Repertoire Tickets

We help build your Repertoire, so you can do your best work

💼 Career

The Direction-Comfort Matrix

The feeling of overwhelm is completely understandable.

When you're spoiled by options and have already checked off a lot of your goals, the "plateau" on your progress starts to set in.

On top of that, whatever decision you make is a big deal; it defines what the next 1-3 years might look like!

Instead of telling this person what to do, I presented the following 2x2 matrix for them to think about.

On each axis, consider optimizing for 2 things:

1. Being directionally correct in service of your bigger picture goal/lifestyle/aspiration
2. Stepping outside of your comfort zone

Notice: there isn't a "right" answer. The piece I shared on Chef Side Quests the other day is an example of taking a "season" of your career where you won't be in the top-right quadrant.

However, when I was in a similar boat, having worked 3 years abroad, managed a team, wrote menus and ran service...this is how I made my decision.

When done right, this helps to avoid wasted time.

Which, to me, is even more of a reason to prioritize your Repertoire over anything else.

“Why do hospitality workers choose you?”

Flexibility isn’t just a perk—it’s a priority. Over 56% of restaurant employees say flexible scheduling is the #1 reason they work in hospitality.

Our Take: We don’t think this means you need to switch to a 4-day work week or switch half your team to part-time.

It DOES mean that the cookie-cutter advice around hiring 9-5 employees might not give you the best results.

Hold strong to what the business needs first, but also understand that a nuanced understanding of what makes your team tick can lead to impressive levels of loyalty, higher retention and a straight-up happier workplace.

👉 We also dig that they asked folks to pick up to 3 answers for this set of questions. If you're into a broad data set to learn more about what 7shifts learned...