” you want گھر فرائز with that French Toast?” a rogerian woman applies for a job as a waitress…the Wakefield Doctrine | the Wakefield Doctrine ” you want گھر فرائز with that French Toast?” a rogerian woman applies for a job as a waitress…the Wakefield Doctrine | the Wakefield Doctrine

” you want گھر فرائز with that French Toast?” a rogerian woman applies for a job as a waitress…the Wakefield Doctrine

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Today we present the second in our series of Posts that  look at the process of interviewing for a job, through the lens of the Wakefield Doctrine. In each of these Posts, we will set up a  job interview scenario, each in a different business sector and  look at it from the perspective of the Wakefield Doctrine. The underlying question throughout will be,  “what insight does the Wakefield Doctrine provide that will allow us to improve the chances of success in being hired in each of these situations?”

In our First Post, “Won’t you have a seat, Mr Andrews will see you in a moment“,   we examined the strategies available to a person seeking a position in what is often referred to as ‘the corporate world’.  In that first Post, we focused on the ‘pre-Interview’ phase of the employment process. With today’s Post we will stay with this convention, as it seems that, if the first episode is any indication, most Readers find the Applicant’s efforts to deal with the appointment process entertaining and instructive. Subsequent Posts in this Series, will include  interviewing for positions in the Manufacturing Sector, Service Industries and Small Businesses.

 

Small Business Environment:

….a small restaurant, in a small coastal town which is also home to the State University. With only 10 tables and an open kitchen layout  the Owner, (who is also the cook), is able to greet and interact with all the patrons. It is quite clear that he enjoys what he does, is reasonably skilled and, as a result, the business has grown rapidly. The increase in business has been surprisingly rapid and the Owner is finding that the part-time help from family and relatives is insufficient,  and so the Help Wanted: Waitress ad in the local newspaper.

…The Interviewee:

The wife of a faculty member at the University,  after a Sabbatical from Field Work, you have been unable to find employment in your area of expertise, Paleo-sociology  (and) Urdic Languages. Rather than spend another summer in the overly large home that you and your husband share with two cats, you decide that being a Waitress wouldn’t be the worst thing you could do, at least until the market for Sociologists (fluent in farsi) improves. So you call the number in the newspaper and get an appointment to meet the Owner. Wearing your best Interview suit (a subdued brown pinstripe) and carrying your trusted iPad, you set off to the restaurant, confident that you will be able to recall your undergraduate days of work-study working in the school cafeteria.
(…. oh!  do we need to mention that you are so a roger?)

(First Interaction)

The Restaurant is quite busy for 10:30 on a weekday morning. All but 2 tables are occupied, the Owner can be seen at the grill cooking, stopping to look up and wave as you enter the restaurant. He waves a spatula in the direction of the empty table near the door and goes back to cooking. There is a woman standing at the cash register, ringing out a customer.  She looks up, frowns then smiles and says, “You must be Emily! To be honest with you, I’m really kind of busy right now, but I left an application on that table over there, if you want to get started I’ll try to get over to you in a minute. We’re really kinda swamped right now”.
Looking over to the table, you see a single sheet of paper marked Application for Employment

Do you:

  • Sit at the table (not before taking out a tissue and wiping off the table top) and begin to read the Application for Employment
  • Decide that the Owner should have paused at least for a moment, and come over to properly introduce himself and even though the woman at the cash register seems nice,  they are both being rude, so you turn around and walk out of the restaurant
  • Pick up the dishes from a recently empty table and take them to what appears to be the kitchen…

The Question: if you are a roger what is likely to be your first reaction, which is the most effective strategy for getting this job. Which of the three personality types ( clark or scott or roger) is the woman ringing out the Customers? Please submit your answer (along with the reason for your picking the personality type) in the Comments section at the bottom of this Post

(Second Interaction)

…you have been sitting at the table 15 minutes (30 minutes later than the scheduled interview). The ‘breakfast rush’ has finally quieted down and the woman at the cash register brings you coffee, asks (again!) if you would like something to eat and tells you that the Owner will be over in a minute.

