Identifying origination

Origination can be identified in Max’s actions very early in his placement. It is striking during this period because it involved generating work for oneself as one was only becoming acquainted with the work itself.

The first kitchen in which Max worked was Kaven’s. On the first two days in the kitchen, Max mostly watched the goings-on as workers worked. The only time he did not do so was when fresh produce was delivered and Max was tasked to cut them. When these tasks were completed, Max resumed his role as an observer of the activity of workers. Towards the end of two days of watching, Max started to contribute to work activities without having been instructed by anyone to do so.

Extracts 6.1-6.3 provide examples of Max attempting to contribute to the activity of workers. In Extract 6.1, Toh was stir-frying ingredients for two pasta orders. Max watched as he did so and then retrieved the pasta from the working chiller so that it was readily available for Toh to cook with the ingredients:

Extract 6.1

Orders for a linguine and spaghetti dish come in and Toh throws the ingredients together in a pan. Max stands by and watches. Then he retrieves the pasta from the working chiller and sets it aside near the stove where Toh was cooking. When Toh is done stir-frying the ingredients, he puts it aside. Toh explains that these dishes were for main courses and he was waiting for the order to ‘fire’ (i.e. to start cooking the ingredients with the pasta). (FN, Kaven’s, 121003)

In Extract 6.2, Max anticipated the next step in Weng’s work activity and prepared the plates for the latter’s dishes:

175 Max and I are back at Kaven’s (from the split-shift break). Weng is here cooking. There are three orders waiting. Weng is the only cook here now and Max tries to help by taking out the plates from the warmer and placing them on the service table. Weng tells him it was too early to do so. Max puts the plates in the oven - the plates need to be hot when food is served on them. (FN, Kaven’s, 121004)

In Extract 6.3, Max removed a pizza from the oven and proceeded to carry out the next step of slicing the pizza in preparation for it to be served:

Extract 6.3

Max looks in on the pizza in the oven and removes it. He places it on the pizza work table and starts to slice it but he makes a mistake slicing the pizza into uneven pieces. Samy salvages the situation by making eight slices out of the pizza instead of the usual six. (FN, Kaven’s, 121003)

Max’s actions in these extracts are notable in a number of ways. All of them involved Max acting out of his own volition to generate work for himself. The actions of retrieving the pasta for Toh, taking the plates for Weng, and removing and slicing the pizza which was Samy’s work were undirected by the chefs; Max acted simply of his own accord. These actions were neither random nor irrelevant. They were purposeful, deliberate and contributed to a specific activity in the kitchen. They responded to ongoing activities by anticipating and producing next steps in the work process; Max judged where in the work flow he could insert himself and the way in which he could do so. These unsolicited, self- directed and purposeful actions are what I have termed as ‘origination’.

It is also worth noting that Max’s originations were acknowledged and responded to by the workers. For example in Extract 6.1, Toh’s explanation for not completing the cooking of the order was arguably a response to Max’s origination. Toh noted that Max had retrieved the pasta for him and provided an explanation for not taking it and working on it immediately. Likewise in Extract 6.2, although again no words were spoken by Max, his origination prompted Weng to verbally respond to it and provide the information that it

176 was carried out before it was time. Finally in Extract 6.3, Max’s origination which involved a mistake was immediately noted by Samy who attempted to correct the error.

We can also note that the actions of doing and watching, described in the preceding chapter as actions that trainees engaged in as part of their ‘work’ in the kitchens, were often mutually involved in origination. Origination clearly involved doing a physical action but in addition it also entailed watching. To originate, it was necessary to ‘tune in’ to work situations in order to contribute meaningfully to them. Having watched the goings-on in the kitchen and developed a ‘situational understanding’ (Eraut 2004:264), Max was aware of or could anticipate tasks that needed to be done; and he produced the next steps in the work process. To illustrate, in Extract 6.1, Max judged from the order tickets that Toh was cooking the pasta orders and, watching Toh as he cooked, Max anticipated that Toh would soon go on to cook the pasta and he retrieved the pasta for him. Max had also watched and noted the particular working chiller (there were two columns of four drawers each of these chillers) from which to pick up the pasta.

Origination throughout the kitchens

Max’s originations occurred throughout the kitchens. Extracts 6.4 and 6.5 provide examples from other kitchens. In these extracts, Max completed his tasks, looked for an activity that required doing and originated. In Extract 6.4, he originated the washing of plates and utensils which were needed by the workers as they cooked and in Extract 6.5, he originated by helping Aaron with the basil leaves:

Extract 6.4

Max has finished mashing the potatoes. He cling-wraps the trays of mashed potatoes. Max looks around the kitchen. He goes to the sink and washes the plates and utensils there. (FN, Maurie’s, 121117)

177 Max prepares and serves a fish and chips order. He returns to the island work station and puts on a pair of gloves. He helps Aaron pluck the stalks off the basil leaves. (FN, Prome, 130122)

In Extract 6.6, Max reported to the kitchen following the split-shift break and watched as Mei worked on a beef stew. Anticipating that she would soon run out of bowls, he originated by readying trays of empty bowls and bringing them to her. He had also rightly judged the next action of cling-wrapping and putting the soups aside, and he originated on this as well:

Extract 6.6

Max reports at Maurie’s and goes to the stoves. He stands beside Mei as she scoops beef stew into soup bowls in preparation for the event this evening. He brings her trays of empty bowls and when she has filled a tray of bowls, he cling- wraps the tray and puts it aside. (FN, Maurie’s, 121130)

In originating, Max found work for himself when none was forthcoming from workers. It is likely that his originations stemmed from not wanting to feel ‘useless’ in the kitchens. In a conversation on our way to work one morning after Max had spent much of his time watching and not doing, I asked him how he felt about work placement and he replied glumly that he felt like a ‘废人’ (useless person) because he had not been doing much in the kitchen. Conceivably, Max’s originations were in part a result of fighting this feeling. Given Max’s personality and as his record of taking leadership roles at college showed, I also suspected that it was because Max was not the sort to sit back and simply wait for something to happen. Max’s passion for cooking and his hopes of carving out a career in the industry may also have led him to seek ways of contributing to work and potentially learning more at placement.

Having defined and described the concept, I turn now to exploring ‘origination at work’. When they were smoothly carried out, evident in the implicit validation from workers and the absence of disruption to work processes, originations implied that the actions inserted

178 well into ongoing work and produced the trainee as a good fit in the work situation. When originations involved mistakes, the mistakes were rectified before the trainee and this facilitated their development of new understandings about work. Originations ranged on a cline from simple, basic and ad-hoc tasks to sophisticated acts that claimed work responsibilities to oneself and legitimated their presence in the work setting. As an unsolicited and autonomous action, origination carried a certain risk for trainees-as- newcomers as it eschewed the safety and conventionality of carrying out orders when directed and doing only what one were told to do. It involved a paradox for trainees and required careful management. These topics are discussed in the following sections.