For the American elite, deprived of their domestic staff, changing diapers or a light bulb is a challenge, as the “New York Post” explains.
© TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP
Through LePoint.fr
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The penthouses, these luxury islets in the New York skyline, are in danger. Because since the epidemic of the new coronavirus has hit the city-world, the elite have struggled to perform the household chores that are usually incumbent on their domestic staff, the latter remaining confined to their home. The gratin of the “Big Apple” therefore learns late in the day to operate vacuum cleaners, dusters, window cleaners and other barbaric tools. But do not improvise fairy of the house who wants.
“I didn’t even know where to throw the trash. Usually, it’s my staff who picks them up and drops them off somewhere, ”blows a doctor from the very chic 5e Avenue in the columns of New York Post. But the dismay of this New Yorker is nothing compared to the amazement of Kenneth Mark, who can only observe, from his pretty apartment in SoHo, the abyssal void left by the absence of his housekeeper.
Full shock
Horror! The wealthy dermatologist is forced to change diapers and polish his luxury home “for the first time in his life”. New activities which have “caused a complete shock in our daily life”, he agrees. Good prince, Kenneth Mark still pays his housekeeper’s salary despite his departure.
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But some well-to-do can not bring themselves to this dreadful duel with the dust and move heaven and earth to keep their staff close to them. “Peter Mahler, director of a private personnel recruitment agency, told the Wall Street Journal that about 40% of its customers had quarantined themselves with staff, which they pay handsomely, with a salary increase of around 30%, ”explains the New York Post article, relayed by International mail. “If they let their employees come home for the weekend, they could contract the virus and report it. People who have domestic workers therefore keep them with them, ”developed a resident of the Upper East Side, another upscale neighborhood in New York.
My God, it’s infinitely harder than watching TV
This radical solution could not be applied by all the New York elite, because some high-end buildings in Manhattan simply prohibited the presence of private personnel during the epidemic. They will therefore have to scratch, scrub, descale and polish relentlessly to maintain their comfort.
Putting on the costume of its staff generates a welcome awareness of the difficulty of the missions assigned to housekeepers and men. This is the case of Seth MacFarlane, prolific creator of the series American Dad ! and Family Guy : “Doing the laundry, changing the cat litter… And even figuring out how to clean the floors: my God, it’s infinitely harder than watching TV. Covid filth.
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