Let's focus now on the key issues with Wealth Accumulators when it comes to poor people skills.
Only Robots Need ApplyWhere they have trouble with employees is the point they lose touch with their own spiritual nature and think of life, including mankind, as an agglomeration of atoms and random, unthinking forces.
It might surprise to know that this opinion has only been in vogue wherever psychology has spread its influence over the last 130 years, based on some severely faulty logic: a professor of psychology ("the study of the soul"), announced somewhat ironically that because nerve channels went to the brain, the brain must be the mind, and that man was therefore nothing more than a collection of atoms like any other animal. The spirit mankind had conceived to overlay the managing of these atoms over the millennia was thereby scientifically proven not to exist.
If the logic sounds slightly off kilter, maybe transposing it into computer parlance may highlight why the professor's initial observation does not justify the conclusion. Imagine a computer (the body) sitting on a desk without any operating system or programs loaded (mind), and no end user (spirit) to use it. The concept works no more in the computer world than it does in real life, and if a hypothesis does not work in practice, then it has little validity.
Unfortunately, however, the idea has become widespread and when used as a model, is bad news for human relationships, especially for staff who generally have to keep their own counsel while an employer or guest throws a tantrum or carries out a strategy based on the idea that staff are as disposable as diapers or last year's models.
How does this materialistic point of view manifest? Being driven in a serious way by the misconception that happiness results from collecting possessions and employing an army of hot and cold running maids and butlers, one falls foul of a natural law that is well understood by savvy ladies looking for partners: That pushing too hard and seriously in one direction has the opposite effect. "Playing hard to get" is an intelligent response borne, no doubt, of trial and error, that will generally result in the men giving chase.
Alternatively, if a lady is not playing hard to get and a man chases her, he will drive her away. Wanting possessions, one chases too hard after them and so fails to find the happiness that they cannot deliver, because it is the magic of one's own creativity and lightness of spirit that brings happiness. This is certainly true when one's "people possessions" do not sit and bark on cue, but turn out to have unwanted opinions and feelings that spoil things unnecessarily.
Which brings up the other goal of such employers and guests: to control others based on a lack of trust that they will perform or behave well. Whenever this philosophy is instituted nationally, police states and all they represent for the finer parts of mankind result.
For a rare glimpse at the mindset of such a person, consider the words of Zbignew Brzezinski, founder of the Trilateral Commission, when he addressed Chatham House (the British counterpart of the American Council on Foreign Relations) on November 17, 2008: "In early times, it was easier to control a million people than physically to kill a million people. Today, it is infinitely easier to kill a million people than to control a million people." He was lamenting the difficulty of controlling populations who can vote and access the Internet. That the strategy of controlling others is self-defeating and has never worked (for some reason, individuals rebel overtly or covertly as much against being controlled as being killed) does not seem to put off such wealthy individuals from trying.
For the less one trusts others and the more one tries to control them, the more they are pushed into criminality: the pivotal point where a criminal becomes hardened, is where he commits one crime too many and realizes he cannot trust himself to police himself and so quits trying. The criminal rehabilitation group, Criminon, uses this understanding to return self respect and trust to the criminal. As a result, Criminon enjoy the same success rate (70-80% never return to prison) as other programs experience a failure rate (70-80% returning to prison).
A Better Strategy for the WealthyIt might help such wealthy individuals to realize that other people do exist, they are real, and they are not the programmable robots many employers have sought (because they failed to make the servants and their operating climate sufficiently intelligent to function sensibly). A Lady H. kept a mind-numbing list of actions to do at a precise time each day, such as when to draw which curtain. She had obviously compiled the list in an effort to counteract the omissions she had experienced with former and current employees. A tour of her estate revealed examples of obvious negligence, such as her own bed unmade at 5.30 p.m. Only two bedrooms and beds needed to be serviced in the various buildings on the property, yet she had several maids scurrying around the house looking worried and busy. She at the same time bemoaned the lack of quality staff and their inability to do the simple actions they were paid to execute. The Lord and Lady in question were so convinced all servants were robots that they were unable to see their own attitude and approach to handling their staff had created that very robot culture.
