What do housekeepers live on? Confessions of a housekeeper: I saw things in villas that I never want to become rich In dirty linen they dig out of boredom

Unlike the previous heroes of the rubric, Oksana is not ashamed of her status or her stories. She asks not to remove her face for security reasons: in her bag are the keys to the apartments where the money is. Oksana has been working for Belarusian moneybags for almost 15 years - cooking, cleaning houses, babysitting children.

The keys and the phone are always with me 24 hours a day, they can call at any time, even at night.

- Why? If they get hungry?

The alarm will work, for example. One family is now abroad.

They gave a lot of money, but my brakes worked

- The Faculty of Household is not open anywhere. Tell us how you got into this environment? And gained that kind of trust?

At the beginning of the 2000s, I received a higher education and went to work in a Brest school as a psychologist. Money was symbolic, and teenagers were difficult. I went to interrogations, talked with investigators. For 2 years I got pleasure for the rest of my life and decided: enough.

I have been looking for a job for six months. Until I came across an ad for a housekeeper. They took me, probably, because I had a higher education.

- What kind of people were they?

Some of the wealthiest in Brest are “clothes workers”. Their clothing brand is still in the top.

It was a large house of "squares" for 300, plus animals - a dog, a cat, fish. Couple with a child. I did everything there. I cleaned, cooked, nursed the child when my mother went to work. Since then, I no longer work with children. Not because I'm tired - I don't want to let it into my heart, and then part. Since then, I have ceased to take my work to heart. These first employers - it was my family, now - just a job.

At first I was paid $100 - 5 times more than at school.

- Seriously, for what? When you studied psychology, did the program include cooking or cleaning?

No, but I was a fast learner, I took a cooking course. In general, I would gladly go to work as a cook now, but they don’t take me by age - soon 40.

I was brought to 9-10 o'clock, and left at 16-17. Once a week the driver drove to the market to buy groceries. Fresh food had to be prepared daily.

It was also necessary to get out in the morning. After dinner, I sat with the child - put to bed, read. While I was sleeping, there was time to whisper quietly, and when I woke up, I became a nanny. The next day is the same, only without the market.

- Did you throw away a lot of expensive food at the end of the day?

No. They had a cat and a dog. And the menu was a little unusual. You will be surprised, but everyone has homemade, familiar tastes. Menus are often written by nutritionists.

Here is the list for the week:
cucumbers;
tomatoes;
avocado;
soup with meatballs and rice (small saucepan);
soup without meat with mushrooms (a little pasta);
potato pancakes with and without meat;
pancakes with and without cottage cheese;
sea ​​bass or several (bake);
shrimp on skewers;
hake in Greek;
schnitzels;
avocado salad;
chicory;
almond milk.

Well, employers buy something themselves.

Once a week I reported how much I spent. No one limited me in money and did not force me to save. I did not litter them, because I myself am very practical. Until now, the toad is strangling to buy tomatoes for 25 rubles. And my employers buy these...

Believe it or not, I often travel to Poland (from Brest!), where I buy household chemicals for work. I can't buy a $10 Lenor here when it should be $2.

How to ask for a pay raise

Your work in the first family was paid monthly. There was no desire to relax in the middle of the day? They still won't pay.

There is always, it's normal for a person to want to goof off. But I dealt with this desire in a different way. A year later, she approached the owners and, as a psychologist, correctly asked for an increase in salary.

- Teach?

Wait for the good mood of the employer and ask: "Do you want to increase my salary?" It is necessary that there is no denial in the question. I studied this for a long time. She left the family with a salary of $400. Banquets were paid separately ($50-100), birthday or New Year's bonuses are the norm. She didn't deny herself anything. And that's with two days off a week.

Families are different everywhere. I already had up to 10 employers, and each with their own cockroaches. But with greater warmth, I remember the first ones. They insisted that I get my license and helped me buy a car. It was cool. I worked with them for 6 years. But then tragedy struck the family. They weren't up to cleaning. I was fired.

I took the recommendations and went to the agency. With my experience, a new job was found for me very quickly. I worked in the second family for 2 years. The hostess was engaged in cargo transportation - a very profitable topic for that time. So for the first time I saw a sofa for 14 thousand euros, a chandelier for 25 thousand euros, a kitchen for 80 ... She told me about it herself. She probably wanted to impress. Although I still don't get it, I think it's very poor value for money.

Did you sit on the couch and feel nothing?

