Tag Archives: California

Household Staff and Covid-19 Vaccinations

As Covid-19 vaccines across America become more and more accessible, many of our clients find themselves with an array of questions regarding their household staff. Can an employer request an employee receive the vaccine? Can a client in the middle of a job search ask to interview vaccinated candidates only? How can an employers help employees with the vaccination process? We’ve pulled together a list of the most frequently asked questions here. If you have any other questions regarding Covid-19, vaccinations and household staff, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly.

For household employers, the recent vaccine developments bring up the question: can I require my nanny to get a vaccination? See Can You Require Your Nanny to Get a COVID-19 Vaccination? from our payroll partner, GTM Payroll Services for more information.

View more on British American Household Staffing’s blog. 

Private Spring Getaways

When we think of spring, we think of lush gardens, crisp vegetables, and time outdoors in the fresh air. Many of us are anxious to plan outdoor getaways, whether for a child’s spring break or just for a dose of warm weather after a long winter.

Many experts recommend booking an Airbnb or other rental property with just your family or pod members as the safest way to escape. Airbnb Luxe features private luxury homes that have been confirmed and inspected by Airbnb; the homes offer a variety of add-on concierge services, including airport pickups, grocery shopping, and in-home classes, such as wine tastings. We’ve selected our top destination homes that are available to book now for pandemic-safe spring vacations.

Napa Valley, California

Head to Calistoga, a small city in Napa Valley, and stay at this gorgeous vineyard estate. The property can accommodate up to 12 guests and features mountain views, lavender bushes, an olive grove, vineyard views, and impeccable landscaping. Visit nearby wineries, relax in the pool and hot tub, or take one of the bicycles out to enjoy the grounds. A full kitchen, formal dining area, ping pong table, bocce ball court, and trampoline ensures there is something for every member of the family to enjoy.

View the rest of the list on British American Household Staffing’s blog. 

Safe Socializing: Virtual Playdates, Games and Classes

As much of the country continues to experience more winter weather, as well as various degrees of lockdowns and restrictions, many parents are struggling to come up with creative ways for children to safely socialize, both with friends and with far away family members. The team here at British American Household Staffing has put together our list of top interactive games and classes that children can participate in together, from afar.

View the list on British American Household Staffing’s blog. 

From Lockdown to Getaway

Let’s dream of our post-Covid travel bucket list!

As we enter the New Year with high hopes of a happier and healthier summer awaiting us, we couldn’t wait any longer to daydream and discuss our next vacation for once the pandemic is eventually under control.

So until we can feel the sand between our toes again, dust off our passports and squeeze ourselves into the swimsuits that still have the tags on from last year’s shopping spree, we decided on practicing a little preparation meets opportunity! We want to talk places, prices, and portions!

We caught up with our jet-setting Wonder Woman, British American Household Staffing CEO/Founder Anita Rogers, who was more than happy to share her travel tips and wish list resorts for 2021.

Anita, where will be the first place you will be flying off to when it’s safe to travel again?

To Greece! There is no country like it, the Aegean glitters like diamonds on a deep azure water, like the quote from Homer’s Odyssey: “There is a land called Crete, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land, begirt with water, and therein are many men, past counting, and ninety cities.”

The Aman resort in Porto Heli, very close to Spetses, which is the island I go to often, is absolutely exquisite.

Which resort do you visit again and again ~ and why?

Il Sereno Lago di Como – Torno, Italy. It is pure luxury and tradition right on Lake Como. I got most of my operatic vocal training in Italy and performed there for many years so I adore Il Sereno Lago di Como. As a business owner I often fly to Lago di Como for a break to recharge my batteries and sometimes I join clients, either art collectors or those who want their villas staffed. I love Italy and Italian traditions so it’s a favourite of mine.

What travel tips do you swear by that might surprise people?

Our BAHS resident estate management consultant Kristen Reyes shared a piece of business advice and she’s never wrong! She said to only ever charter yachts and to only ever purchase a jet! Apparently, yachts depreciate in value but private jets are safer if you are in control of their maintenance.

I’ve also held on to the advice from a fashion designer friend of mine who said, roll, do not fold your clothes when packing. And he was right! It frees up so much space in your bag and it also minimises wrinkling! I was also advised once when travelling by yacht to push the furniture against my wardrobe in my suite. When you travel overnight, the waves and wind can suddenly become very high and all the wardrobe doors start swinging open which doesn’t make for a peaceful night’s sleep!

