Mark

“People don’t take you seriously if you are wearing a bowtie these days do they?  Especially in NZ, you get doubletakes – is he wearing a bowtie and a pocket watch? 

So I thought oh well I didn’t know everyone’s name and they are all my customers, so it’s far easier to go around greeting everyone. You could walk up to people and they’re busy looking at your bowtie and they think I’m harmless. I get to know them and charm them hopefully, and then they’ll do what I want! 

So that’s why I did it originally. because we don’t know each other. To create that sense of you are not working in isolation. This is one big team.  Now of course, they’ve got this overblown sense of entitlement!

I was born in Sheffield in South Yorkshire but I was brought up in the most rural counties in England – Dorset. So I’ve got what people might know as a west country accent. 

We wanted a change of lifestyle. I was working 14 hour days – with the 6 hour commute there and back. My wife was working as a nurse and the kids were in permanent childcare. Come the weekend we were knackered – I got depressed and it was like, why are we doing this?

I can remember arriving and it was like the England of my childhood. People would stop for a chat. I went to get a newspaper and it took me an hour and a half; my wife was worried that something had happened to me! And the number of smiling faces in traffic jams was amazing, I’d never seen that in the UK, they are a miserable bunch.

The problem is; it’s getting busier. We have got less time. And being human, it’s all about communication and connectedness and helping people. It’s not about I’ve got to get this report in, or I’ve got to get this thing done; it’s not about material things that just fall off the shelf in an earthquake – Who cares, you know.”

-Mark