There were some goose down pillows. Well, I would pay $100 for it... I didn't say that to the hostess, of course. It would upset her. She was proud of the sofa.

Then came the crisis, wages began to be cut. And I refused to work. By that time, too many responsibilities were placed on me. Up to attending parent meetings and some meetings of building cooperatives.

Realizing that no one else would pay in Brest, I fled to Minsk.

I am a service staff, but once I cried from resentment

I have always parted amicably, because this is my resume and reputation. In principle, "hell" was once - work in one Minsk "village". It took me a few days. For $50, I was offered to clean a two-story cottage with a basement and an attic once a week. Every time it was just shit. It seems that until my next visit, no one there struck a finger with a finger, but they demanded an ideal. It's not possible if you don't at least keep it clean.

By the way, have the men in your families ever bothered that their wives (usually called housewives) don't actually do anything around the house?

No. There are different families. Somewhere children require more attention. Now I have employers where the wife does nothing. She takes care of herself and occasionally appears at work. This is normal and does not bother anyone.

I currently work for two families. I come to cook and clean 2-3 times a week.

My owners with an income of $1 million a year. Nobody told me that, but only an idiot would not notice. If a husband gives his wife an expensive car on March 8, it is not bought on credit. By the way, when the agency gives the employer's contacts, I don't know anything about him. Details can be found only in the process of work.

- There were situations when you were asked: “Oksana, where did the ring go?” or “Why is there less caviar in a jar”?

No. But I found money in places where it shouldn't be. Under the sofa a large bill, for example. It's not lost money, of course. This is a test of honesty. And I don't eat household products. I'll bring along. Coffee-tea - please, but soup with a cutlet - no.

You have repeatedly said "mistress" and "master". Considering that you were brought up in a country where the masters, at best, were dispersed, does the status of a servant not jar you?

Yes, I'm a maintenance person and I don't care. I honestly do my job and get paid for it. And I did not come across the frank rudeness of the “gentlemen”. Sometimes they communicate with arrogance. But that's not my problem, it's someone else's.

- Didn't get angry?

This is out of the question. No matter how hurtful, no matter how hurt, emotions are only at home. There was a time when I came and cried.

- What's happened?

I was given an expired cream. It was humiliating and not by mistake. I didn't expect that. But it wasn't discussed at work.

- Do you feel like a wealthy person?

Not anymore. When I first arrived in Minsk, I received $1,000 a month. I felt good. Now wages have dropped. For departure pay 30-40 dollars. In a month it turns out 600-700. The crisis…

So the guy who gave his wife a car for the holidays cut your salary from $45 to $30? There was no desire to tell him that he was a greedy?

No. I like my job. Well, I understand that rich people count their money. That is why they are rich. I respect them for how much they have worked and continue to work. Money didn't fall from the sky.

Moreover, I see that they correspond to their condition inside: successful businessmen without show-offs, without swearing and public showdown. Therefore, for another 5-6 years I will run without vacation pay, sick leave and pensions. Then, probably, my back will hurt, and I will go to the village, plant tomatoes and get geese.

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Wealthy people tend to be busy people. They stay late at work, so there is no time for housework. The best way out of this situation is to hire a housekeeper.

What will be required of you

If you decide to perform the duties of a housewife for rich people, get ready for:

1) an interview with an HR manager. Bring a copy of your passport, medical certificate, CV and some photographs to the meeting. This data is necessary, because for future employers you are an absolutely stranger, whom they will let into the house;

2) checking by the security service. The absence of a criminal record, connections with crime is an important condition for obtaining such a position;

3) an interview at the owner's house. You may be asked to cook a dish or tell how household appliances function in order to see the future assistant “in action”. Working hours are usually paid;

4) probationary period. It is 3 months. Show yourself from the best side, strictly adhering to the following rules:

• neat appearance. Neat hair, a clean uniform (at least 2 sets a day in case you get dirty), appropriate makeup, clean-shaven legs, etc.;
• no bad habits. No one likes a housekeeper who goes out for a smoke break every hour or wipes crystal glasses while drunk;
• quality performance of direct duties. The ability to handle household appliances and correctly use cleaning products, careful attitude to household things - the main "commandment" of a hired assistant;
• good mood, restraint. Forget about gloom and gossip - these are your "enemies" in the new workplace.

Myths and reality

Often young girls are afraid to occupy such a position due to false fears. Let's try to understand and dispel them.

