Many luxury homeowners underestimate the importance of finding someone who makes their life more carefree and fits in with existing staff.

Why is it important to understand and identify toxic people inside your organization?

This type of family dynamic is unusual these days, with many layers to consider.

The sooner you start climbing the Unicorn Employer ladder, the faster you’ll reap the many associated benefits.

How to keep secrets from being divulged to your household staff — and why this is so important.

These are essential to having smooth operations inside of your home.

This is important for any homeowner – but especially if you're new to the property.

Even though I had lists of emergency preparedness procedures and supplies for this exact situation, living through it gave me a different awareness.

We need to write more descriptive language into our NDAs so everyone understands what they're getting into when they sign them.

Whether or not the estate manager you hired works out for you, you will have gotten something for your money and your risk.

It’s time to look at household staffing differently.

From the first day I stepped into my role as an estate manager, I had an idea of how I thought it should be. I had been working on luxury properties for more than 20 years, but not in them. And I felt like I had hit the jackpot when I was hired for this very demanding role.

What would it take to just say "thank you" and let your staff feel appreciated? King Charles is doing it.

Recent job descriptions of estate managers have become a laughable list of unrealistic expectations and impossible deliverables. As with any job, an employee should have reasonable agility to adapt to ever-changing work environments. While the growing trend of homeowners wanting fewer staff in their homes is understandable, it shouldn’t be seen as an opportunity for unethical behavior.

"Succession" points to the frequent misalignment between service level expectations and staff investment.

Hint for homeowners with household management staff: no healthy relationship is sustainable long-term without it.

It is possible to care for someone AND maintain professional boundaries and expectations. In fact, it is the most respectful way to protect and respect a relationship. Here are six suggestions for successful boundaries, outlining performance expectations, and tracking accountability with household staff.

In private service, experience matters. In addition to saving a life, understanding HR practices, and having the skills required for high-tech homes, private service differs from almost any other industry due to the broad range of experience needed and the personal nature of working inside someone’s home. Here are 7 factors critical to an employee's success and longevity.

The relationship we build with our recruiter can be one of the most pivotal relationships in our career – either positive or negative. Similar to an agent, we need recruiters to do more than submit our resumes to homeowners.

The wild west nature of the domestic staffing industry often blurs the line of ethical compensation. Classifying your household staff as salaried employees can seem like a win-win relationship at first; however, this can snowball into a situation with a damaging outcome.