Office Concierges Aim to Reduce Distractions

April 2, 2006 — -- Modern life can leave many Americans desperate for a little help. Between the office, home and family, there's less time for those nagging little errands like bill paying, dry cleaning, dog walking, ticket buying and oil changing.

"I would have to allocate probably half an hour to an hour, once or twice a week, to do some of these chores," said Ketchum Secor, "and that would interfere with me finding new business."

"We're all so pressured for time, I literally just don't have the time to do it," said Stephen Mark Rosen. "I'm not sure how I'd get any of these things done."

Enter the corporate concierge. It's a service that helps corporate workers like Secor and Rosen get household tasks done while they're working.

"The best part of this job is being pretty much the most popular person in the building," said Lisa Lester, a concierge with Charm City Concierge of Baltimore.

The concierge industry first gained momentum during the dot-com boom of the 1990s. Even though that bubble burst, the corporate pampering endured.

"Time is very important to all of us, and I believe that having a concierge available to us during our business hours is a luxury that would be hard to do without," said Patricia Bonebreak, a concierge client.