Do you:

  • ask the woman questions about the restaurant, how long has it been in business, what background the Owner has in the restaurant business
  • Look annoyed and ask her if it is always this busy
  • smile, hand her the Application for Employment that you have completed (and somehow stapled your curriculum vita to the slightly grease-spotted form) and say, “Thank you so much! I am sure that I will enjoy working here!”
The Question: if you are a roger, which of the above is likely to be your initial reaction and which, (of the three actions above), should be your reaction, in order to increase your chances of being successful in this Interview?
Well that should be enough to get us started! As with the first Interview, consider not only which of the three personality types the people in our scenario are, but tell us why you think they are (clarks or scotts or rogers )… and while it is helpful to know the correct way to get this particular type of job, add what you can about what the Wakefield Doctrine gives our Interviewee, in terms of tools or aids that will allow her to get whatever the hell it is that she wants…. (yes, Molly and Claire  that is a totally leading question!)
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clarkscottroger About clarkscottroger
Well, what exactly do you want to know? Whether I am a clark or a scott or roger? If you have to ask, then you need to keep reading the Posts for two reasons: a)to get a clear enough understanding to be able to make the determination of which type I am and 2) to realize that by definition I am all three.* *which is true for you as well, all three...but mostly one

Comments

  1. Molly Molly M. says:

    We have a scott cooking and the lady at the cash register is a clark.

    1. I don’t know what the roger would do, but though tempted to just fill out the application (because that is what I was directed to), I would clear tables first. I have worked in restaurants enough to know this is appreciated, and if I don’t get hired by the restaurant, maybe someone eating there will see my initiative and offer me a job.

    2. I would smile, thank her, and some form of A…

  2. Downspring#1 says:

    Alrighty then!

    The Cook: either a scott or a clark? The argument for the scott might be the hand gesture(s). scotts can really make with the hand gestures. lol But I think in this case, NOT a scott as there was nothing loud said. There was no pomp and pagentry. A scott would have made a spectacle of the situation especially with a bunch of people already in the restaurant (instant audience).
    That leaves me choosing the cook as a clark. Involved in what he is doing, he (a clark) will figure that anyone (with any intelligence) will interpret the hand gestures and the implication there of – place is busy, I know you are here and why, don’t worry about.

    Woman behind the counter: scott. She speaks first with an affirmative statement thereby taking control of the conversation. She immediately assumes the “power” position. Read this again: “I’m really kind of busy right now, but I left an application on that table over there, if you want to get started I’ll try to get over to you in a minute. We’re really kinda swamped right now”. She is telling the rogerian applicant that she the scott is busy, I’ll get to when I get to you so run along now like a good little job applicant. This is not necessarily being nasty. The woman behind the counter is being factual while at once establishing who is who.

    As to the first interaction and what a roger would do…..I’m gonna go with door number 3 Alex. A rogerian woman night pick up those dishes and as a way of ingratiating herself immediately bring them back to the kitchen. This would show that she was comfortable and already feeling a part of the group.

    [Have to run but will be back later to comment on the 2nd interaction. But before I go, would someone explain for the readers WHY (and HOW you can tell) the cook is not a roger.

  3. clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

    …trying to imagine what our Interviewee is experiencing is the fun (and daunting element) here! We are told she is a roger, and given the business suit and the iPad, we have little reason to doubt it.

    We all know that the goal is to infer the reality being experienced by ‘the other person’, but where do we start? If rogers feel ( as clarks think and scotts act) then, are her feelings (about her current lifestyle, her career opportunites, her working as a waitress) the place we should start?

    I would suggest that the answer is yes… the way our Protagonist feels about her day, and the therefore (how she feels) about the people in the world cannot but help inform her choices. (I recognise that this ‘analysis’ is inheretly flawed simply because I am talking about her and describing her choices in rational, intellectual terms…as is natural, being a clark. Having said that, we have to start somewhere and a projection into the other person’s reality, no matter how imperfect is still a step outside of our own reality).

    The Cook also represents an interesting challenge. He is performing a function that is to be found in rogers and scotts and even the occasional clark…being a cook. It is how he relates his own Cook-ihood to the world that will be our clue to knowing if he is a roger or a scott (or a clark).