As a gallery owner (Anita Rogers Gallery is based in Soho NY and represents both primary and secondary artists), I know from personal experience that it’s always best to visit historical sites and museums etc, very early, very late, or when people eat! I always go to attractions at lunchtime as there’s less people since most tourists on city break trips head to lunch. So this way you get the most popular places all to yourself!

Another one of our wonderful clients told me that she Googles ‘where do chefs eat in…’ whatever place she is in. It’s such a great idea and the restaurants that you find are amazing because they’re the chosen ones by those Michelin star culinary chefs! That’s how I discovered Bob Bob Ricard in London and Providence in LA.

View the full interview on BAHS.com 

Luxury Lifestyle Magazine Features Anita Rogers

The Luxury Lifestyle List: Anita Rogers, Founder And CEO Of Luxury Estate Staffing Company British American Household Staffing (BAHS)

BY LLM REPORTERS ON 4TH JANUARY 2021

Anita Rogers was recently featured in the UK’s Luxury Lifestyle Magazine. Full article below or view on LuxuryLifestyleMag.co.uk.

We caught up with Anita Rogers, founder and CEO of luxury estate staffing company British American Household Staffing (BAHS), which provides nannies, governesses, chefs, butlers, housekeepers, yachts and private aviation for high-net-worth clients across London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.

My car of choice

Porsche. Being a gallery owner in New York [Anita Rogers Gallery], I’m a very visual person and Porsches are like works of art in my eyes. I actually don’t drive, I never learned! I lived in cities like Athens, Rome, Dublin, London and New York where driving wasn’t needed. When I moved to LA in 2018 all my friends had Porsches, they drive so smoothly and look so artistic.

My favourite holiday destination

Spetses, Greece. My father, Jack Martin Rogers, was an artist who moved to Greece in the 1960s, so I was raised there. We would always live in large, traditional mansions as the architecture was beautiful and the light was perfect for my father’s painting. As an adult I still visit Spetses for the summers and I consider it to be my homeland.

My gadget I can’t live without

The Tunable app for my harp. I was a professional opera singer for many years and my classical harp was my ‘second’ instrument. It has 47 strings so it’s impossible to tune by ear. When I finally get some well earned down time from BAHS, I spend it in my New York apartment playing my harp whilst looking out at the Empire State Building.

My go to fashion brand

Maje. Their pieces are romantic and feminine and, being an opera singer, I’m drawn to clothes that nod to traditional dresses. When I host my BAHS team for daily briefings on our household and hospitality service, I feel comfortable in Maje dresses, plus they are perfect for my gallery evenings that cater to serious art collectors so I feel their timeless style also works perfectly with my clientele.

My airline of choice

Wheels Up. They have been aviation saviours during the pandemic and their service is impeccable. I’m constantly flying from New York to LA and to London for my company’s estate assessments. Wheels Up have become our first choice when booking private jets and our most preferred when recommending to our high-net-worth clients who desire to travel in style with privacy to and from their estates that we look after.

My favourite watch brand

Cartier. My signature perfume is Cartier and so is my jewellery. Their watches are timeless, classic and elegant. I’m forever on the clock because of back to back meetings so I treasure my yellow gold Panthère De Cartier watch and it complements every outfit.

My favourite restaurant

Eleven Madison Park. I love their menu and the fact that it sits at the base of a historic Art Deco building near the Flatiron Building. It offers exquisite service and also private dining, so I often choose to meet some of my high profile BAHS clientele who come to us wanting their estates fully staffed. It’s also the perfect setting for drinks with art collectors following one of my gallery events.

My guilty pleasure

Desserts! Hot chocolate pudding with double cream and sticky toffee pudding and custard. My mum is a patisserie chef so I was raised on French and British desserts. Scott’s of London is a favourite of mine to indulge my sweet tooth when I fly back to take business meetings with my BAHS clients and staff in the UK.

My favourite way to give back

Through Restore, a non-profit to help victims of human trafficking in the US. I’ve spent time in countries like El Salvador and I can see how easily people can become vulnerable and trafficked. It’s a campaign very close to my heart.

