From keeping up with pigs and schedules,
and keeping the drama and the salary low. The Kardashians give their assistants a
full list of dos and don'ts to follow so they can keep up with their dramatic lives!
The Kardashian-Jenners are some of the most famous people on the planet, and to work for them is to
get a peek behind an incredibly exclusive curtain. But if you can't respect the family's boundaries,
then it may not be the gig for you. As Kris Jenner told the Huffington Post in 2018:
"We try to have people on our team who have our back,
who we feel that we can really trust. It's about being discreet and being private… If
somebody has something that's happening in your life at the moment and it is a private thing,
then somebody [would need] to have a lot of respect for that."
Seems fair enough, no? Kylie Jenner's former assistant Victoria Villarroel
has also said that discretion was a top priority from day one.
“Kylie Jenner to the foyer, Kylie Jenner to the foyer, I have a little surprise for you.”
As she revealed on The Kylie Jenner App, Kylie pretty much poured her
heart out to her when they first started working together, saying:
"[Kylie] said, 'Close the door. I want to tell you my deepest
secrets.' We just talked forever. I think that's when we bonded.”
As for how Villarroel landed the job in the first place? The long and short of it, she simply
clicked with the reality star. As she shared on a 2019 episode of the "Girl Cult" podcast:
"We just got along. I'm not a crazy person, I'm trustworthy. We just liked each other."
Sleep? What's that? Anyone who wants to be a Kardashian assistant is going to need to keep
up with the Kardashians... literally. If you don’t, things may get catty…
“It’s ridiculous for you to just not do that for me as a favor because I've done so much for you.”
The famously career-driven Kris Jenner has said that her assistant would need to be ready to work
constantly, because her schedule never seems to slow down, telling the Huffington Post:
"It's really nonstop, 24/7 brainstorming and creativity and just trying to get organized
and really pack a lot into a day — being there nonstop with all engines blazing."
She also revealed in a 2019 Poosh interview with Kourtney Kardashian that she wakes up
at 4:30 a.m. every day and starts checking her emails pretty much the moment she opens her eyes.
Working for one of Kris' children is no more lax when it comes to availability
either. Kylie Jenner's former assistant Victoria Villarroel revealed the makeup
mogul would reach out at all hours of the day when she was an employee, saying:
"She'll call me 2 a.m. I will answer. I don't really have
set hours. It's pretty much whenever duty calls!"
“Nine to six you could come to me with ideas.”
“Nine to six? You’re not even up until eleven o’clock.”
And it sounds like it doesn't matter exactly what you're doing for the famous family,
24/7 availability is preferred. Jessica DeFino told Vice in 2022 that when she
was an assistant on the family's apps, she was apparently expected to work
hard at all hours of the day to make sure everything ran smoothly, adding:
"Days, nights, holidays, weekends, whenever and wherever I was needed.”
If there's one thing the Kardashian-Jenners already have enough of, it's drama.
“I bought our career it’s just lame to not do me a favor.”
And as Kris Jenner has made abundantly clear, when looking for a new employee, she seeks out
someone who knows how to stay out of all the fray and won't create any unnecessary trouble.
When she partnered with Bumble Bizz, the networking arm of the popular dating app,
to hire a new assistant in 2018, she explained to the Huffington Post:
"Listen, the reason that I went with Bumble is because it stands for some
of the things that are important to me and that I also personally stand by,
which is kindness and respect and equality, both on and offline. And I think that they're important
qualities that I'm looking for in a personal assistant, just, you know, as a human being."
It can sometimes happen in such close quarters coupled with so
much pressure though, as former Dash employee, Stephanie De Souza,
admitted that competitiveness could bring the claws out. She told E! News in 2015
that Dash employees would often show what she described as "cattiness and jealousy."
The Kardashians need a well-rounded individual on their team, as being a Kardashian-Jenner
assistant involves a little bit of everything. Victoria Villarroel revealed that when she began
working for Kylie Jenner, her main role was more actually that of housekeeper,
sharing in an interview on The Kylie Jenner App:
"I helped the house run. Like groceries, cars, everything just had to be perfect. You
basically do scheduling, travel, events. ... Or any appearance that she has, award shows,
the stylists, booking all her appointments and keeping her calendar up to date."
Kim Kardashian's former assistant Stephanie Shepherd has also said there's lots of
learning on the job. Roles constantly change depending on what's going on with the family,
such as preparing to welcome a new baby. As Shepherd recalled to Refinery29 in 2017,
Shepherd played a big role in helping Kim prior to daughter North West’s birth, saying:
"I was doing her whole schedule, doing her laundry, booking travel,
putting the stroller together and all of these things.”
Khloé Kardashian found out she needed to be a jack of all trades the hard way
when she playfully took on the role of her mom's assistant during a Season 18 episode
of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." From scanning documents to sampling
all the office snacks, Khloé took on whatever Kris threw her way, quipping:
"I'll do it with the smile and the little assistant shoes on.”
To borrow a line from the hit single by "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" alum Kim Zolciak-Biermann,
don't be tardy for the party. Not when it comes to the Kardashians,
at least. It turns out the family are no fans of employees who don't
have good timekeeping skills, as "Love & Hip Hop" star Erica Mena has shared.
