People in the East Hampton area hard hit by the economic downturn are increasingly giving up their domestic help for adoption, according to an employment agency that specializes in placing butlers, chefs and grounds keepers to the rich and famous.
“Change is in the air,” said Homer Buckshotter, executive director of the Hamptons Domestic Help Agency. He believes that more than six or seven families have brought their help back and told him in no uncertain terms they could not afford to keep their staff on as paid live-in help.
“Bernie Madoff let go of three chefs and two groundskeepers at his beachfront Montauk mansion, one former well-to-do hedge fund manager unceremoniously dumped his maid in the middle of town, and told her to "get lost you ingrate!" Supposedly people are talking about "trying to hire wage slaves from the Far East.”
Homer said the devastation has been particularly acute for au pairs and nannies. “We had one well-heeled Hamptonite woman crying and screaming after she was admitted to Southampton Hospital's "Psychiatric Wing" because she actually had to take care of her own children by herself. This is something she hasn't done in years of her pampered affluence. She didn't even know her kids' names and the adjustment in her words, "has been gut wrenching."
As home foreclosures have shot up nationwide, reports have been received by many governmental agencies on the east end of people leaving pets and domestic staff behind, locked in the empty houses.
“People should never abandon their pets or humans. It could be that an animal or human could starve to death. If people know that a home is deserted and there are any signs of a pet, they should call animal control or the local police right away,” she said.
The posting title link leads to an article that tells a grim tale
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