Photo credit: Hunter Canning

Hiring Household Staff During the Pandemic

Written by Roxanne Carrion

I think we can all agree that 2020 will be well and truly the year that we all take a well earned deep breath! It will also be the year that forced us to reassess our lives amidst the chaos of what we could and could not control. It broke work commitments, projects, deadlines and family get-togethers. However, perhaps once the dust has settled, this year may be actually remembered as the making of us rather than the breaking of us. The year that took away our comfort, our freedom, our variety, but in return, gave us back the seclusion and space to explore new directions.

When our GPS discovers a problem up ahead, it simply re-routes to get us to where we are going. At British American Household Staffing we pride ourselves on being a navigation that can re-route you when lost or struggling to get to where you need to be.

At British American Household Staffing we make it our priority to find the silver lining in the cloud that has disrupted so many lives this year. Being one step ahead of the unpredictable nature of life, we have developed an impressive roster of reliable, responsible, and recommended staff to service your household at this crucial time more than ever.

View full post on www.bahs.com

The New York Times Features British American Household Staffing

Whom better suited to dispatch briskly with the demands of coronavirus-era child care?

by Ruth La Ferla. October 8, 2020

British American Household Staffing’s founder and CEO, Anita Rogers, as well as Kristen Reyes, BAHS’ Senior Recruiter & Estate Management Consultant, and Katherine Patterson, BAHS’ Senior Placement Specialist, were recently interviewed by The New York Times for an article on the role of governesses and nannies during COVID-19.

 

In her work as an estate manager, Kristen Reyes often finds herself fielding client requests for a special kind of child minder. “Callers will say to me, ‘Kristen, I need a modern Mary Poppins.’ Everyone knows what that means.”

It refers, Ms. Reyes went on to explain, to that old-fashioned paragon of patience, good cheer and decorum otherwise known as a governess. And, yes, she — most always a she — is back, a plucky hybrid of tutor and life coach in rising demand among affluent families scrambling to educate their offspring in the midst of a pandemic.

Excerpts below – click here to view the full article on NYTimes.com

Click here to contact us about hiring a governess for your family

 

School shutdowns and social limitations have lent their search a particular urgency. “For the past six or eight weeks we’ve been slammed with educator and governess requests, from all over the country,” said Anita Rogers, the founder and chief executive of British American Household, a domestic staffing agency.

Orders began doubling as families girded for a fall semester and the rigors of remote learning, Ms. Rogers said: “During the pandemic, we’ve done very well.”

…
The contemporary governess may work in a formal household, staffed with drivers, cooks, housekeepers and the like. But unlike a conventional nanny she is expected to provide a high-end version of home-schooling.

As often as not the job calls for a fancy pedigree that may include an advanced degree from an Ivy institution, a facility with languages, and manners that rival those of a marquise.

But the position has been democratized to some degree. ”It’s no longer exclusive to high-net-worth families,” Ms. Reyes said. During a health crisis that shows no signs of abating, two- career families will seek out a governess to function as a proxy parent to their toddlers or teenagers.
…
Ideally these days, the governess commands respect as a highly accomplished worker in a rigorously demanding job. “She is not just a stand-in for a fancy nanny, though nanny duties may be part of the job,” said Katherine Patterson, a placement specialist who worked as a governess early in her career.

“She is responsible for the child’s safety and welfare,” Ms. Patterson said. “But the role also dovetails with that of a teacher, an increasingly common scenario as the number of parents home-schooling their children continues to rise.”

Her position is nuanced, extending from a child’s education to that child’s social and emotional progress. No surprise, then, Ms. Reyes pointed out, that families now are requesting a background in child psychology or child development.

In this currently unstable climate, “kids have a lot more to learn about life at a younger age,” she said. “A governess can give a 5-year-old an outlet to talk about why they can’t see their friend or their grandparent. With Covid impacting everything, the governess is a kind of mini-therapist.”

…

Being a governess presupposes a very atypical work environment. “There’s a plethora of dos and don’ts that just wouldn’t apply to a corporate workplace,” Ms. Patterson said. She declined to describe those rules. “That,” she said elliptically, “is for another day.”

Town and Country Magazine Turns to Anita Rogers for Household Staffing Expertise

What’s the Difference Between a Butler and a House Manager, Anyway?

by Lindsay Silberman  July 31, 2018

Last week, in a rather revelatory New York Times profile of Gwyneth Paltrow and her $250 million Goop empire, the actress set the record straight on a topic that 99 percent of us hadn’t pondered until now: the difference between a butler and a house manager.

