Let’s Talk About Personal Service and Mental Health
If you’ve followed the Ghislaine Maxwell trial and listened to the testimony of Jeffrey Epstein’s house manager, you know that his staff was instructed to “see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing,” to never look Epstein in the eye and was given explicit instructions about housekeeping standards, including keeping $100 bills in each of the car’s glove boxes.
We’re all accustomed to discretion and protecting privacy, and some of us may have had experiences similar to the above. Many of us have seen things we’d prefer not to see or experience again.
But…
In a boundaryless work culture, we need to maintain sanity.
We are the ultimate secret keepers and caregivers and, yet, we don’t take care of ourselves. We don’t take care of each other. We need to sit with this.
What does self-help look like and what doesn’t it look like?
I included suggestions for what we can do as individuals to maintain sanity and avoid burnout, along with recommendations designed for small groups and for the industry at large, in my recent Coffee Talk Zoom session.
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When it comes to what you can do for yourself, in a nutshell my advice is:
Say No to…
In our industry it’s very easy to get sucked into the luxury lifestyle mode. We’re around it all day, we work hard and we DO deserve to be treated well. That said, most of us live in expensive towns, we often don’t have retirement accounts and we take very little time for our own financial growth.
So it behooves us to avoid:
Luxury experiences and exotic trips
Expensive clothing, cars and apartments
Treating yourself to cocktails
Over indulging on unhealthy food
And say Yes to…
Building financial security so you can leave any unhealthy employment situation when you need to leave
Eating healthy(ier)
Building and maintaining healthy relationships
Putting in the work to get good at having hard conversations (this is so important!)
Trusting your gut when you want to walk away from bad situations
In closing…
Wealthy people have been getting away with bad behavior for too long. We’ve all seen and done things that didn’t feel right and that we wished we hadn’t seen. But at the same time, we need to, and deserve to, be able to sleep well at night.
I don’t have all the answers when it comes to stopping the rampant abuse in our industry. I just know we need to be talking about it; coming together to support those of us who have experienced (or are experiencing) the mental stress and trauma that come with our profession. The PSST! (Private Service Support Teams) industry-friend support group idea from my video — where no one names names so that no NDAs are breached — is a start.
What tips or ideas do you have when it comes to staying sane working in a toxic home? I’d love to read your feedback in the comments.
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I hope this is helpful information. If there’s a way I can help you improve your performance and service, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.
You’ve got this!
xo
Kelly
