The Australian Work Culture
What would have be the dream job of any teenager?
Being a buggy attendant at a golf club.
Your job: driving, and cleaning carts everyday. Better than flipping patties and dealing with rude customers.
And, luckily, my brother and I had those jobs.
From buggy attendant, I worked as a bar attendant, retail assistant, golf shop assistant, then a dispatcher.
At one point, I was working three jobs.
Then, six months ago, my brother and I have moved golf clubs.
I switched my role from a bar attendant to a golf shop assistant, my brother still a buggy attendant. And once only joining, we quickly became some of the best workers in the business.
It's not hard to do your best at your job. What is hard, is reversing the conditioning of what you believe is acceptable during work.
A large contributing factor to our work ethic is of our family and cultural upbringing.
With my father who worked hard to become a golf professional, my mother who worked hard to support her family back home in Indonesia, their influence gets passed down unto us.
I've also had the opportunity to see the Australian working culture.
Here are some traits that we follow:
Keep Yourself Busy
I hate doing nothing while on the job.
For some reason, I don't like the idea of being paid to do nothing, because there is always something to do and I'm choosing not to do it.
However, on the off chance there is absolutely nothing to do, I will make myself look busy.
"Denzil, isn't making yourself look busy the same as doing nothing?"
If your job is largely service based, as is mine, you have to wait for customers to serve them.
If you're doing nothing, they'll get the wrong perception of you being a lazy worker.
It's better to be always on the move, than just standing around.
To illustrate this point I'll tell a story about a fiasco at our golf range about running out of golf balls.
And, it was a Monday, midday, and it was dead quite in the pro shop.
With nothing to do, I came up with a great idea,
"Why don't I pick up golf balls on the range?"
To much of my coworkers displease, they said I would get fried out there and I should be careful about the heat and sun.
Between you and me, I thought they were being soft, because:
- There was obviously nothing for me to do in the pro shop until more customers came in.
- We have people called 'green keepers' whose sole jobs are to work in the sun and maintain the golf course.
Arguably, I've done the range during the hottest and worst part of the day. And having to pick up manually without the machine.
However, I still did it, just by the fact that I hate doing nothing.
Then, I ran into my dad at work, told him about doing the range because there was nothing to do.
He said, "Well done. Well done for keeping yourself busy."
W.
Never Refusing Work
My brother is funny.
He was willing to work at 5AM, to pick up balls for two hours, then get ready for school.
He had very right to refuse the shift, being a casual worker, but he would still go.
Even messaging one of the buggy attendants on the afternoon shift to prepare the plunger and bins for picking up.
Whether or not he wanted to, that's a different story.
Luckily, he didn't have to.
To contrast with my brother's willingness to work: it's people who don't show up for their work shifts.
I cannot imagine being rostered on, then not showing up to my work without a reason or explanation.
In fact, it wouldn't happen because I would contact them beforehand about my availability.
Apparently, it's common to happen in fast food places and supermarkets.
Maybe this is my Asian side coming out:
Money is still money.
I'll compare it to health.
People take it for granted, until it disappears.
I will admit, there were times in the past where I wanted to refuse work.
Then, my mother would scold me for turning down the opportunity to work just because I didn't feel like it.
There are people out there desperate for the job you have.
So, to think you can just not show up and be ok.
How selfish.
Your employer gives you the opportunity to work, and you think you're bigger than that by picking and choosing when work is convenient to YOU.
Get The Work Done, Then We Can Talk
I reckon this trait comes more from school that carried over to work.
Only because of the behavioural feedback of: punishment for talking, and reward for listening and putting our heads down on the school work.
Also, a respect mindset to your teachers who want to help us out.
Thus, my brother and I don't tend to talk when there's a task at hand.
Having worked at golf clubs, particularly the teenagers, some of these motherfuckers (I say that nicely) can yap.
And I have the feeling, they're yapping to delay the time to do work.
One of my brother's fellow buggy attendant said,
"You don't chat."
And he'll say,
"I just want to focus on my work."
We see work as tasks needing to be done, not a social outing with our mates.
Of course, have fun with your job.
But if something pops up, that should become priority.
The Wrong Mentality
"It's not like I need this job. It's just pocket money."
For more context, a part of my role as a golf shop assistant is managing the teenagers that clean the carts in the afternoon.
One of them said this.
I didn't say anything, perhaps falsely agreeing with them.
The idea that you don't need the job, therefore you don't fear having below average performance.
Or, it's the fact that people take their job for granted.
(Again, that Asian mentality.)
My mother, to get her first job, knocked on people's homes doors asking for a job.
She then worked at an island resort, sending most of the money back home to support her family.
No one who was raised in the Western world will have that perspective of:
Having to ride a bike four hours everyday to a factory job, being paid very little. While, cooking breakfast early in the morning, around 4-5AM, for your children before they go to school. Not being able to afford meat, just rice and vegetables. Manually, having to scrub five people worth of clothes.
That's what my grandmother did for my mother's family when living in the village.
And, you as the Western kid have the audacity to think you don't need this job?
Why Do You Care So Much About Your Work?
I just do.
I cannot see any other way of doing things.
Is it a curse?
No, perhaps for the other employees, it is.
Imagine the standard being set for a while. Then, some new employees, who are high performers, come in and make you realise there is actually a new, higher standard.
And, I say this all the time:
You represent yourself, your family, and your upbringing.
I do not want the dishonour of tainting these three.
However, the idea of honouring your family and upbringing is more of an Eastern idea like the influence of Confucianism.
The individualism of the West can give the wrong impression that you can do whatever you want without the repercussion of these three pillars being affected.
Apathy, then, becomes the enemy.
And, what is the alternative?
We have such a large safety net in Australia, that there is no incentive to succeed, and no punishment for failure.
No one was going to provide a safety net for my father if he didn't put in the practice to play professional-level golf.
Neither for my mother if she didn't work to provide an income for her family.
To the ones that have no ambition, goals, and drift through life, I have a hard time sympathising.
Working hard meant the difference of achieving our goals, financially supporting our family, and learning to have a strong work ethic.