By; Taylor Ann Hartley

Some names have been changed for confidentiality

“Where are my goddamn pants?” yelled the buttoned-up billionaire, David Camden.
He stood in his spacious Spanish-style mansion in Santa Fe, California, not a speck of
dust in sight. Earlier that day, Nathan Hedman picked up David’s dry-cleaning, but not
everything was there.

David finished inspecting his rack of freshly pressed dress pants, immaculate white shirts,
and $5,000 suits inside his meticulously organized closet. His hand halted and gripped the place on the rack where the pants usually hung until his knuckles turned white.

A pair of khaki Eddie Bauer pants arrived at the dry cleaner’s but never left.

Red invaded David’s face as his eyebrows moved together like magnets. His shouting traveled toward April Hedman’s post in the opening of the double closet doors. The scent of
Lysol and baked cookies hung in the air from her day’s work.

April suppressed a lump in her throat as David pointed his words toward her.

“I don’t care what you do,” said David. “You can call the police, but you get those pants.”

He stormed away, his black, freshly shined shoes clacking on the hardwood floor. April
looked at her husband, who approached when he heard yelling.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said.

“I think you already know,” said Nathan.

April hesitantly reached for the freshly dusted landline and called the police, who connected her with an investigator.

“You’re not going to believe this,” she said into the phone.

Ridiculous incidents like this often happened when Nathan and April worked for
billionaires David and Mary Camden and their family for two years as the household manager and the nanny and cook, respectively. A household manager is the Americanized word for the butler of an individualized household.

April and Nathan’s experiences may sound unique, but they are only one small part of a
more significant industry.

“In our modern world, there is an increasing demand for professionals who can assist rich
people in the daily running of their household or households,” said Paul Huizinga, the
International Butler Academy Recruitment Director. “The organization gets daily requests for recruitment, and since we are only one of few, the total demand is very great.”

The professional organization tied to the International Butler Academy is the International Guild of Professional Butlers. Huizinga represents both organizations. The International Guild of Professional Butlers has a few thousand members and aims to match those in the industry with satisfying positions.

A large part of these positions is keeping a professional relationship with an employer. If
too many emotions are involved in a butler’s work, whether the butler’s or employer’s emotions, they most likely cannot do their job effectively.

“When it gets serious and very unpleasant to work for, there is only one piece of advice:
find another job,” said Huizinga. “However passionate someone might be about the profession, it’s also just a job where you earn your money, and you are free to go when and where you want.”

The money a butler earns often stretches further than in other professions. It is customary
in the butling industry for employers to pay their butlers’ expenses and salaries. Butlers get paid a salary based on their experience, age, and country.

“In the USA, a salary goes up to and from $70,000, but the cost of living and health
insurance are higher than in other countries,” said Huizinga.

For two years, Nathan, a member of the International Guild of Professional Butlers,
despite no formal training in butling, and April lived in housing, used a car, and ate food for
which they did not pay. All their income stayed in their bank account because they had no
recurring expenses.

The only caveat is that they spent their days doing chores for someone else and dealing
with the emotions of their employers.

“Most of it is not glamorous because it’s things people don’t want to do, except you do
it,” said Nathan.

Nathan and April enjoyed working in a service capacity but found navigating their job
challenging.

“It sort of felt like land mines all the time,” said April. “I wasn’t sure when they came
home if they were ready to be chatty and friendly or if they would get in my face.”

The Hedmans were newly married, each working toward their master’s degree at St.
John’s College as they struggled to make ends meet. April said she found a “mysterious” job ad in the newspaper and was immediately interested in observing wealth up close.

“Nathan and I grew up in working-class households,” said April. “So I think what was
mysterious at first was who hires somebody to take care of their house.”

Wealth quickly revealed its darker side to April and Nathan. They watched as David’s
stress became boils and blisters on his feet.

Ultimate privilege, it seems, comes at an ultimate cost.

“The husband would come home stressed about work, and he would cuss me out or cuss
Nathan out,” said April. “That was jarring. I just wasn’t accustomed to being treated that way and felt subordinated.”

Wealth amplified the stress of David and Mary.

“I got a close look at the complexity of money,” said April. “More money leads to more
stress, complex decisions, and more things at stake.”

Though Nathan said he does not have a problem with being disrespected or seen as
unequal, being on-call for chores at all hours took its toll.

“Working with wealthy people means you are at their beck and call,” said Nathan. “The
Devil Wears Prada is not an exaggeration at its peak. It’s recognizable.”

The emotions were too high for Nathan and April to continue in their positions. When an
opportunity for Nathan to work as a butler at a hotel came along, they took it.

“If our employers had treated us with courtesy, I would have loved it,” said April. “ It
would have been a fit for me, and I could have done that for the rest of my life. Except, they
were not courteous, but they would do nice things for me.”

They briefly considered making a career in the butling industry, but after a short stint
working at a hotel, Nathan became interested in returning to school. Nathan and April were
ready for more long-term careers that would be conducive to their plans for a family. So when Nathan got into a Ph.D program at Yale, they moved on.

Still, decades later, Nathan and April continue to pursue their passion for service, but in a
different capacity than initially planned. Nathan is the Director of the Honors Program at High Point University, and April is the Director of Wow at Wolfe Homes.

They kept up with their former employers through social media posts but rarely thought
about that time in their life. Back in Santa Fe, David and Mary often thought of Nathan and
April, eventually reaching out to ask how they were.

At the time, April and Nathan were back to struggling to make ends meet but now had a
daughter to support and had accumulated additional student loans.

Then an email hit Nathan’s inbox.

Mary wanted to help pay for his graduate school. Their former employers paid for over
two years of his degree, gaining nothing from it.

“It makes you kind of reinterpret everything that’s happened from something mostly
miserable to something kind of beautiful,” said Nathan.