1. Worrying about your own safety. Some persons believe that the owners can mock a subordinate (“they are rich, they are allowed to do everything”). In fact, the relationship between the employer and the assistant is good, because no one needs black PR.
2. Money scam. Girls are afraid to damage property and "work for food" all their lives. To prevent this from happening, perform your duties as efficiently and accurately as possible. Pay attention to the contract: it is better to prescribe the relevant clauses in it.
3. Intimate relationship with the employer. Such cases are rare, because no one wants to spoil the reputation, destroy the family and lose a good housewife. If the boss is interested in additional services, he seeks private housekeeper with sex. These responsibilities are negotiated orally or specified in the contract.
4. Claims of the boss's wife. You must understand: the spouses of wealthy people can be hysterical or very pleasant people to talk to. To improve relations with the mistress of the house, you will have to be a little psychologist. Guessing the mood, not asking unnecessary questions, not allowing too much in conversations with the employer - simple rules that will help you get comfortable and stay in a new place.

Being torn apart by dogs, long hours of work and mask shows are just some of what people who decide to get a job as housekeepers for wealthy Russians have to go through. The market of Russian servants, apparently, is not much different from the slave market, its volumes are unclear, wage statistics are vague, and the rights of workers are practically not protected in any way. At the request of samizdat “My friend, you are a transformer”, the editor of L’Officiel Russia, Irina Shcherbakova, learned firsthand what life is like for butlers, maids, housekeepers and nannies who serve wealthy people.

“The most common mistake is to make friends with someone from the staff and start to perceive this person as a family member,” says gallery owner and daughter of businessman Oleg Baibakov, Maria, in a column she wrote for Tatler magazine. - Nothing good comes out of it. As a rule, you lose a good maid, but you don’t gain a sister or a friend.”

Baibakova's column was published in Tatler three years ago. Maria generously shared her experience: how to competently dismiss a servant (“quickly and in front of witnesses”), who has the right to sit at the same table with the mistress of the house (only her son’s tutor) and why it is impossible to give the maid “Prada trousers from the season before last”, and the old “Louboutins” it’s just right to give if the maid has a daughter. In the crisis of 1914, these home economics tips outraged everyone at once - from the pro-government media and the former Nashi press secretary Christina Potupchik, who threatened Baibakova with a "wolf ticket", to the most progressive part of the Russian Facebook. Pretty soon, the scandal took on an international dimension: the London Times, for example, broke into an article headlined "Tatler teaches oligarchs to fire maids." It even got to the point that BuzzFeed released the Top 13 Life Hacks on How to Treat Servants. A few days later, Baibakova apologized for the Facebook column, saying that the text was "heavily edited" and that when she "translated it into English, she could see how indifferent and rude it turned out."

However, not a single piece of advice - even the most rude and indifferent - from Baibakova's scandalous column has anything to do with the conditions under which servants actually work in Russia. The "ethical management" that the gallery owner calls for is an unknown thing for most Russians who can afford a housekeeper. And if a film or series were made about a Russian house with servants, it would not be Downton Abbey, which Baibakov mentions, but rather a fresh Zvyagintsev or the old Coen brothers. Why, we will explain below.

Echpochmaki and recruitment agency Lada Dance

A house in a spa town in Spain, owned by a family from Russia; in the kitchen, cooks in white uniforms prepare Tatar food - echpochmaki, belish, meat soup. The mistress of the house, a regal woman of about fifty, shouts across the room: she does not like how the table was wiped, and the echpochmaks came out inauthentic. The cook, a tall Georgian woman in her early thirties, apologizes in a low voice. After dinner, the cook tells me her story: divorced, a schoolboy son is waiting at home, she has been working in the family for several years. Her case is indicative, but far from the most difficult. A maid who worked for a Russian banker in the late 1990s and early 2000s recalls: “He gave receptions at the dacha, sometimes a hundred and sixty people. At first we were forced to cook, but then the servants began to come from the Mario restaurant. Everyone was terribly afraid of the owner. When there was a mistake, they didn’t come up like that, they didn’t serve food to the guest - that’s it, right behind the fence. We were picked up every morning by a car at Kuntsevskaya. And the driver could take it and say: “But you are not going today.” You don't work anymore. In my presence, four or five people were fired like that.”

The situation has changed little since then. They still prefer to hire servants in the house unofficially: agreements are oral, wages are in an envelope. This makes it possible to dismiss in one day, without compensation, and labor legislation does not work here. The main channel of employment is personal connections. Most often, domestic staff is taken on the recommendation of friends, neighbors or relatives.

