New York
New York households run close to the city and close to one another. Staff live and work in the same building as the family, and the standard is set by how little the household notices the work.
Most searches here are for apartments, co-ops and townhouses rather than estates. That changes the shape of the role: smaller quarters for staff, storage that has to be solved rather than absorbed, deliveries coordinated through a doorman, and building rules that decide when a crew may work. The homes are elegant and the logistics are unforgiving.
Roles we search most often here
In a New York apartment there is no back of house. A housekeeper works in a room the family will walk through; a chef cooks minutes from a dining table. We look for professionals whose habits hold when they are being watched, and who understand that in this market presentation is part of the craft.
School terms, board seasons, galas, and households that scatter to the Hamptons or Palm Beach on a Friday and return on Sunday. Coverage rarely pauses, so we ask candidates early about travel, about weekend work, and about the rhythm a household actually keeps — not the one its job description describes.
We begin with the residence itself. The number of staff a building can realistically support, the hours its management permits, and the number of residences in the family's rotation all narrow the shortlist before a single résumé is read. It is a slower first conversation and a considerably faster finish.
Elsewhere