(first published in British Baker)
Sometimes I wonder whether all of the ego and macho posturing gets in the way of good baking. All of us have faced arrogance from some guys on the bakery floor when we’ve tried to implement a new system, especially when it veers away from the established routine. Have you ever thought ‘if only I could sack the lot of them and automate the production
Think of the job we get bakers to do. Forget about craft for a moment and just think about the specifics of the routine. As much as we might take pride in a beautiful loaf, many of our staff are there for quite different reasons. For some it is a job, a way to bring in some cash, or a stepping stone on the way out of what they view as labouring employment. Some staff have only known night work since leaving school, and the difficulty in maintaining a steady home and social life affects their work. Lets face up to it – we attract all sorts and for only a handful will there be a deep attraction to the craft of bread-making. Yet out of this motley crew we need to create the excellence that will give our business distinction.
I know much of the work is hard graft, but the effort of labour wont in itself pay wages and increase turnover. Unless we can find ways to attract really fine intelligent staff, become less reliant on muscle, it might become near impossible to produce talented and able bakers for the future. We as employers need to look at the job we offer and make it as attractive as possible.
One way I have found is utilising day baking. When I changed the hours of baking at ‘Baker & Spice’ to introduce long process doughs, some taking 14 – 16 hours to create, the only way it could be done was to have some bakers work during the day. Suddenly, not only were we able to offer extraordinary breads, but we started to attract a different type of baker.
Working one month of days, then one month of nights, our bakers were able to go out in the evening, meet people, and really begin to enjoy the life they saw around them. I swear the quality of the bread improved in because of this. Our staff were more open to different types of breads because they could see them in context. They could enjoy buns and croissants when they got up in the morning, they could sit down in the evening and enjoy bread with their meals. They could see their work as a good part of their lives.
The years of our youth pass very quickly, and we have a moral duty to allow our employees the time to enjoy life to its fullest. Day work is simply one way of making the job a little bit better. But by making it better we saw the problems with staff evaporate. Think about ways to change the nature of bakery employment. And I bet you, if you take this advice, you’ll have fewer staff problems and better bread from the bakery.