Wealthier homeowners often use agencies. Fun fact: since 2006, one of these agencies, Impeccable Staff, has been owned by the singer Lada Dance. Dance is proud of the fact that “carefully checks the biographies of employees” and declares that she was able to pick up a nanny for Andrey Grigoriev-Apollonov and a driver for Dmitry Kharatyan.

Banknotes in trunks and salary in envelopes

In the nineties and even in the first half of the 2000s, the work of individual housekeepers was paid higher than the average music reviewer. “The salary was $600,” recalls the heroine, who worked as a nurse before becoming a maid. - With this money it was possible, if you saved up for six months, to buy a good one-room apartment. And after two or three months, they added another fifty dollars to me. Money was delivered to the person I worked for in such checkered trunks. Several bags at once, at night.

The size of the domestic worker market is not well understood. The Rus2Web publication, for example, cited the following statistics, referring to the FMS: in 2015, the agency issued about 1.8 million patents, while 450,000 people received them in the capital. In theory, the procedure for issuing patents was developed just for those who are hired as servants in the house of individuals, but today those who work for legal entities also receive them - simply because such a patent is easier to obtain than a full work permit.

Wages have gone down, but the number of household staff hasn't gone down. By 2010, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Development, there were twenty million people in the country. According to last year's data from the Center for Migration Research, seven million migrants work as housekeepers, maids and nannies in Russia. The average salary of a housekeeper is 30-60 thousand rubles. Some work in several houses at once. For example, Wednesday and Friday - cleaning a three-room apartment in the historical center, where an employee of the Moscow City Hall lives, and Tuesday and Thursday - the time of visits to the producer, who, in addition to everything, asks to look after her schoolgirl daughter: sometimes she needs to be picked up from lessons or taken to the movies . Housemaids who are taken "with accommodation" are often paid less. So on the website arinarodionovna.com, a family without children and animals is looking for a housekeeper with a salary of 30,000 rubles in a house on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. Requirements: "Dry and wet cleaning, cleaning of bathrooms, washing the refrigerator, dishes, seasonal window washing, laundry, ironing with a steam generator." We need a woman from forty to fifty-five years old, “who knows how to cook well, work with household appliances: a vacuum cleaner, an iron, a slow cooker, a double boiler, an electric grill, a microwave oven, an oven, a juicer, an electric bed linen press, a washing machine and a dryer. Responsible, punctual, observing subordination. For comparison: the site editor in a lifestyle publication, who works remotely and part-time, earns about the same. And the average salary in Moscow, according to Rosstat, is 59 thousand.

Mask shows and mad dogs (no, not Tarantino)

The homes of some wealthy clients are raided, and the staff often comes under suspicion. “There was a case, they put on mask shows for us,” says a Moscow housekeeper who wished to remain anonymous. - They came at night, I was generally in shorts. No one was allowed out of the house, neither the hostess, nor mother, no one. The investigators sat down in the kitchen. I got dressed and cautiously went out to them, asked if they could have tea or coffee. One:
- You can have tea.

The other looked at him like that and asked:
"Aren't you afraid of poison?"

Unofficially hired personnel are not protected from anything, and being fired suddenly without explanation or an investigator catching you in your underpants is far from the worst thing that can happen. Injuries at work are sometimes not compensated in any way, and if they are compensated, it is not enough. “The mistress of the house,” says the same housekeeper, “terribly loved dogs. Well, it's just terrible. And she constantly bought these dogs, collected, or something: she saw, wanted, took away, and then all the care for them fell on us. Kurzhaars, German shepherds, lap dogs - the house was large, the former residence of Shevardnadze on Rublyovka, there the guards drove around the territory in a jeep, so there was enough space. No one cared much about the dogs, they were angry and twitchy. The owner sometimes kicked them when she got angry, and she also bought collars with electric shocks, and the son of the animals used electric shock when he was bored. And then one day I take out bowls of food for big dogs - and I see a small one running across the whole yard. I think, no matter how they eat it, I grab it, but they rush at me. When the guards came running, I was gnawed by three kurtshaars and one German shepherd. A small dog, they say, was torn apart, there was not even anything left of it. And I even had stitches on my scalp. I spent ten days in the hospital, I was paid for a junior suite, and that's it. The stitches were removed and redone. Even when everything began to heal, it was still terrible. I looked out the window and realized that I could not go outside. I was afraid of the air. I was helped by a psychologist who went to the owner's mother. The psychologist came, I closed my eyes, clung to him, and together we stepped over the threshold of the hospital. I thought the hostess brought the psychologist, but it turned out that he himself heard what had happened and came. Do you know what the owner said when he found out that the guards had to shoot the dogs? “Well, how will we return, but no one will meet us? ..” And not a word about me. And only later, when I quit, they told me that he and his wife said that I myself was to blame.

