The situation of administrative employees of the Tambov province estates at the end of the XIX century is analyzed. The principles of management, the composition of the staffing tables of the patrimonial offices, the salaries of clerical employees are researched. The source for the work was a collection of “Agricultural and statistical information on the materials received from the owners” (St. Petersburg, 1890, issue III), a number of descriptions of large Tambov estates, “Collections of statistical information on the Tambov province” (Tambov, 1886-1896, issue 1-22). The relevance of the work is determined by the importance of advanced forms of administration in the context of the modernization undertaken by some owners of their estates. The presence of competent managers, of course, had a beneficial effect on the success of farming. The study of sources made it possible to determine the difference in the norms of management, depending on the stratification of landed estates by the amount of land and the methods of production activity. The number of employees and their wages increased in direct proportion to the size of ownership. As a result, the largest estates concentrated the largest number of staff in the province. In estates without hired specialists, the landowner was engaged in the economy of ownership or a seasonal administration was invited. The nomenclature of specialists in the Tambov province was not constant, which shows the underdevelopment of the skilled labor market in post-reform Russia.