“Is he your butler?” writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner asks Paltrow, referring to the man who greeted her—and then served her a glass of wine—at Paltrow’s home.

“No, he’s a house manager,” Paltrow responds. “He’s the best. He’s from Chicago. He’s so incredible. He helps me with everything.”

The entire exchange, which consisted of approximately 43 words, was one of the most buzzed-about takeaways from the piece. It even prompted The Times of London to publish an imagined “conversation” between the actress and her non-butler butler. Was it a classic case of Paltrow pretentiousness—or has GP stumbled upon a phenomenon just before it goes mainstream? (You know, as mainstream as household staff gets.)

In an effort to get to the bottom of this decidedly one-percent debate, we reached out to British American Household Staffing, an agency that provides formally trained estate managers, personal assistants, chauffeurs, governesses, butlers, and baby nurses to the kind of clientele that can afford it. Surely, they would be able to shed some light on the subject.

“She’s acimagetually right,” says BAHS president Anita Rogers. “They have very different backgrounds and different roles. A house manager oversees the structure of the staff and typically does all of the hiring and firing. They handle scheduling—making sure a chauffeur is always on call, housekeepers shifts are covered, and that a replacement is available if someone calls in sick. They’re also responsible for the budgeting, financial planning, and overall management of household.”

Butlers, on the other hand, are more service-oriented. “A seasoned butler is properly trained in etiquette, so they understand how to serve a meal and handle all the details, from the wine pairings down to the flower arranging,” explains Rogers. “They provide a white glove experience, which not everyone needs or wants. In Silicon Valley, for instance, no one would have a butler. But in New York, it’s much more common.”

And while house managers frequently come from a hospitality background—often having worked as the chief of staff at a high-end hotel or resort—butlers are trained at a specialized and credited butler academy.

So there you have it. Gwyneth, Queen of Goop, was right all along. Of course she was. Did you really expect anything less?

Visit BAHS.com for more info.

This mom creates amazing and educational DIY activities for her kids

By Chelsea Frisbie for WYFF4.

Andrea Yi studied engineering in college, then spent a decade working with fashion designer Donna Karan. After having her fourth son, she realized there was a gap in the marketplace for fun, educational activities that incorporated both the left and right brain.

About a year ago, she was having so much fun creating activities involving both sides of the brain with her boys Nate, Dylan, Oliver and Alexander that she decided to share them online. She created “Raising Dragons,” a website dedicated to helping other parents and educators come up with fun science, technology, engineering, art and math activities.

Most of her science experiments are modern updates on the classics, like the baking soda volcano. The materials she uses are usually items she finds around the house.

Her kids still use technology, like tablets and other gaming devices, but she says they’re only allowed a little bit of screen time each day. “Yet another reason why I like doing these STEAM activities — to give them other options than screen time.”

Since the creation of the blog, Raising Dragons has amassed nearly 500,000 followers. Their videos have been viewed more than 50 million times by over 100 million people. Andrea recently published a book called “STEAM for Babies,” which became the No. 1 new release in the STEM category in its first week on Amazon.

Read the full article here.

10 Must-Watch Documentaries That Will Inspire Your Kids to Change the World

By Sara Ahmed

If your kids have any kind of device — phones, gaming systems, tablets, what have you — it can feel like you’re constantly fighting for their attention. It becomes harder and harder to share experiences with them, but one thing they usually can’t deny? Movies. Sure, watching a big blockbuster is always fun, but documentaries can be an incredible way for a family to connect.

Watching these films with your children is a compelling way to help nurture their sense of curiosity and compassion without feeling tedious (or, God forbid, educational). From inspiring stories of Muslim high school football players in Michigan to the haunting tale of Tilikum, the killer whale in captivity, a good documentary can alter your child’s perception through the power of empathy. Keep reading for a list of the most powerful documentaries to watch with your kiddos during your next movie night.

1. He Named Me Malala:

He Named Me Malala tells the poignant story of a young Pakistani girl and her fight for education. Your kids won’t fuss about going to school after watching this documentary.

Appropriate For Ages: 12+

Read the full list on British American Household Staffing’s blog.