Cafe Owner

It’s not You, It’s Your Job: The Story of How a Female Entrepreneur Created Better Work Design by Starting a Café

Beck scores her job 9/10 (ten being the most enjoyable job you can imagine)

by MK Ward

It’s open, airy and bright as we sit in the modest space that Pearth Organic Kitchen uses to serve the West Leederville neighbourhood. We met with Beck Brown, the owner and founder of Pearth Organic Kitchen which has been open for a little over two years.

“All my earlier jobs forced me to be there from 8:30am to 5pm no matter what. I know that I wasted heaps of time because I used that time to research health rather than sitting there with no work to do.”

Imagine what it’s like to be in a job that isn’t letting you use all your skills, your vision and creativity, keeping you on hold, like a tool on a shelf. This is characteristic of work design with low complexity, skill variety, and autonomy.

That’s how Beck felt, and like so many of us, she thought that it was something wrong with her, not the work itself.

“I thought I was just the type of person who would never be satisfied because I never liked my jobs.”

Over time, her research about health, food tastings at cafes, and obsession with healthy eating, she developed a few recipes, got feedback from friends and considered returning to school to study nutrition. Then she wondered, why go back to school for nutrition when she already knew heaps? Instead she wanted to open a business and serve the products she most wanted to eat and drink, but couldn’t find anywhere else.

So, has Beck created her dream job in the café?

Well, it’s not easy. Part of the recipe for success involves physical, repetitive tasks that need to be done starting early in the morning. Some tasks like setting up the till, writing the menus, tidying and housekeeping are not the most enjoyable but they are necessary to keep the café looking good and operational at all times.

Beck also finds it hard to get employees to make the café a number one priority like she has. Being realistic, she has decided to accept that it may not be the number one priority – and that’s okay, as long as her employees are not slacking and are happy. Still, as the owner, it’s challenging to care so much.

A common consequence of high work engagement in people like Beck, is that there can be spill over from work to life and vice versa. Since becoming a café owner, Beck’ social life has definitely changed:

“Our regular customers are like friends now because I talk to them and see them more so than I do my actual friends. I’m introverted and at the end of the day I have to be alone because in this work I give my energy to other people all day. That affects my social life, forcing me to prioritize outings.”

Social contact all day does not necessarily equate to social support, something the work design literature would describe as a resource. Even contact with beneficiaries (i.e., customers) can be energizing or energy depleting. It depends on the person, that person’s relationship to their work, and the other person or people involved in the social interactions.

I’m intrigued by Beck’s reflections on whether she’s doing enough. This is the core of the stress in her work, and this is the flipside of caring about what you make and trying to maintain a quality café experience.

“Sometimes I still wonder why they chose us rather than the guys down the street.”

Although this work is certainly demanding than her earlier jobs in marketing, it’s clear that Beck loves her work.

“I’m proud of the people who work here and the things we make. My work feels satisfying, especially at the end of a busy day when I feel a certain sense of accomplishment. “

Bad work designs of earlier jobs helped Beck along this path of work. Beck now knows that if you’re unhappy with your work, chances are there’s something wrong with the work design, not you.

A little more...

Feedback from friends & family when starting a business

“Go for it!” said her friends and partner.

“That sounds really risky. You know most businesses fail. Cafes are really difficult to make successful. Are you sure?” said her family, with good intentions.

Yes, she was sure and once she convinced them with her business model, over the years of prepping for launch and growing the business thereafter, her family has supported the business with investment money, time washing dishes, and employment (Beck’s sister manages the store). “A previous chef whom I met at the gym helped me figure out how to build out the kitchen. It was right person, right time. It’s funny, the more people you tell you want to do something, the more people can offer their assistance. It’s important to actually talk about what you want to do because then the right people will listen.”

Feedback of all sorts, except one.

Feedback comes to Beck about her employees from online customer reviews, word of mouth customer referrals, seeing reluctant meat-eating customers leave very pleasantly surprised. Beck compliments her staff immediately when they do something well, and provides private feedback about how to improve where needed. Weekly one-on-one meetings give her a chance to have more in-depth feedback for employees. But something’s missing here, something that’s missing in most businesses. There is very little feedback directly from employees to Beck. She doesn’t hear constructive compliments from her employees when she does something well, or criticism when she needs to improve something. Discomfort with upward feedback is a common and persistent issue across many organizations.