Mena worked for the Kardashian sisters in their Miami Dash
store before becoming a reality television star in her own right,
and noted she butted heads with Khloé Kardashian over her punctuality, explaining to Vlad TV:
"I was late a few times and Khloé wasn't having it. I think Khloé took more offense
to me being late and [thought] that since I was friends with Kourtney [Kardashian] I was taking
advantage of it and that wasn't really the situation.”
The Kardashians have also spoken out about how much they hate lateness a few times before,
including when Kim Kardashian told Interview in September 2022 that not
being punctual is the thing that stresses her out more than anything else, confessing:
"I hate being late. That's the one thing where I'm just like,
'Oh my god I need my CBD pen. I'm freaking the f**k out.”’
“You should be used to that.”
If you are welcomed into the Kardashian-Jenner world, it sounds like the line between work
life and personal life can get a bit blurry. Kim Kardashian's former personal assistant
Stephanie Shepherd told Refinery29 in 2017 that anyone working for the family will
need to be sociable and ready to bond with, well, pretty much the whole squad, sharing:
"Everyone who works for the Kardashian family is part of this little tribe — assistants,
makeup artists, housekeepers, security. We get each other Christmas presents,
we take care of all the kids like they're our own kids. It's truly one big extended family.”
But don't think that the Kardashians will go easy
on their employees just because they've grown close to them.
“What you did, you could do whatever, but when it affects my family, me,
then that’s when its like, a problem.”
Former Dash employee Caroline "Alien" Burt, who appeared on the "Keeping up
with The Kardashians" spin-off "Dash Dolls," told E! News in 2015 that the
family wasn't afraid to let them know if something they did was sub-par, adding:
"You'll forget something and you won't even know it, but you'll get in trouble for it.”
Former assistant Stephanie Shepherd has said that working with the Kardashians
isn't necessarily always as fun and exciting as it may appear on TV; when she was still on
Kim Kardashian's payroll, she had a lot of tedious behind-the-scenes work to tackle.
Needless to say, there is quite a bit going on in the Kardashian-Jenner empire,
and it takes a village to keep things running smoothly.
“I need to make sure you guys think my dress is cute.”
As Shepherd explained to Refinery29:
"I think everyone thinks this job is super glamorous — and I can't lie,
it is… But don't forget that… with all of that glamor comes schlepping
the bags and the suitcases and taking the fall when… something goes wrong.”
But while a Kardashian assistant is likely to be found working on the
logistics of the glamorous events behind the scenes, that doesn't mean you get to
slack in the fashion department. Former "Dash Dolls" stars Durrani Popal and Stephanie De
Souza told E! News in 2015 that they were expected to maintain a presentable look
while they worked at the sisters Dash stores because they were faces of the glam brand.
If you want to be a part of the Kardashian-Jenner workforce,
you're probably going to need to be comfortable with dogs — and even the odd pig.
“You don’t have to name it Wilbur, I just named it that.”
A source told Radar Online in 2016 that the family's assistants are often required to take
care of their animals as well as their more standard everyday tasks, claiming:
"Every time anyone in the family gets a pet the assistant has to take care of them. Walking dogs,
changing kitty litter, potty training — it's a huge burden for the rest of
the family so the job falls on the assistant to do all the dirty work."
The Kardashian-Jenner family has seen a lot of dogs over the years; Kylie Jenner's boyfriend
Travis Scott couldn't even remember the names of her four dogs in a July 2018 GQ interview.
But it's not just canines that Kardashian assistants should be
able to take care of. As a source told E! News in 2012, Kim Kardashian ended
up giving a kitten named Mercy to Khloé Kardashian's assistant Sydney Hitchcock.
Evidently, Kim realized she was allergic to the cat after receiving Mercy as a
gift from then-husband Kanye West. Sadly, Mercy died shortly afterwards.
“I have the best advice for women in business. Get your f–king a– up and work.”
If you're working for the Kardashians or Jenners,
you maybe shouldn't expect to be paid like one. Jessica DeFino,
who was an assistant editor for Kardashian Jenner Official Apps, claimed to Vice in 2022
that her pay was apparently so paltry that there were times she couldn't afford gas, confessing:
"[The wages were] low and laughable in LA, especially considering my experience."
She told the outlet that her salary was around $35,000 a year even though she worked around
the clock to make sure the reality stars' apps met their needs. What's more, in 2017,
there was a rumor that salary may have been one of the reasons Kim Kardashian parted ways
professionally with Stephanie Shepherd. As an insider claimed to Life & Style,
Shepherd supposedly wanted another $20,000:
"Kim had been paying Stephanie $65,000 a year. She'd been working for Kim
for three years with no raise and knew it was time to ask."
Shepherd stopped working for Kim shortly after, with People's insider
claiming it was Kim's decision, but didn't clarify if salary played a part, adding:
"She was a good assistant but when Stephanie wanted to transition into
a larger role with Kim's brand and businesses, it just didn't work.”
Luckily, since leaving the company, Shepherd has remained friends with Kim and Kourtney Kardashian.