Category: BCM313

Completing my final presentation and interview was an experience that taught me a lot about myself and the person I was interviewing. It opened up my eyes to stared experiences and also taught me that active listening is one of the largest parts of our community today.

I decided to Interview Hayley Taylor, my coworker from an old publishing house that we both used to work at, over zoom. I wanted to gain an insight into what Hayley’s opinion on toxic work culture was and how this opinion had changed overtime.

In preparation for this interview, I sent Hayley a few key points that I wanted to delve into. These covered who Hayley is, how our connection was formed, how Hayley’s path has changed and what her future looks like. I also decided to take the route of touching on overwork and toxic work relationships. Hayley had decided to pick up early in her publishing career and turn towards a career inTV journalism, a role that she has never regretted taking. She has attributed this to the key points below:

1. Turning away from toxic overworking habits
2. Prioritising her life and her relationships
3. Reevaluating what work means to her
4. Making her dreams a reality

Hayley and I discussed how overwork is a very real and toxic culture in the job market at the moment. We turned the discussion into how important this topic was and how vital it is that we are taught how to deal with toxic emotions in the workplace early. BCM313 had taught me a lot in regards to this, always directing workplace culture overtime and leaning towards an attitude of safe working levels, despite the growing reliance on technology and the expectancy to be constantly working.

Hayley reinforced that toxic work cultures were a thing of her past. She explained how she was wrapped up in “being the best” and “always put her relationships second to her job” in order to climb the corporate ladder. But what does this get us at the end of the day? Hayley stated that it was vital for young people to realise that they could work as hard as possible and burn themselves out and some companies would still find a replacement for them within a week. Although some jobs see people as just a number, we have to turn away from this idea and make sure we aren’t thinking of ourselves this way.

My interview with Hayley was one that informed me of workplace cultures and refreshed me in the sense that I was made to believe that we don’t have to adhere to this. We can choose tot urn away from these norms and pick a lifestyle that is healthy and fulfilling while still having the career we choose.

Thank you!

Story 1

Beginning my first full-time job was a challenge to say the least. I had just come out of a casual job that I had become so comfortable in that it was second-nature to a job wherein a LOT of people relied on my consistent effort and work input. I was picking everything up by my 4th month until I made quite a large mistake that shook the belief I held in my abilities and affected the way I thought people viewed me. To put it quite simply- I felt awful. Instead of letting this mistake ruin my entire workday I decided to sit with it for 30 minutes. I stepped away from my work, had a coffee, (cried) and then picked myself back up and continued on. There were consequences and I had to reassure my manager and myself that I would learn from this mistake and pay more attention to detail in the future. I listened to what my manager had to say about why the mistake wasn’t great but also communicated that I was sorry and that I would try again. I wanted to create the impression that I wasn’t out of control and knew how to handle tough situations while mainly staying self-aware. At the end of the day, we are all working and we all make mistakes so I have used this experience to remind myself of exactly that. 

Story 2

As I previously stated, starting full-time work this year has been challenging. Learning an entirely new role while balancing family, friends, university and self-care has been one of the biggest challenges of all. I found myself starting to fade quickly. I was becoming moody, making mistakes at work, falling out of touch with friends and losing touch with myself and what I liked to do in my spare time. I decided something had to be done. I took this issue to my tutors at the time and explained my situation and was assured that nothing was wroth risking my wellbeing. I took a step back to reset. Instead of leaving university to the last minute, I chipped away at assignments throughout the semester. When I was at work, I focused completely and at 5pm, I logged off and had my me-time. I found my happiness growing and I started to find myself again. I want to be the best worker I can be but that can only happen if I am the best version of myself first.

Story 3

Coming from a casual job where communciation wasn’t the object of the day, moreso pouring beers for customers, learning new styles of interacting was a huge challenge. I didn’t quite understand email etiquette, how the tone changed between formal and informal when it came to Teams and don’t even get me started on Zoom (camera on or off?!). I felt like I was speaking a different language to everyone else for the first 2 months of my job. I knew the only thing to do to rectify this issue was to tune in to my surroundings. I started to pay clear attention to how everyone else communicated and matched their tone in emails and meetings. If I wasn’t sure, I asked in a friendly, confident but polite manner and it hasn’t failed me since. I figured that the only thing I could do was to be confident and when in doubt, always ask questions. This was I gave off the impression that I cared enough to ask about what others are comfortable with while remainly professional and light in my mannerisms. 

