Emily

Interviewee: Emily Poulton

Interviewer: Archie Cornish

Date of recording: 13 July 2022

Recording location: in person at the School of English at Jessop West building.

Length of recording: 37.50.

Subjects (key words): hospitality, retail, parents, postgraduate work, social research, Sheffield, Manchester, first-generation student, Covid, working class

Abstract

Summary of conversation:

Emily is a graduate student at the University of Sheffield, studying Social Research for a Masters degree. She is currently working at Elm, a coffee shop in Broomhall. She found the job through Indeed but by coincidence it’s run by people she knows through a personal connection. She’s had a number of jobs in retail and hospitality, some of which presented challenges of intense work with precarious contracts, as well as the exacerbations of the pandemic. Her undergraduate course was at Manchester Metropolitan University studying sociology, where a progression into hospitality was both acknowledged and discouraged. University had its ups and downs socially. Emily identifies as working-class. She comes from Stannington and the majority of her family are similarly from Sheffield. Her parents were unsure about the Masters and its connection to secure employment, especially given the debt accrued, but are proud of her achievements – she’s the first to go to university in her family. We discuss precarity, what it means to have a fulfilling day at work, the differences between academic and hospitality work, comparison with peers and precarity among them, and the future.

Sequential summary:

[00.00 – 02.22] Discussion of Elm, coffee shop where EP found a job through Indeed; happens to be owned by friend’s parents; good in comparison with a previous job.

[02.22 – 04.23] Description of a previous job in hospitality held for two years; problems with flexible contracts led to struggle to pay rent; issues with upper management.

[05.10 – 09.40] Doing a part-time Social Research masters degree at Sheffield; making friends; factors of choosing empirical Social Research over sociology including transferable skills for employment; pros and cons of doing a PhD.

[09.40 – 11.11] Comparison with career paths of peers on the masters course. Civil service’s visibility in Manchester and Sheffield limited. Seen as potentially desirable job.

[11.26 – 12.28] Difficulties acclimatising to Manchester and undergraduate life; unlucky experience of housemates.

[12.14 – 14.59] Attitudes to employment from lecturers; discouragement of progression to hospitality industry; stigmas associated with that industry and bad personal experiences.

[15.00 – 17.32] Specific experiences working at Mario Lounge – long shifts and fatigue – and Amaro in Sheffield.

[17.32 – 19.48] Effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on work: evolving measures taken at work, excessive or incautious; personal hardships and losses.

[19.48 – 23.21] General background, growing up in Stannington, west Sheffield; parents work – father a bathroom fitter and mother a variety of jobs; parental concerns about a Masters degree.

[23.21 – 26.36] First in family to go to university; social barriers and prejudice at university, appearing in scattered rather than structural ways.

[27.16 – 29.48] First experiences of work, in retail at Meadowhall. Getting in the way of schoolwork and revision. Differences between academic work and the nature of work in the hospitality industry.

[30.18 – 31.20] What a good day at work, either academic or in hospitality would look like; a conversation or connection with someone.

[31.20 – 33.55] Discussion of the future: finding a job drawing on social research Masters; moving out of Sheffield, possibly to London.

[33.55 – 37.29] Comparison with peer group, who are living varied lives; example of Harry, who is persisting with education aged 24 despite having struggled a little. Moving home and its benefits and drawbacks, its difference from the standard narrative of moving in with a partner.

Excerpt

[00.15.05]

INTERVIEWER:

What was it like moving to a new city, and in general what was your undergraduate experience like?

EMILY:

It was a struggle. I think I really, really struggled in first year. I considered dropping out before Christmas. I kind of felt very unlucky with my flat. We didn’t speak – it was awful. But I was glad to be in Manchester because it meant, because it’s so close. I’d just come home all the time, and then it kind of got to the point where I was like, I need to stay and make more of an effort to meet people and I did, so kind of after Christmas in first year it did get a lot better. But throughout uni I was never really… I made a few friends and I had a good time, second year especially was really good, like I was in a house with some of my friends and enjoyed that. But I think the whole time I was a lot more focused on the actual work, which benefitted me in the long term, but yeah it was quite depressing at times, especially first year.

INTERVIEWER:

What was your experience of conversaitons about employment? What kind of provision did the university make for talking to the students about what they were going to do afterwards?

EMILY:

I can remember a specific lecture actually. I think it was in first year, and they gave this whole speech about post-university employment. And they said that quite a high percentage of Sociology graduates go into hospitality, or retail jobs, which is obviously fine for a lot of people, I’m happy in my hospitality job now, and they actually said to us, you all are not going to do that, you’ll go out and get a different, like, get something where you earn more money. But that’s the only time.

INTERVIEWER:

That’s quite a striking thing… striking way of putting it.

EMILY:

I was quite shocked by that because I thought, fair enough a lot of people will then get jobs that aren’t related to their degree, but then a lot of people don’t want to do that.

[…] [00.15.06]

It can be so tough. Like I can remember last summer, especially, when I was at my old job […], I was working, it was between like forty and fifty hours a week. It was quite a lot and a lot of those shifts were like ten or twelve hours, and where quite often I’d only have one half-hour break. So we were meant to have two half-an-hour breaks. Quite a lot of the time I’d only have half an hour in a twelve hour shift, it was ridiculous. But – and we were quite understaffed at that point, so that was why we were all working so much, because we just couldn’t hire any people. I think in like the first lockdown, or the winter lockdown sorry, a lot of hospitality staff went off and got new jobs because everyone was furloughed for so long. So we went back, didn’t have a lot of staff, all working loads and it meant we kind of, we all grew a lot closer, because we were seeing each other most days. Like, we were kind of… like I’d see them more than I’d see my friends, more than I’d see my boyfriend! Like, it was ridiculous.

[00.16.07]