Skill variety to mantain high customer service

The shared goal of maintaining high customer service has changed the work in a few ways. It means that people have to notice when customer service may drop, ready to take over when others are busy making food or coffee, leaving no one to take orders at the till. This changes the work design to include more skill variety because talking to a customer involves different skills from making a short mac. This also means role ambiguity, where you, the employee must be aware of what’s happening and know when to step in. Trying to outline what people need to do during the day was really hard at first for Beck. Employees often ask, “What should my priority be? Should I be clearing tables or doing dishes?” This is an example of role ambiguity, wherein there’s uncertainty about what you versus other people are responsible for doing at work. Autonomy and flexible work roles tend to create role ambiguity, but that ambiguity can get resolved through experience and learning on the job. It’s something that they gauge over time to see the different areas to move between during the day. Although it is difficult at times for people to get employees to embrace role sharing in the café, Beck has remained steady in giving her employees the autonomy they’re not used to enjoying.

“I really trust my staff, and chefs I’ve hired have commented on that. I don’t know how to be a chef, so why would I try to tell you how to do your job?”

Behind the Scenes

Despite the mid-afternoon “lull” there are people eating at a few tables, and several with their coffee of choice, filling up 75% of the seating area. The window wall is folded back to create an indoor/outdoor space separated by a standing bar where you can look outside, or in to the back of the kitchen because there are virtually no walls inside the café. The place is hip, and has service that’s friendly, not fake. There’s an authenticity you can sense in the materials, space, place and people. In architecture, they call it “truth in materials” to use real wood rather than composite made to appear to be wood.

The founder and owner of Pearth Organic Café has glasses with clear frames, blonde hair, and a presence that give you a sense that she’s present, friendly, and grounded. Customers, who’ve had limited interactions with her, will frequently will say things like, “My friend started this café on Cambridge Street.” Although this seems odd, in a weird way, it makes sense.

Beck gets at least one request per day from people asking for a job at the café because they like the vibe of the place. We can’t confirm a perfect work design for such a café, but if people want to work somewhere, then the work design is probably better than the crap jobs Beck experienced in the past.

Jeremy - The Happy Tip Attendee

How Working in A Rubbish Dump Can Be A Great Job

Jeremy scored his job as 9/10 (with ten being the most fantastic job imaginable).

The rubbish dump is located on about 15 acres of land, several kilometres from a holiday town. Jeremy is the tip attendee. Immediately we get out the car, our noses are hit by the stench of something awful, which we later discover to be fish offal. And yet, just ten minutes later, as we sit in his office on recycled sofa chairs, Jeremy announces that his job as a tip attendant is “the best job ever”.

But how can this be? Working with garbage is a classic example of what scholars have called ‘dirty work’, or work that is physically, socially, or morally tainted[1]. In the case of garbage, the taint is physical because of the need to handle noxious materials that are often seen as disgusting. And yet Jeremy scores his job as a “nine out of ten” (with ten being the most fantastic job imaginable). What explains this?

The answer lies partly in work design....

First, the job has a relaxed pace with considerable freedom, especially compared to Jeremy’s previously stressful and time-pressured work as a plumber.  Certainty, there can be busy days in the tip during the summer holidays, with as many as 30 cars coming in to drop off and sort their rubbish. But there are often quiet days in the winter, with just two to three cars coming to the tip, giving Jeremy some time to do exercise, read, make things, or chat with customers (“this place is a social hub”).

Second, by enhancing the recycling of waste, the job provides Jeremy with the chance to make a positive difference. As we walked around the site, Jeremy explained the different piles of materials for recycling. Things that people might want to re-use, such as in-tact tables and chairs, were pulled apart from the piles and clearly displayed in an effort to tempt people to take them home. Indeed, just as we packed up to leave, two teenage boys arrived to try out the discarded bikes.

A local customer who has been going to the rubbish tip for many years observed how much the tip has improved in recent years: “It used to be revolting – all the rubbish just in one big pit with plastic and other stuff getting blown into the nearby bush. Its 100% better now”.

Third, the job is one in which Jeremy has had sufficient autonomy to craft his work to suit him[2]. He described his excitement when someone brings in “good rubbish” like metal and wood, which he can sort through to extract materials for his home-building, or indeed, to create a more interesting and comfortable work place. Jeremy's office (a tin shed) is furnished with interesting reclaims from the tip, such as comfortable sofas for visitors, an aeroplane sculpture made from beer cans, and exercise equipment for quiet times.

And outside the shed, amongst the trees (and far from the fish offal bin), Jeremy has recycled thrown-away materials to create a beautiful space in which shells dangle between branches, beer bottle lids snake their way up tree trunks, and a punching bag rocks in the breeze. There is even a tip rooster which was dropped off as rubbish by someone, but that – with Jeremy’s blessing - has made the tip its home.