Essay

When deciding what to expand on for this part of our assignment I really wanted to sit back and think about my experiences as a young person who is new to full-time employment. I thought about all the challenges I had experienced and decided that I wanted to expand more on communication and emotions in the workplace. As I previously said, communication is something we do everyday in the smallest of ways, however, it isn’t something that is always relied heavily upon in every workplace. Previously, my main focus at work was clocking in and ensuring everything was clean and customers had their products. Going from this automotive job to a role that relied on my communication skills and interactions with others was quite a jolt. This challenge allowed me to really relate to week five’s topic of ‘emotional labour and professionalism in the workplace’.

As a person, I have always been quite good at regulating my emotions and communicating. I have found picking up on social cues quite easy which I feel lucky to do because I understand this isn’t easy for everyone, especially in new environments. I found discussions in week five around emotional labour and the role of communication (Bowles, 2022) at a human level, extremely close to how I feel on a daily basis. The reason I decided to discuss this topic was because I really resonated with the quote “As we’ve moved through the semester, we’ve stepped further from the factory floor or coffee shop towards the kinds of workplaces that we associate with professionalism.” (Bowles, 2022). This is exactly how I felt regarding my transition from working casually to full-time.

The main concept that I had to come to terms with was navigating other people’s emotions in the workplace. This is called emotional labour (associated with sociologist Arlie Hochschild). I found it interesting that workers are having to hide their authentic feelings in order to optimise the workplace experience. I can recall during the first week on at my new job, having to regulate my emotions and almost put a blocker on what I was truly feeling in order to act professional and make a good first impression to my new coworkers. I found this challenging as I wasn’t sure how casual I could be, how to address my superiors and how to properly communicate with buyers outside of my immediate working group. Feeling on edge like this led to feelings of anxiety and doubt within myself. I decided to delve a little bit further into this topic by reading ‘The concept creep of emotional labor’ by Arlie Hoschchild (2018) which absolutely struck a chord with me. I have always struggled with  the concept of imposter syndrome and reading up on why this might truly helped.

Emotional labour being described as “the unpaid, invisible work we do to keep those around us comfortable and happy” (The Atlantic, 2018) was the perfect description for me. The work we put into mediating ourselves for others in the workplace can be draining! My imposter syndrome was really taking a toll. I found asserting myself and asking for what I needed while remaining professional really hard and found common ground with what Hoschchild was saying when they stated “If in the course of asserting yourself you find that you are having to brace yourself against imagined criticisms, or people are looking disapproving and you realize your job may be in jeopardy, all of that bracing and anticipation and experience of anxiety I would count as yes, emotional labor”(2018). I realised I needed to respect my emotions and tune in to what my mind was telling me at work and if this was a true representation of what was happening at the time. I decided the best thing to do was ask my coworkers how they felt about my work and take their answers on board to reduce the tension and stress I may have been feeling unnecessarily.

The idea that professional work would lead to a higher esteem in society and in funds also added to the stress I felt at work. Balancing the pressures of uni while trying to establish myself in my job was proving to be an emotional labour that I was starting to crack under. The differing ideas of professionalism also blurred this line even further for me because this led to taking on the toll of figuring out what was expected of me at work. It was comforting to see that “emotions being difficult to manage” (Bowles, 2018) was acknowledged in this week’s content. I have found the most useful way to combat these internal pressures (that mainly come from within) is to talk to my coworkers and communicate expectations because at the end of the day, we aren’t saving lives, we are all trying to accomplish the same task. Sometimes it’s not about taking all the pressure we feel off of ourselves, but having that pressure respected and acknowledged that matters. 

Personal development and change in the workplace is an idea that, before this year, I was completely unfamiliar with. Pre-2022 I was quite happy to potter along in my casual job that I had held for over 3 years, studying full-time and drowning in spare time. Of course I had to come to terms with adjusting to work in different ways during this time (hello COVID). I was one of the lucky few who kept their job as I was deemed an ‘essential worker’ but university life had changed to a technology wonderland. I had to adapt to Twitter (follow me here, shameless plug), Zoom and Discord and what seemed like a thousand other superhero sounding names for communicating with my peers online. Although I knew this was an adjustment, I had no idea what change was until I started my first full-time job this year.

When I first got the email notification for my job interview, I was going through a really stressful period of change. My casual job environment had turned toxic with staff shortages and what seemed like a lack of real care for the health and safety of staff. I thought it seemed like as good a time as any to accept an interview at my current workplace, my thought process being that I would use the interview as experience for future offers and I would continue my studies until the end of the year (graduation). This plan was great, until I was offered the job. I knew I had a huge decision to make, one filled with change and turmoil but I knew that if I didn’t accept this opportunity, I would regret it forever. I tuned in to the part of myself that values new experiences and the need to build my career and I said YES! Looking back, I’m so glad that I made this decision, however, the change that I have experienced, especially in the balance of personal life and overwork has been overwhelmingingly relevant. 

