Time, like organization itself (Strauss 1978; Pettigrew 1979), can be negotiated or used symbolically, and is treated as if it were concrete. The experience of time is created by workers, given the constraints on their actions (Roy 1952, 1959-1960; Roethlisberger and Dickson 1939).
Five dimensions are critical to temporal organization: periodicity, tempo, timing, duration, and sequence (Lauer 1981, pp. 28ff; see Hawley 1950 and Engel-Frisch 1943). Periodicity refers to the rhythm of the activity; tempo, to its rate or speed; timing, to the synchronization or mutual adjustment of activities (Moore 1963, pp. 45-47); duration, to the length of an activity; and sequence, to the ordering of events.
Each dimension connects to the demands of the workplace. Although they are “objective” features of time, their effects depend on how they are experienced. The workers' negotiation of these dimensions is particularly likely when temporal organization (“too much” or “not enough” time) is felt as unpleasant or dysfunctional; as a result, workers adjust their routines to increase their satisfaction while accepting organizational demands. Workers create temporal niches—to do their jobs in a satisfactory and satisfying way while “creating” personal time (Ditton 1979; Bernstein 1972). They synchronize their activities to create an efficient routine in the face of uncontrollable and unpredictable durations and tempos. Workers strive for autonomy from management's and clients' temporal demands. The structure of time is a critical means of social control.
Successful restaurants are those that use time effectively. Anyone observing a moderate-size kitchen could not miss the central position of temporal organization in defining workers' reality. Time is as important to cooking as any herb. For food to be cooked properly, the cook must be simultaneously aware of the timing of multiple tasks. Awareness of duration is essential, distinguishing a rare steak from one that is charred, crunchy vegetables from mush, and sour milk from fresh. Sequence, too, is integral to the temporal organization of cooking, as is obvious to anyone who has ever used a recipe (Tomlinson 1986). Synchronization of tasks is more complex but equally essential for preparing a plate on time. Starch, meat, and vegetables must be ready simultaneously; on the counter a product rapidly loses sensory appeal. Periodicity and tempo are linked to the pace of orders, not to the individual order.
Because of the relevance of each temporal dimension to professional cooking, restaurant kitchens are an auspicious site to investigate how temporality is tied to organizational life. Every occupation must deal with these dimensions, if not always as directly or obviously.
THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT AND RESTAURANT TIME
All organizations have a temporal structure—times when they are “peopled,” when they are “operating at full capacity,” and when they are preparing and recovering from peaks of activity. How an organization fits into the temporal life of a community provides the basis for how the organization structures the time of employees (Engel-Frisch 1943, p. 46), which, in turn, affects their emotions and attitudes.
PROCESSING THE CUSTOMER
Organizations must make products available to those who are likely to be interested; they must maintain and staff an “output boundary” (Hirsch 1972, p. 643). In the service sector an operation must be open when clients are likely to be present—when organizational “output” can be provided to clients. Clients, in turn, expect different classes of organizations to maintain different hours (e.g., banks, supermarkets, or taverns); further, they have different temporal expectations based on the location (bars in S0H0 as opposed to Salinas, or bookstores in Berkeley and Bexley). To maximize profit, the establishment needs to be closed when it is not profitable to be open (although some establishments may use long hours as temporal loss leaders, so that customers believe they are “always open”). An efficient service establishment should have no more employees on duty than necessary to cope with customer traffic (Leidner 1993, P-63) although, again, some establishments may employ more workers than needed to insure that customers will expect that they will be served quickly. Indeed, lines are often longer in “off-peak” times than at relatively busy times because fewer workers are on duty to handle the customer flow.
Operating in a highly competitive environment, restaurants must respond to the timing of customer demand, at least as perceived by management. Although regularities exist, the temporal organization of business changes from season to season, month to month, week to week, and day to day. Management's concern is to select when the restaurant will be open, a decision that may lead to organizational failure (Miller 1978). In the United States restaurants have no widely accepted times of operation, reflecting the diversity in American schedules (Melbin 1987). Few industries have regular hours—the formal “banker's hours” of a previous generation are no more, as organizations compete with each other for temporal access. Each restaurant I observed had a different schedule of operation:
Blakemore Hotel: Main Restaurant: Lunch: 11:00-2:00, Monday-Saturday; Dinner: 5:30-10:30, Monday-Saturday; closed Sunday. Coffee Shop: Breakfast and Lunch: 7:00-3:00, daily.
'La Pomme de Terre: Lunch: 11:30-2:00, Monday-Friday; Dinner: 6:00-10:00, Monday-Saturday; Brunch: 11:00-2:30, Sunday.
Owl's Nest: Lunch and Dinner: 11:00-1:00, Monday-Friday; Dinner: 4:00-1:00, Saturday; closed Sunday.
Stan's: Lunch: 11:00-2:30, Monday-Friday; Dinner: 5:00-12:00, Monday-Saturday; 3:00-10:00, Sunday.
We often classify restaurants by hours of operation: luncheonettes, all-night diners, tearooms, supper clubs. Restaurants that cater to breakfast eaters often announce that in their name: the Egg and I, International House of Pancakes, or Al's Breakfast. In addition, location influences hours of operation. We do not expect restaurants in the suburbs, central business districts, inner cities, and bohemian neighborhoods to keep the same hours (Hawley 1950). Some restaurants are closed on Sunday; some, on Monday. Some serve breakfast; many don't. Some serve lunch every day; some, only on weekdays. Some are always open; others are open only for lunch and dinner; some cater to late-night crowds.
The hours of a restaurant depend on the market niche to which the owners aspire. Hotels whose guests are potential hotel-restaurant clients typically have food service throughout the day and evening, and room service at night. Gourmet restaurants such as La Pomme de Terre have shorter hours because walk-in customers are rare, and because they can afford to have customers come to them for a unique service. Neighborhood restaurants such as Stan's are open on Sunday afternoons when a traditional “family dinner” is served. While Stan's has customers at that time, if La Pomme de Terre were open then, it would be empty. La Pomme de Terre, with a clientele from a different social class, serves Sunday brunch.
To a degree, restaurant hours determine the times that the cooks work, but the two sets of hours are not identical. Cooks arrive several hours prior to the opening and generally work until after the restaurant closes. Unlike more tightly structured organizations, managers and head chefs are flexible in scheduling cooks, and schedules change weekly with cooks having some say. Schedules respond to “external” forces, such as the number of reservations and special parties. Head chefs occasionally tell cooks to take the day off, leave early, or appear on short notice. While cooks are not on call, the head chef and the manager are aware of who is willing to work extra hours.
The irregular and unpredictable need for workers gives the chef or manager power within the workplace. In coordinating schedules, he must keep his staff happy and treat them in ways they consider fair—both in the number of hours they work and the sequence of those hours (see Zerubavel 1979, pp. 21-22). The chef has an interest in allowing his most competent cooks to work more frequently than those less conscientious, but this choice may create friction. Unlike fast-food restaurants (Leidner 1993, p. 62), in only one restaurant that I observed were hours assigned for social control: a head chef decided to discipline a dishwasher by cutting his hours to teach him to show more deference to the cooks.
The extreme case is when workers are laid
