Domestic staff

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Domestic staff Germany 1945

House staff referred workers , mainly engaged in private households are engaged to domestic and family work to perform.

activity

A household help performs housework and family work in a foreign household that is otherwise carried out by the household members themselves.

These include, for example:

  • Buy and store groceries
  • prepare food
  • Laundry cleaning
  • Cleaning and maintenance of the apartment and the inventory

There may also be activities that overlap with other professional fields:

  • Supervising and raising children
  • Basic care for sick or disabled people
  • Taking care of pets or helping in (smaller) farms.

Terms and expressions

Many terms are used for domestic staff: domestic help (especially for marginal employment ), maid , domestics (out of date), household helper , domestic worker , house daughter or, in jokingly, also “pearl” . In the hotel industry , house staff is used when not referring to service in gastronomy. The distribution of the various terms also varies regionally. B. in Austria like to speak of the caregiver as the procurer . If a chef is permanently employed in a private household, he is called a private chef .

In the case of households with two or more employees, one speaks of a first and second domestic worker (e.g. housekeeper , from the occupational group: domestic manager) or someone who manages the household, such as B. a butler . For example, as Erstkraft the housekeeper and as a second force, the caregiver or cleaning lady / maid or domestic help called.

Serving women

As a caregiver (counterpart: porter ) refers house staff and domestic workers. The term comes from the time before the technical revolution, when noble households employed domestic staff for numerous activities (laundresses, cleaning women, coachmen , gardeners, etc.), to describe the part of the staff who, unlike the servants, were not involved in the household of the Employer lived, so "went to work". As a result, the uniform regulations of the female servants (and servants) often differed from those of the servants. Nowadays, the term is still used in the Bavarian-speaking area - especially in the form of Zueherin - as a synonym for cleaning lady or home help.

qualification

Mostly low-skilled work is assumed in this area. However, this does not take into account that cleaning is, for example, physically difficult work which requires hygienic, work-related and ergonomic knowledge. An underlying experience through “family work” in one's own household is implicitly assumed, but is not recognized as an actual qualification. Honesty and confidentiality on the part of the employees are important for employers, as they have access to almost all living spaces and inevitably have insight into the private life of their employers.

Systematic qualification and in-service training for people employed in private households have not yet been the rule. This is also made responsible for the bad image of the so busy group of people, which also dampens the interest of potential employees and service customers. In the case of service centers, the implementation of training and further education is at the discretion of the company.

See also

literature

  • Lore Blosser-Reisen among other things: Basics of housekeeping. An introduction to household economics. 3. Edition. Schneider Verlag, Hohengehren 1980, ISBN 3-87116-208-6 .
  • Lore Blosser-Reisen: Scope of action and limits of independent housekeeping in old age. A contribution to determining the need for help. In: Journal of Gerontology. Volume 15, 3, 1982, pp. 142-149.
  • Lore Blosser-Reisen among others: Aging: Integration of social and health aids. Huber, Bern 1997, ISBN 3-456-82812-8 .
  • Daniela Bergdolt, Katharina Högel: child minders, domestic help, au pairs. Legal advice and practical tips. DTV-Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-423-05673-8 .
  • Maik-Carsten Begemann: The use of service centers for support in private households. Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8300-2723-2 .
  • Regula Bochsler, Sabine Gisinger: Serving abroad: maids and their masters in Switzerland in the 20th century. Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-905278-41-3 .
  • Helma Lutz: From the world market to the private household. The new maids in the age of globalization. Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86649-157-1 .
  • Heinrich Prinz Reuss: The correct servant - manual for masters and their servants. Berlin 1900. (2007, ISBN 978-3-8334-9463-5 )

Web links

Wiktionary: House staff  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. fernuni-hagen.de