Work satisfaction is a recipe for success
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The autobiography of the television chef and restauranteur Rick Stein is a reminder that work can be fun, even if it involves performing under pressure day after day.
I’m not talking about the latter stages of his book, Under a Mackerel Sky, where Stein has become a personal food brand – like Nigella, Jamie and Heston – who trots around the globe in pursuit of taste sensations and gourmet adventures.
I am more interested in the early- to- mid stages where Stein starts out with a dodgy mobile disco playing in hired halls, then moves on to a dodgy nightclub at Padstow in Cornwall, which attracted plenty of hard-drinking fishermen and other rough types.
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His early restaurants were a bit rugged as well, with six people working in a tiny kitchen that steamed in summer.
“In winter you wore an overcoat. I heard much later that at least one enterprising Padstonian used to nip in the back door when no one was looking and help himself to two or three lobsters from the tanks, then come on later to sell them to us.”
Now, not everybody can work at something they love doing. And successful people – from Bill Gates to Richard Branson to Rick Stein – usually have a personal creation-myth. Nobody confesses to having been born with a silver spoon in mouth (or in hand).
But Stein’s career can be tracked and some personal confessions ring true.
Chef Rick Stein. Photo: Getty
Life lessons
“I’ve realised now after many years that I’m not naturally a bad-tempered person, nor are most chefs,” writes Stein. “It’s just that the conditions, the coup de feu as the French call it, can be of such immense stress that the only way is to erupt. The only thing I can say is that I never hit anyone and, after I’d finished letting off steam, I always apologised.”
Stein stresses that he loved the camaraderie of putting on a nightly show in the restaurant, and then letting off steam afterwards with his colleagues.
In my case, this freelancer writer misses the banter and the high spirits of working in a newsroom, particularly when things are humming.
Not like the old days
Things have changed in the digital era of journalism, which has killed the idea of having one, two or even three deadlines a day. The internet means there’s always a deadline looming and you’re up against it.
I suppose what I mean is that some pressure is a buzz, but too much too often leaves you frazzled. Particularly if there’s no time, even if only briefly, to recharge and regroup before being hit with the next task, the next deadline.
One of the most tiring things is a job which is so dull that clock watching is inevitable. Ten minutes till morning cuppa, an hour till lunch. You find yourself playing the role of a mime – look, here I am working. The tension between disconnected thought and deed is very tiring.
But this column is about working at something you find interesting, even if it involves working under pressure. I’m told those sort of jobs have lower workers’ compensation claims than dead-boring but high-stress jobs (once you exclude injuries).
Smart bosses realise they need to give time for workers to regroup after working under pressure. But the modern management tendency is to treat group effort in the workplace like a tube of toothpaste, where you can keep squeezing and product keeps coming out, with no breaks.
That leaves little time for camaraderie or learning from your workmates, which is important everywhere – from newsrooms to hospital wards to factories and in commercial kitchens.
Footnote: People deserve to be properly paid, especially if they work nights and weekends. Restaurant workers deserve to make a living, not rely on tips.
Mark Skulley is a freelance journalist who is based in Melbourne. He was a reporter on The Australian Financial Review for almost 18 years, which included a decade covering national industrial relations and the world of work. He has since written for The New Daily, the Guardian Australia and other outlets.