All in all, by the time we leave, we agree with Jeremy: he has a well-designed job that is a perfect fit for him. Just as important, Jeremy’s work delivers great value for all of us -  with 20,000 plastic bottles being purchased around the world every second[3] - effective waste recycling is a vital issue for the future of our planet.

A little more..

Will this job ever be carried out by a robot?

“No”, says Jeremy. He explained that it is a unique job, a job involving person skills, getting the right balance between being friendly and sociable, but also knowing how to keep out of people’s business. We think he is right. With no computer in sight, and Jeremy readily admitting he “has never sent an email in his life, wouldn’t even know how”, this job seems safe from a technological takeover for some time to come.

Jeremy’s art work has caused him grief.

A few years previously, some natural art studios had emerged along some of the local paths near the holiday town, with beautiful shell-covered wish-makers and other glorious works. I took international visitors to see not just the art, but the Australian-like anarchy of the display. Jeremy was the designer, I discovered, so when the art has mysteriously disappeared this year, I wanted to know why. Jeremy explained how it had “just disappeared” one winter’s night – that some person or people had stolen it, for what purpose, with what motive, he had no idea. This theft was devastating for Jeremy, and he hasn’t made any major art since. Before we left, he suggested that he ‘might get back into it’. We certainly hope so.

Behind the scenes

References

[1] Ashforth, B. E., & Kreiner, G. E. (1999). “How can you do it?”: Dirty work and the challenge of constructing a positive identity. Academy of Management Review, 24(3), 413-434.

[2] Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179-201.

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change

Working in a Contact Centre

"You’re Supposed to Collect Money, Not Help People!”

This job was rated by our participants as 8/10 on average (10 being the best job you can imagine).

Contact centre work often conjures up an image of being attached to a headset at a desk responding to irate, difficult people, attempting to meet impossible hourly targets. A strict daily regimen is often in place, with all breaks logged and timed to the minute, with consequent negative effects for workers[1]. Autonomous, developmental, progressive, work, it is not!

So, when we were invited to spend some time inside an award winning contact centre, we were curious to find out what the work was like.   

Tammy has been working at the Centre for several years. Her role involves following up people who have not been able to pay their bills. She is quick to point out the inappropriateness of the term ‘debt collector’, and that the best thing about her job is ‘the chance to help people’. As she says this, Tammy whispers ‘don’t tell anyone!’, whilst looking fervently at her boss… She tells us her boss would say: ‘You’re supposed to collect money, not help

Tammy has a strong sense of making a positive impact she goes about her daily work of helping others to reduce their debt, telling them about benefits they could be entitled to, and even knocking on doors to check that people are okay. Believing that your job is worthwhile and important, referred to as ‘task significance’, is a central aspect of motivating work design. One research study showed that -  when call centre workers saw how the donations they collected led to a benefit for others (e.g., by funding scholarships for underprivileged students) -  their wellbeing and performance improved,[2] showing the power of task significance in a job.    

Tammy also told us how individual and team performance is openly tracked, and showed us the performance charts on the windows and walls. She described how her colleagues pull together to support each other, rather than competing amongst themselves. ‘We are a team, so we should be helping each other to pull ourselves up’ says Tammy. Consistent with Tammy’s views, research shows that social support and feedback-on-the-job can enhance wellbeing and performance[3].

Whilst Tammy clearly enjoyed her job, rating it an 8 out of 10, she did note some frustrations. For example, she said ‘I have to follow the rules here’, and there is sometimes a lack of autonomy. Tammy also noted that clients can be tough: ‘the challenge is the stubborn (people)… I need to go to their house and visit them’. Time management is important: ‘we have to tell ourselves what is important, prioritise our time’.  

Christine, one of the managers, rated her job eight out of ten.

While jobs with low autonomy and high workload are characteristic of poor quality jobs and can lead to stress and ill health[4], this isn’t the whole story. Social support can buffer the effect of high workload, allowing people to perform well despite the pressure of time and a long ‘to-do’ list. As for  autonomy, a little bit of probing revealed that Tammy is actually able to control some important things about her job. She can choose what she says to customers and how she talks to them, and has some control over when and how she carries out different tasks. She can also express preferences for certain tasks to her supervisor.

Tammy’s case shows that – even though the situation is rather unusual in this sector – it is possible to have a well-designed and motivating job in a contact centre[5].

