much attention from me now, so my home is the home of the families where I work.

illustrations: Dasha Koshkina