Emma

Interviewee: Emma

Interviewer: Aine Connell

Date of recording: 20/7/2022

Recording location: On-line [Google Meet]; interviewer in Manchester, interviewee in Bamford in Hope Valley

Length of recording: 32:31

Subjects (key words): Psychology, university, hospitality, retail, cafe, hotel, saddlery, horses, furlough, progress, covid

Abstract:

Emma is living in Bamford and has taken up multiple part-time jobs close to home to maintain having financial independence in her life. She has gained an attitude about work from her father who urges that she must work doing something she loves. He has ensured she continues with education which she is ultimately grateful for.

Emma has worked since she was thirteen in mostly hospitality roles. She enjoys the structure it brings in her life even though she feels it may sometimes negatively impact on her social life. Part-time work has also helped with boredom and has provided her with disposable income so she can pursue her hobby of horse riding/care. She has chosen to move jobs when a better paid job opportunity comes up. She has found a job at the saddlery from a friend and her gap-year job through local advertisement.

During her gap-year, before going to Leeds to study counselling and psychology, she worked for a hotel business. They offered her a supervisor role which she considered taking as she admires her father’s work in his managerial role. However, she feels that she must continue with education as she would like a future role working in the mental health service as her ultimate goal is to help people. She believes that it is important that she finds a job in this service that does not overcharge people and suggests she would like a role working in the NHS.

Transcript summary:

[0:39-3:56]- First job, working for 4 years. Began pot washing but progressed roles in time

[3:56-8:04]: Working at the saddlery as a customer service assistant. Lockdown conditions brought the company online. One weekend shift 9-5, not under contract.

[8:04-12:20]: Talking of working during gap-year after the Saddlery, building money for University.

[12:20-14:08]: Talking about going to University in September and doing Counselling and psychology. Struggles thinking about future careers. Thinks she will gain work experience from University.

[14:08-16:10]: Asked about family’s influence on work. Dad has impact on education and work goals.

[16:10-16:55]

Asked about working at The George and progression there, offered a supervisor role would earn more responsibility and greater wage only if she stayed at home.

[16:55-19:18]

Talks about why she has chosen to go to university instead of staying at current job.

[19:18-21:30]

Talking about motivations for changing jobs in her life

[21:30-28:05]

Relationship between education, work and social life. Effects of covid, furloughed for a couple of weeks. Weekends planned out, no time to go out and meet with friends but she enjoys routine. Helps mature character. Feels like she gives 100% to her jobs, prefers hospitality jobs.

[28:05-29:04]

Talking about her brother and his attitude towards work, different attitude about hospitality.

[29:04

Influences on taking up work, enjoys financial independence. Talking about the future and what she sees herself doing.

Excerpt

[00:06:12]

EMMA

It’s a massive horse retail company. They have the online shop, where you can buy things online. And then they also have three stores at several different, like equestrian, places around, kind of around the country. And initially, I was at the head office that kind of answering phones, emails. And then the head office moved. So I moved with the office. So that then the office and the warehouse were on the same location. So usually at the weekends, I would be in the office answering the phones and stuff, and then in the week, if I wanted any extra shifts I’d then go into the warehouse and I’d pick like all the different items and bag them and ready for shipping for like all the customers that had ordered online.

[...] [00:07:00] INTERVIEWER:

And covid, managed to change your working?

EMMA:

Yeah, so I was there when I was in Covid and I was furloughed for, I think it was about three weeks? And then, they asked me like they said I didn't have to, obviously only if I was comfortable coming back, to just do warehouse work. So obviously we're in a massive, ventilated warehouse, like we could all social distance. Erm, it was only like for certain hours just, because obviously the online store was still going even though they're like the stores at the actual stores have been closed. So they still needed staff to kind of help keep this, the online store going.

INTERVIEWER:

And you didn’t mind doing this work?

EMMA:

No I didn’t really mind, because I mean we all, like we all wore like PPE and everything and we were, like I said we’re in a massive warehouse and we never really saw another person. To be honest, we kind of worked – like, two people working at once, one on one side, one on the other, so I didn’t really mind doing it. Something to do, ’cause I was so bored.

[00:07:52]

[…] [00:29:33]

INTERVIEWER:

And so you're starting uni in the hope that you'll get a career with psychology. But do you have any sort of idea what, ideally you would be doing in the next five years or something?

EMMA:

I think hopefully, erm, in psychology as there are a lot of topics within psychology and the only like one of the ones that interest me the most was their mental health topic, ’cause it was something that like you can make the most sense out of, like it seems you know it's very realistic, you see it in your day-to-day life. And so my course is about 75 per cent just general psychology. And then an extra 25 per cent is all about the counselling sides of it and the mental health effect, like mental health part of psychology. So I'm hoping I don't, I don't want to go, it's like, open up my own private practice and charge people extortion amounts to try and help them with their life – like, perhaps something like within the NHS, something like that, because I know NHS struggle for psychology workers. So, potentially something like that where I could be helping people but not also draining their bank accounts.

INTERVIEWER:

So your ultimate goal is kind of with employment to do something that makes you happy. Is that…?

EMMA:

Yeah, I think so. I think that's very, very important. Like I get it from my dad, like he's been in this job for, like, over 30 years and I asked him like how have you managed to stick with one job for that long. It's just because he loves what he does.

[00:30:52]