If staff members were instructed in the requirements of the house, given principles and rules that they could think with, as well as checklists of actions to undertake (perfectly valid), they would undoubtedly fulfill their duties. They would be able to observe and evaluate different situations as they cropped up, and resolve them intelligently. If employers expected the staff to take pride in their work and left them free to do so without continual interruption and recriminations, validated them for their good works, then the staff would grow gradually into a happy, caring and efficient workforce. They would show initiative within the boundaries set by the employer, and provide the employer with real assistance. It is true that in some cultures, individuals have been so beaten down as to become like robots, but even they, with much extra care, if one really has no choice but to employ them, can be nurtured back to self-determined action.
It comes down to the difference between owning a slave, controlling a servant, employing a staff member, or nurturing a self-determined and responsible artist: for art is not just on a canvas—it can be defined as the quality of the communication and product produced in any sphere of life. And when we talk wealth, we surely imply quality in all things as a desirable standard.
One other turbulence some Wealth Accumulators leave in their wake from the good ship "all is matter and man is an animal," is a certain tightness of wallet that is not justified by the means of the individual. Their problem is that they have fallen for their own line of scarcity: Capitalism in its current form is based on creating scarcities (most easily out of necessities, otherwise out of what people can be made to believe are necessities), and even using fear of scarcity to increase demand for one's now "scarce" product or service—as opposed to good sense in governance leading to abundances for the benefit of all.
Some wealthy individuals actually believe there can be scarcity, based not on their lack of accumulated wealth, but their realization that they cannot create anything, and so come into a frame of mind where they must horde what they have. One employer with a beachside mansion insisted on importing his own Filipino maid at wages lower than the local going rate, giving her an on-property room literally the size of a one-car garage, and charging rent for it that consumed a good part of her wages. It takes no real strength or skill to wrest concessions from the weak, but such cheap victories seem to make some people happy even though the payback is service begrudgingly given. T
he deeper liability for the employers being that, lacking real creativity, they focus on protecting their possessions and maintaining the status quo, which includes stopping initiatives of even their own staff to improve things. Additionally, they want, they possess, but they can't appreciate or experience real joy any more than their Bentley can experience joy. The real joy in life comes from creating, sharing, and achieving goals with other people, not in becoming the objects one desires.
One of the happier (and richest) men in the world works in a small office off the kitchen and knows that he depends on his employees as much as they depend on him: he and his wife are deeply immersed in causes and work incessantly to create things and improve conditions. Their staff is busy running the estate for the employers, well looked after, and loyal. The only capital one has really with staff is their willingness to serve. Demolish that with inconsiderate exchanges and one has employees who will not go the distance, let alone the extra mile.
Conversely, the power enjoyed by the wealthy can be used in the understanding that real richness in life comes from friendship and positive accomplishment. The relationship of service is like any other alliance—two adults agreeing to bond in a certain way because they have the freedom of choice and the dignity and skills needed to play the roles in the game: One chooses to serve, the other to be served, both understanding the relationship to be reciprocal and professional.
In summary, where there is friction and staff turnover in an estate, where hotel employees are rebuffed and discouraged from providing good service, the real target is the fundamental weakness that is making the fortunate wealthy frustratingly unhappy: the lack of a game and purpose in life for those who are idle; or the idea that other people do not exist or matter for those who are succeeding in the game of acquiring more and more.
The truth is that current cultures point the wealthy up a cul-de-sac/dead-end; so this little article placed discreetly in the hands of those who are capable of changing, can go a long way to enlightening minds and improving conditions.
A simple acknowledgement or thank-you gift, a smile rather than a Cheneyesque snarl, a request rather than an imperious order, these all add up both for the staff as well as the employer, into a whole new relationship, making each party a keeper.
Steven Ferry, a multi-published author in a number of genres, is Chairman of the US-based International Institute of Modern Butlers, www.modernbutlers.com, and available for consulting, training, or speaking engagements. 