The Village continues to find out how much people of different professions earn and what they spend money on. In the new issue - a housekeeper. Ten years ago, it was believed that only representatives of the upper middle class could afford an au pair, but now, despite the crisis, many people with average earnings have housekeepers. Their services no longer seem prohibitively expensive, but they save a lot of time and effort. An assistant to rich Muscovites told The Village how she lives, how much she earns and how much she spends.

PROFESSION

Housekeeper

SALARY

48 000 rubles

per month

Expenses

20 000 RUBLES

providing for a son

400 RUBLES

phone payment

10 000 RUBLES

refueling and car repair

3 000 RUBLES

8 000 RUBLES

3 000 RUBLES

vitamins

1 000 RUBLES

2 000 RUBLES

cosmetics

600 RUBLES

transport

How to become a housekeeper

My name is Natalia, I am 51 years old. By education, I am a technologist of leather products, I worked in a leather haberdashery association, first as a seamstress, and then as a master. I didn’t even think about becoming a housekeeper until last year, when my son began to live in Moscow with his father, and I, a resident of Pushchino, wanted to be closer to him. Then I began to look for a job with accommodation in the capital.

I have always liked doing housework, so I decided to try myself in this area. Turning first to one agency, then to the second, I did not get a real result. Everywhere they took money, offered to undergo training, but there was no sense. Then I began to look for ads directly. After writing a response to the vacancy of a housekeeper and indicating in the questionnaire that I had no work experience, I immediately received a response with an invitation to an interview. This surprised me, because everyone is looking for people with experience. Subsequently, I learned that my employers, Alexander and Natalia, were impressed by the fact that I spoke in such detail and honestly about myself in the questionnaire.

It seems to me that a housekeeper is chosen based on intuition: the client either likes the candidate or not. In addition, employers give preference to women of Slavic appearance. Often they even write that Russian citizenship is required to get a job. As a rule, those who do not have enough money and have nowhere to live go to housekeepers. For them, such work is serving time. But if a person gets a job helping around the house only because he has no money, if it is difficult and unpleasant for him to do this work, the client will feel it.

Housekeeping is really interesting to me, and I went to work not because I needed money, but because I needed to occupy myself with something and, probably, feel needed. I lived for myself for so long that I wanted to become useful to other people. I consider myself an assistant: I help when a person has no time. Doing what I love, I also earn good money.

I, as a citizen of Russia, do not need a patent, it is necessary only for visitors from other countries. But I work unofficially, because for official registration you need to open an individual entrepreneur for the provision of services. Then I will pay taxes, and I will have seniority. But in order to open an individual entrepreneur, you need to find a person who understands accounting, because for me this is a distant area. My hosts are not against this payment format, but how else? I have never heard of housekeepers opening individual entrepreneurs, although in the future I would like to do this: in five years I am retiring, and seniority is important to me.

Features of work

When I first arrived at the four-story house that I am currently cleaning, the hostess Natalya told me about her cleaning preferences. The entire first floor of this mansion is reserved for an entrance hall and a garage, on the second floor there is a living room, a dining room and a kitchen, on the third floor there is a hall and three bedrooms, and on the fourth, attic, there is one large playroom for children. There are two adults and two children living in the house. Despite the fact that the structure has four levels, it is very compact. In the hall on the third floor there is a simulator, which the owners periodically work out on. When no one is at home and I want to take a break from cleaning, I also use it - Alexander and Natalya do not mind.
I live on the territory of the mansion in a separate guest house. This is a one-story building with a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, where I have a computer and a router.

Every day I clean only bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and stairs. Otherwise, my duties include cleaning one floor per day. I also have cooking, so I have enough to do. The beginning of my working day is not clearly defined in terms of time: if the owners need breakfast, I can come at 07:30. But since they rarely order breakfast, I usually start work at nine or ten in the morning by cleaning the kitchen after the family has already had breakfast. I work until two or three in the afternoon, then I go on a break, and at four or five in the evening I return to business, put things in order where necessary, and cook dinner. At 19:00 I go to my room and return only at 21:00 to clean the kitchen after dinner. This is where my work day ends. In my free time, I do what I want, surf the Internet, watch movies.

