Insights
Advice worth keeping.
What we tell clients across the table, written down: hiring, compensation, retention, and how great households actually run. Bylined and opinionated, never filler.
Annual report
The Private Service Salary & Hiring Report
The category's missing dataset: what household and family office roles actually pay, drawn from real searches. The first annual edition is in preparation.
Hiring Advice
Household Staff Background Check: What to Run
A household staff background check should match the role's access. See which records to run, and the federal steps before you order a report.
The Calendar Group ·
Hiring Advice
What Does a Houseman Do in a Private Residence?
What does a houseman do? See the private-residence duties, boundaries, and hiring signals that keep floors, moves, events, and service spaces in order.
The Calendar Group ·
Hiring Advice
How Families Compare Private Chef Services
Compare private chef services by household rhythm, culinary scope, service style, and family fit, then build a clear brief for a lasting placement.
The Calendar Group ·
Hiring Executive Support Staff for Family Office Operations
Define family office support needs, set decision rights, and hire for discretion, judgment, and coordination across household and office operations.
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Hiring Advice
The cost of a bad household hire
The wrong hire costs multiples of any search fee: disruption, turnover contagion, security exposure. Why retention, not speed, is the number that matters.
The Calendar Group ·
Compensation
Household payroll basics: what principals most often miss
Paying household staff legally is not optional. The employer obligations principals most often miss: payroll, workers' comp, and overtime, in plain terms.
The Calendar Group ·
Hiring Advice
Personal assistant vs. chief of staff: which one your life actually requires
Title inflation has blurred the line between personal assistant and private chief of staff. What separates the two roles, and how to know which you need.
The Calendar Group ·
Hiring Advice
How to interview a private chef
Tastings are theater. The judgment is in the questions: how to interview a private chef like an advisor, and what a trial week should actually test.
The Calendar Group ·
Hiring Advice
The school-year nanny search: a timeline that actually works
The September nanny search really begins in spring. A month-by-month timeline for school-year starts, and why rushed August hires fail.
The Calendar Group ·
Household Management
When to hire an estate manager
Most families hire an estate manager two years too late. The signs you've outgrown ad-hoc household management, and what the role actually changes.
The Calendar Group ·
The firm's full archive, roughly ninety essays and guides published since 2019, is being migrated URL-by-URL from the current site and will appear here as each piece is verified. Looking for a specific piece?