When week 3’s topic regarding ‘Remembering conversations and the problem of overwork’ (Bowles, 2022) emerged, I immediately felt a connection with what we were discussing. I took vivid notes and repeated quotes from my peers like mantras. 

“I’m exhausted but I know it’ll be worth it when I have the career I want”

“The technology at my work is insane, I’ve had to learn to adapt in so many ways”

“Full time work is so different to my café job, it’s panic-inducing”

I resonated with everything I heard and found so my connections to my own story. I really want to begin by touching on the idea of “the norm of a five day working week plus a two day weekend” (Bowles, 2022) and how this has offered a longstanding “means of balancing the twin risks of overwork and underwork” (Bowles, 2022). Before my full time job offer I was entirely accustomed to the idea of casual work and having what seemed like endless free-time. I could balance uni work while also earning my wage each week without even considering the idea of a “burnout”. This idea is supported in the quote “when I was at university casual work was the perfect option for me to bring in an income working around the demands of studying” (MentorYou, 2022). I started to truly feel the shift of working on my life when Monday-Friday whilst juggling a part time uni load became a very real thing. I used my transport time to write assignments, my self-care time to join tutorials and my work-time trying to build a sustainable career. I started to burn-out and quickly. 

This idea of working and ‘hustle’ culture can be extremely toxic. An idea that resonates with me personally is the idea of quiet-quitting, which implements perfectly with what we have been discussing surrounding our week 3’s idea of overwork. This was described perfectly in the statement “workers are deciding to work within the hours they are paid” (Bowles, 2022). What’s wrong with that? This ideology that is ingrained in us (and especially me) is that we have to be the hardest working in the room to make it in niche industries and we have to be tech savvy to keep up with latest trends. I really struggled with the idea that work could now follow me home and that I was ever only a phone call away. I saw messages such as “away from my desk for a personal day, will be on emails intermittently throughout the day!”. I found myself losing interest in the things that made me who I was and was instead thinking about work and stressing about being better at all hours of the day. 

The BBC states “If you take a plant and put it in a pot and don’t water it and give it lousy soil and not enough sun, I don’t care how gorgeous the plant was to begin with – it isn’t going to thrive” (Lufkin, 2021). This can be said about how I have found the shift from working casually to having multiple people depend on me doing my job. I have found it extremely helpful in my first 3 months of work to challenge myself to not get swept up in overwork. To step outside, get some sun and close the screen at 5pm. It’s something that I am constantly trying to better myself in but we must think critically about how we are working to change the cycle.

References–

Ball, J., 2022. Council Post: Hustle Culture Can Be Toxic—Here’s How To Navigate It Successfully. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/03/31/hustle-culture-can-be-toxic-heres-how-to-navigate-it-successfully/?sh=7fbb632244e1&gt; [Accessed 24 August 2022].

Bowles, K 2022, ‘Remembering Conversations’ Moodle slides, BCM313, University of Wollongong, viewed 19 August 2022.

Lufkin, B., 2021. Why some narcissists actually hate themselves. [online] Bbc.com. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210414-why-some-narcissists-actually-hate-themselves&gt; [Accessed 26 August 2022].

Mentor You | Website. 2022. THE BENEFITS OF A CASUAL JOB FOR SCHOOL STUDENTS | Mentor You. [online] Available at: <https://mentoryou.com.au/the-benefits-of-a-casual-job-for-school-students/&gt; [Accessed 28 August 2022].

World Health Organisation. 2019. Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases&gt; [Accessed 22 August 2022].

Hi everyone!

It’s really quite exciting to be writing this blog post because the future of work is something we all need to be interested in (and it’s my final semester! Yay!). I want to kick off my online presence by quickly chatting about a skill that i’ve learnt, both through uni and by naturally growing in life within my family, friend and work circles.

When I was younger I would find sparking conversation in a natural and confident way really quite difficult. I would find having to speak to strangers or in front of large groups of people almost impossible. Not being comfortable enough to develop this skill made uni life hard to manage because this was a huge part of communicating, especially post-COVID. I knew that something had to be done about this so instead of running away from opportunities that involved public speaking, I turned towards them. I practised until my feigned confidence turned into real-life confidence.

Nurturing this skill, while still not perfect, has made my work-life and personal life noticeably better. Having the ability to communicate clearly and with confidence is vital and it is a skill I found helped immensely with assignments and even the job interview that I undertook to score my dream job. I’m continuing to learn and grow this skill and i’m consistently open to receiving help with this from other people, something that was once impossible for me to do.