References

[1] Taylor, P., & Bain, P. (1999). ‘An assembly line in the head’: Work and employee relations in the call centre. Industrial Relations Journal, 30(2), 101-117.

[2] Grant, A. M. & Sonnentag, S. (2009). Doing good buffers against feeling bad: Prosocial impact compensates for negative task and self-evaluations. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 111, 13-22.

[3] Humphrey, S., E., Nahrgang, J. D., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007). Integrating motivational, social and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature. Journal of Applied

[4] Parker, S. K. (2014). Beyond motivation: Job and work design for development, health, ambidexterity, and more. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 661-91 doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115208

[5] For an example of how work in a call centre can be redesigned to be more positive, see Holman, D. and Axtell, C. (2016). Can job redesign interventions influence a broad range of employee outcomes by changing multiple job characteristics? A quasi-experimental study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 21(3), 284-295

[6]Holman, D. and Axtell, C. (2016). Can job redesign interventions influence a broad range of employee outcomes by changing multiple job characteristics? A quasi-experimental study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 21(3), 284-295

[7] Groshek, J., Cutino, C. & Walsh, J. (2016, April 7th). Customer service on hold: we hate phone menus and don’t trust virtual assistants like Siri. The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/customer-service-on-hold-we-hate-phone-menus-and-dont-trust-virtual-assistants-like-siri-51017

A little more...

Will this job ever be carried out by a robot?

Working on the phones requires constant interaction with technology, from the headsets themselves to the computers and computer programs required for dealing with queries, monitoring calls, and finding out information for customers.

One worker, Rose, told us how new technology is ‘coming in all the time’, describing how they’d ‘just started doing text messages to remind people’. Rose explained how she could now send texts to people driving cars or doing other tasks, containing information discussed in the call and important details they might need later.

When asked if she thought humans would eventually be redundant in this job, with robots doing all the work, she said ‘I don’t believe (so)…you can’t fully automate a peoples’ business…there could be left-field queries which a robot isn’t going to be able to answer’.  Rose is likely to be right: a study found that 90% of people want to speak to a living, human, customer service agent in order to get queries dealt with[1]. Interactive voice response systems (so-called ‘robo-calls’, automated menus, etc.), are particularly hated by the majority of people, with 35% rating social media, and 29% rating virtual assistants, as being the least trusted4.

It seems that - until we invent a robot which can think, act, respond, and feel like a human - this job is safe.

[1] Groshek, J., Cutino, C. & Walsh, J. (2016, April 7th). Customer service on hold: we hate phone menus and don’t trust virtual assistants like Siri. The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/customer-service-on-hold-we-hate-phone-menus-and-dont-trust-virtual-assistants-like-siri-51017

Developmental opportunities

The company in which Tammy works invests a great deal of time and effort in training, coaching and supervising workers. Christine, a manger at the company told us how those on the telephones get regular one-to-one supervision and coaching sessions in which employees can learn and improve skills. Academic research has shown that feedback in contact centres can lead to improved job performance and well-being[1] and this certainly seems to be the case here. Some teams also have highly varied skillsets, comprising trainers, coders, and managers. Nationally-recognised training courses are also available, and individuals can explore career opportunities in other parts of the business. Such investment in developmental opportunities indicates a company values its employees. 

[1]Holman, D. and Axtell, C. (2016). Can job redesign interventions influence a broad range of employee outcomes by changing multiple job characteristics? A quasi-experimental study. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 21(3), 284-295

Behind the scenes

by Caroline Knight

From the outset, our preconceptions about contact centres were shattered. The building is striking as a modern, quirkily shaped, specially designed, one storey workspace, with large glass doors leading to a reception area. Inside, the design features are equally modern, with open plan desks and break out spaces with cheery, colourful chairs. It seemed to us that this was a place where the importance of a pleasant working environment was definitely considered in the building design.

We were welcomed warmly by one of the managers, and quickly made to feel at home, with a tour round the building, introductions to staff, and drinks offered. A general background hum of activity was present at all times, though the volume was pleasantly muted given the number of people on the phones at any one time.

We were lucky enough to interview two very passionate and enthusiastic workers, and a manager. We were particularly overwhelmed by how excited and pleased they were to see us, with one person positively jumping up and down with excitement at getting to meet our Artist in Residence, Lynne. She told us how she’d been reading all about Lynne on the internet. She even insisted we all posed for a photo she could show her family. This wonderful reception, and the colourful, enthusiastic and passionate interviewees we met certainly made a refreshing, lasting impression on us.