My employers do not consider themselves superior to those who help them. Perhaps we have such a relationship because they were not always rich: they used to live in an ordinary Moscow apartment, and when the owner began to earn good money, they bought this house. We are very similar in character to them, and we immediately established a trusting relationship, as if some kind of soul mate. I try not to interfere in the personal life of my owners. Alexander has some kind of business, he runs it from home. His wife does not work and devotes herself entirely to children.

Salary

When I first got a job, I was offered 25,000 rubles a month. I went for such a salary because I knew that I had no work experience, and without it they would not take anywhere. Two months later, Alexander raised my salary to 40 thousand. At first I worked six days a week, then I realized that it was a lot for me, and we agreed that I would work four days. For such a download, I get 24 thousand rubles a month.

I decided to use the weekend for a part-time job and found a family that needs cleaning once a week. Their house is located within the city, its owner is a high-ranking official, he is rarely at home, and his wife takes care of the children and does not work. They have their own security service there, and they checked me when I got a job.

The house itself is two-story, but very long. On the ground floor there is a gym and a sauna in one wing, and a large dining room and kitchen in the second. On the second floor in one wing - an adult bedroom and an office, and in the other - children's rooms and a nurse's room. I simply don’t have the opportunity to work out in the gym in this house: I clean up from morning to evening.

There is a lot of glass in this house, all the ramps and stairs are made of it. Cleaning there is actually washing several windows. It is difficult to put all this in order in a day, and I get very tired. When I came to them, they immediately told me: because of the amount of work, you will have a ten-hour working day. When I began to manage to do all this faster, they began to add work to me, not taking into account that, having removed everything that was supposed to, I was already tired. After such a hard day, I need another day to recover. Working in this house is hard for me not only physically, but also mentally. The owners do not have such trusting relationships with me as in the first family, and in their house I feel tense. But this part-time job brings me another 24 thousand rubles a month.

spending

Of course, costs change every month. My son is studying at the institute, I help him with money, so the lion's share of my budget (about half) goes to him.

I have a car. Now I ride it more often than public transport. It takes about 10 thousand rubles a month to refuel and repair it, and about 600 rubles to travel by minibus and metro.

With clothes, everything is very simple for me, I'm not picky, and it takes an average of 3 thousand per month. It’s more difficult with food: I don’t always eat what my owners eat, I have my own preferences, so part of my budget goes to food - fruits, vegetables and dairy. Another part of the cost goes to vitamins: in our lifetime we can’t do without them.

I do not like decorative cosmetics, so I almost do not spend money on it.
Regular cosmetics that maintain skin tone cost 2-3 thousand rubles a month.

The owners pay for the Internet, and I only spend money on paying for a cell phone - only 300-400 rubles a month. I also enjoy reading business magazines. On average, they spend a thousand rubles a month.

On the whims of clients

I worked in many families, I had to meet with the quirks of rich people. In the house of a family of musicians, in which I worked for about two months, the bathroom was decorated in the style of "golden toilets": white faience is covered with gilded drawings. In my opinion, a gilded toilet is an unnecessary show-off, because such a design is short-lived. Yes, and cleaning such places is much more difficult than ordinary bathrooms: on the one hand, everything is in gold, and on the other, in calcium stains from water.

Usually clients treat me with respect, but anything happened. In one family, for example, a lunch break was not provided for a housekeeper.
Where and how I will eat, they did not really care. There, standing in the laundry compartment, I was not very pleased.

Once I got a job in a family of lawyers - a lawyer and her daughter. They had two cats, and there was an incredible amount of wool in the house. It became unbearable for me to come in order to clean up after the cats, then I said to myself: I will not serve the cats. If a person gets a cat, this is his whim, not mine, and therefore the person must take care of him himself. I help people when they really need the help of a housekeeper, and when they just don't feel like doing it themselves, an internal protest arises in me. For this reason, I soon left this family.

There are many women in our country who love to do housework, but nevertheless they sit within four walls and do not know what to do with themselves. If at least twice a week they help someone, it will be useful for them both financially and in terms of realizing their usefulness. But more and more visitors from other cities and countries are becoming housekeepers, it is still difficult for our women to overcome their pride and become an au pair. Although there is nothing shameful in this work and I perceive it as mutual assistance: clients have the opportunity to help me financially, and I have the opportunity to help them with housekeeping. My own family does not require much attention from me now, so my home is the home of the families where I work.

illustrations: Dasha Koshkina