Despite the gripping plotlines, HR pros will be hard-pressed to not notice how workplace practices have changed since the days of Downton Abbey.
Los Angeles Times writer and LA radio personality Patt Morrison muses in an opinion piece about the workplace history to be learned from watching the new season of “Downton Abbey,” especially since servants were the largest job category at the time.
While we moderns may be aghast at how the servants willingly groveled to their employers, Morrison reminds us of the class system in place in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
With the employment options of coal mining or working in a pre-OSHA factory (or worse for women), Morrison observes that someone in the lower class would find a “guaranteed free room and board (however uncomfortable and occasionally shared the bed was) and a roof over his or her head, decent clothes (even if it was a uniform) and a regular wage” quite appealing.
Morrison says that the goal of servants was to “be invisible” and not be observed doing their tasks, lest they have to “explain [their] presence” or even refer to them by name. Servants were often referred to by the name of the predecessor in their position so the employers wouldn’t have to learn the names of the staff.
Why did servants loyally remain for years with no hope for advancement? Morrison says, “Remember that this was not the aspirational, upwardly mobile United States. People born into one class were likely to stay there and encouraged by just about every social mechanism to do so. Education, the great social ladder, was not open to all comers, and such strivings were a source of astonishment, if not disapproval.”