Domestic service

by Lucy Maynard Salmon

There are, however, certain variations of the problem in Europe and these must be considered.

The European employer of domestic labor is at a distinct advantage in comparison with the employer of such labor in America in that little or no baking is done in the individual household, and washing as a rule is done out of the house,[335] or if done in it, is often made a serious matter like the semi-annual housecleaning,[336] while the continental breakfast of coffee and rolls practically reduces the first meal of the day to a negative quantity.

It is indeed an open question whether the simplification of household work thus secured is not more than counterbalanced by the lack of modern conveniences for doing housework, by the absence of any system of uniform heating and the consequent necessity of carrying fuel to every room that is to be warmed, by the absence of elevators and the hard work thereby entailed on employer and employee alike, and by the necessity apparently encumbent on every member of many households of crocheting endless yards of trimming, working on canvas, and storing away for future use countless piles of household linen. But these are at least variations from our own problem, and both employer and employee in Europe have certain advantages in their work even if these are counterbalanced by corresponding disadvantages.

The employer in Europe, especially in Germany, is at an advantage in being able, indeed often compelled by law, to make a contract specifying the term of service for which the employee is engaged. In Germany[337] contracts are usually made in the city by the quarter, in the country by the year. If the contract is made by the quarter, notice of a change on either side must be given six weeks in advance; if made by the year, three months’ notice must be given; where the contract is made for only a month, notice must be given fourteen days in advance; in all cases notice must be given before twelve o’clock at noon.[338] If an employee is dismissed without due notice before the expiration of the contract, the employer must pay wages and board for the remainder of the time.[339] If an employee leaves without giving the legal notice, he can be brought back by the police and be also subject to fine and imprisonment.[340] Again, it is impossible for a person to engage a servant while in the employ of another without the knowledge and consent of the latter, while any one who entices a servant away from his place is subject to fine and imprisonment.[341]

It must be said, however, that there is another side to the contract. If it protects the employer in reducing to a minimum the chances of his being left without a servant, it also makes his life a burden during the long period that intervenes between the notice and the time when it takes effect. The service given by a servant during this time becomes absolutely perfunctory, while the personal relations become so strained as to render the situation almost intolerable. The temptation besets the housekeeper to “rather bear those ills she has than fly to others that she knows not of,” and thus she often encourages poor work by tolerating it, because she is unwilling to give the necessary notice, endure the still poorer service after it has been given, and in the end incur the risk of getting another servant no more efficient than her predecessor.

Yet undoubtedly this extreme form of government supervision in Germany is successful there. The police officials administer many a wholesome rebuke to both parties to the contract. If an employer is in the habit of changing servants often, that fact is known to the police through the service books and the notifications of change that every employer must make. When, therefore, such an one complains to the police that his servant is impertinent or remiss in some way where he wishes legal redress, the officer will probably advise him not to make the attempt. “You had better not say anything about this, every one knows that you cannot keep a servant long.”[342] If an employee makes too frequent complaint of ill usage at the hands of his employer, he will probably be dismissed with a reprimand for his own shortcomings.

One form of government supervision that has been specially commended in other countries is the German service book. This represents the most complete safeguard that has been devised to protect employers from imposition on the one hand and, on the other, to assist employees in securing places. Every person before going into domestic service must obtain from the police one of these books. A blank page is filled out by the police, giving a description of the person about to enter service. When the first engagement is made, the name of the employer and the date of beginning service are entered in the book and it receives the official stamp. When an employee leaves a place, the date with the reason for leaving and a statement in regard to the character and efficiency of the servant must be entered in the book by the employer and the book then returned to the police. No domestic employee can secure a position in Germany without one of these service books—it is a passport that must be viséd by the government officials and previous employers before he can enter or leave a position, and no passport regulations in any country are more stringent than are these service-book requirements in Germany. It would seem, therefore, that this public statement concerning an employee and the official recognition of it by the police authorities ought to be an unimpeachable recommendation. That this is not the case, however, seems to be the all but universal testimony. The service book is of value in weeding out inefficient employees, whose inefficiency, however, would often be self-evident without the aid of a service book. It is not only true that in this, as in every other form of recommendation, the mistress is anxious to say the best thing possible for a maid to help her in securing another place, but the law compels an employer to go still farther and to say nothing that will prevent an employee from finding employment. If an employer suspects the honesty of an employee, he is not free to state that suspicion in the service book; if he has positive proof of his dishonesty, he must enter legal complaint against the employee; if he has no such evidence, he must not even hint at his suspicions. Moreover, the law goes yet one step farther and compels every employer to believe an employee innocent in every respect until he is proved guilty. Not only is he not free to say that he suspects the honesty of an employee, or to leave out the word “honest,” but he must state positively that the employee is honest.[343] This policy is justified on the ground that it is a necessary protection to the weaker class, but it of necessity impairs the absolute reliability of the testimonials given, and it lessens materially the value of the service book as far as it concerns the employer. Even in Germany with the aid of the strong arm of the law it seems as impossible as it is in other countries to devise any system of recommendations that will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that will at the same time satisfy the desire of an employer to secure a place for an employee he can himself no longer tolerate and also the claims of an employee to the right to turn a fresh page and try once more to give satisfaction to a new employer. The recommendations of the previous employers of would-be employees must be discounted in Germany as well as in America.

This government regulation of domestic service in Germany is acquiesced in because government regulation extends to other industries and because obedience is man’s first law throughout the empire. In so far as the conditions can be reached by law this regulation seems to be successful. But there are many factors in the problem that cannot be so reached,—infirmities of temper, the visiting soldier, the preference for an easy place, the desire for city life. Here the German housekeeper must depend on her own resources, and her problem is the same as that in every other country.

Another advantage domestic service in Europe has over service in America lies in the large number of men engaged in the employment.[344] The reasons for this are not indeed perhaps directly apparent. But domestic service as an occupation for men must command a higher respect in Europe than in America for two reasons: first, the competition with those belonging to a foreign, or to a so-called inferior race is reduced to a minimum.[345] Household service is performed in France by Frenchmen, in Italy by Italians, and in Germany by Germans. In England it is given in part by Englishmen, but also to a great extent by foreigners, and the invasion of the occupation by those not English by birth may be one explanation why the occupation is falling into ill repute among native-born Englishmen. That the service is better performed by the foreigner than it is by the Englishman explains why employers seek the services of the former rather than those of the latter,[346] and perhaps incidentally why the native-born servant so readily leaves the field to his rival.

Another explanation why domestic service as an occupation for men commands a higher respect in Europe lies in the relatively higher qualifications that men must have. Not only must a man in domestic service have the same qualifications as would be demanded of him in the same occupation here, but he must be able to speak from one to half a dozen languages in addition to his own.[347] Domestic service is for men an occupation, and they make preparation for it as for any other technical trade. They must spend from one to two years in other countries learning the language[348] in order to increase their market value; the position they can command and the wages they can earn depend, other things being equal, on the amount of capital they have invested in themselves. The social restrictions placed on women prevent their going from one country to another in a similar way, and thus men, for this and other reasons, command everywhere the best places, and they probably occupy a relatively higher social position than do men in the same occupation in America.