FAQ: Is Your Job Stressful?

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Is this job as the Butler for a billionaire family stressful?

Oh, man! 

Where do I start?

If stress is measured by the ability we have to respond to life's events, then I'm going to say no, it's not stressful! 

From the outset (as we're taught in Butler School), this profession requires the ability to multi-task, and to plan for the unexpected!  So when anything goes wrong, we deal with it.

(Even a power outage during a huge gala for a thousand people is no problem.  Just get out the candles, and it doesn't take electricity to keep pouring the gin martinis!  Ha!  So where's the stress?)

But if stress is measured by how insanely busy you are throughout the day  (making you wish you worked in a Toll Booth), then the answer is YES!   This job is non-stop nuts!

However, in my opinion, one of the biggest stressors in any job is boredom and tedium.  (Do you not agree?)

So in that respect, this Butler job is constantly challenging -- and offers the opportunity to learn new things on a daily, if-not-hourly basis.

As for my own personal stress in this job?

I keep myself under the constant pressure cooker that everything has to be perfect, at all times!  From a quiet morning breakfast, to an event for thousands! 

But I'm well prepared to juggle, and dance around the disasters.

And if you'll excuse a digression here (and an attempt to get a perspective),  this whole modern concept of "stress", in the first place, has its origins in pop-psychology.

Were the cavemen under "stress" before they knew how to make fire?  Or did they just have a lot of cold buffets at their cocktail parties, in the dark?

Before the wheel was invented, were people "stressed out" because they had to carry everything home from the mall, or did they get a donkey or camel to help them out?

When the Persians were invading ancient Greece,  was that "stress" the Greeks were facing -- or was it war and outright fear?

And when Michelangelo was flat on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, was that "stress", or his own self-inflicted joy of creating perfection?

If stress really does exist, like anything else it's just something to deal with.  And I'm not so sure Prozac or Ritalin would have helped out the cavemen, or the ancient Greeks, or even Michelangelo himself.

Gin martinis, on the other hand......

Ha!

Good night,
Andrew