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Room for All - S1 E1 - Tracylee Arestides, The founder’s story

• Andrea Comastri • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Empowering Through Hospitality: The Story of Hotel Etico

This episode of Room For All features hosts Andrea and Saraya O'Connell alongside guest Tracylee Arestides, delving into the inspiring journey of Hotel Etico. The conversation spans from Tracy's personal story as a mother of a child with Down Syndrome to the establishment of Hotel Etico, a pioneering initiative that trains and employs individuals with disabilities in the hospitality sector. It covers the key contributions of figures like Niccolo, Trevor Graham, and strategic partnerships with entities like the University of Technology and the Salteri family. The script highlights the significant milestones from networking efforts in Spain, obtaining crucial funding, and forming a solid board to present-day successes. The discussion also explores the symbolic meaning of Hotel Etico's logo, the challenges in disability employment, the importance of inclusion, fair wages, and changing societal perceptions. The episode underscores the systemic changes needed to foster an inclusive environment and reflects on the continuous aspirations to expand across Australia.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

01:48 Meet Traceylee Arestides

03:12 Tracylee's Journey with Down Syndrome

05:19 Discovering Hotel Etico

13:01 Bringing Hotel Etico to Australia

16:22 Building the Foundation

22:04 Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Success

25:07 The Importance of Long-Term Vision

25:26 Meeting Jon Ackary and His Impact

27:19 The Vision for Hotel Etico

28:40 Expanding Hotel Etico Across Australia

29:20 The Symbolism Behind the Logo

33:38 Challenges and Misconceptions in Disability Employment

40:34 The Value of Employing People with Disabilities

42:59 Reflections and Future Plans

45:48 Final Thoughts and Gratitude

Andrea:

And

Saraya:

yeah, you're good.

Andrea:

And we're rolling. Okay. Welcome to the very first episode, official number one of Room For All.

Saraya:

First episode with a number.

Andrea:

That's right. I'm here with my co host Saraya O'Connell.

Saraya:

Hi.

Andrea:

How are you Saraya? And we have our very first official guest, uh, in person. Virtually.

Saraya:

Virtually.

Andrea:

Um, uh, very on Tracey Lee Arestides. How are you Tracey Lee?

Tracylee Arestides:

Very well, Andrea. Lovely to see you and Saraya both.

Andrea:

Uh, we're very excited cause, um, we started this journey, um, not long ago and, uh, we've decided to take it head on and, um, and see where it takes us.

Saraya:

It's been a journey already.

Andrea:

That's right. Um, so

Saraya:

As everything we do tends to be,

Andrea:

so yes, we, um,

Saraya:

We wanted you to be our first guest, um, because we think it's important to, we've spoken about Hotel Etico in episode zero, but we think it's important to come from your perspective and what you do. And we're probably going to leave it to you to introduce yourself a little bit.

Andrea:

And we're just going to let it

Saraya:

unravel,

Andrea:

unpack. Um, so, um, tell us a little bit about who is Tracy Lee Arestides?

Tracylee Arestides:

Okay. Um, gosh, who is Tracylee Arestides?

Saraya:

It's a tough question

Tracylee Arestides:

know. Thanks for starting with the easy ones. Guys.

Saraya:

Yeah. No

Tracylee Arestides:

Primarily the mother of Francesca, my eldest daughter. Only because when Frannie was born 32 years ago, she was our first baby and unbeknownst to us, she had the Trisomy 21 Down Syndrome. And quite complex medical conditions as well. I'd never met anyone with Down syndrome when Franny was born. And, yeah, we had no None. None whatsoever. And any inklings we had were not very positive at all. I'd come from a corporate background. I'd worked in marketing and PR in fashion and beauty and film. And then, Moved over to doing PR in, or, you know, comms generally, in the not for profit sector, about three years before Frannie was born. and nothing had prepared either Frannie's father or myself for, yeah, born. Because she was our first baby, it was really good because we

Saraya:

longer

Tracylee Arestides:

in a way it was good that Franny our first baby because we had no expectations for what babies should do anyway. So that, Franny being born sort of flicked us into the parallel universe of disability. Moral, specifically intellectual disability. Um, and also flicked us into a fairly amazing community of people as well. Uh, which has been wonderful.

Andrea:

How old is Fanny?

Tracylee Arestides:

She's 32 now. Yeah. Yeah. And she's, just about to move out of home. Which she was actually, we were planning for her to move out of home, three COVID happened. So that didn't happen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. she's got two younger sisters who are both out of home. So Franny's just, uh, preparing to leave out of, move out of home. And she's also preparing to get married later this year.

Andrea:

That's unbelievable.

Tracylee Arestides:

sure is.

Saraya:

I'm excited for that wedding.

Tracylee Arestides:

It's going to be good fun,

Saraya:

It's going to be a big event.

Andrea:

And tell us, um, tell us a little bit how you came to find out about Hotel Etico and what brought you into the picture.

Tracylee Arestides:

I said I've been working in the not for profit sector. Not specifically disability. because I didn't necessarily want to live disability and work disability. And then I sort of fell into a job in disability in the tertiary education sector. And, from there I moved on to a couple of different jobs and ended up, as the executive director of Down Syndrome New South Wales. And while I was there, I had a, a couple of years into the job, I had a phone call. You often get, you know, random phone calls from people, but I had a phone call from a guy saying. An Italian guy saying he was here with his family having a holiday and in Italy he runs a hotel which is staffed by people with Down Syndrome and had been set up to train and people with Down syndrome to work in the hospitality industry and would I be interested in having a cup of coffee and of course I was so and that Alex Toselli who was here with his family and Alex and I met and he showed me all the stuff about Hotel Etico in, Italy. And he took me through how they do things, which just blew me away.'cause there was nothing in Australia like that. Nothing as holistic and person centered. And this was, hmm, 2015. So it was, just as the NDIS, the, we hadn't had the full rollout of the NDIS yet. We were still only, rolled out in a couple of areas, the Hunter being one, um, and I think one other in Melbourne and South Australia perhaps. So, it was certainly before the full impact of the NDIS and, um, just the vision of it was fabulous. So in 2016 I went to Italy, somebody's got to do it and,

Saraya:

Hard life too, I haven't.

Tracylee Arestides:

I usually wish definitely, anyway I went up to Asti and spent some time with the hotel who very graciously hosted me there for a couple of days and also the Hospitality College in the town that they had partnered with and the restaurant that was part of Hotel Asti as well.

Andrea:

and what, so what, what struck you? What made it different from anything that you had been aware of until that time?

Tracylee Arestides:

Okay, so what made it different was, I said it was very holistic in nature because it started off with people with Down Syndrome, but it also went, you know, the hotel in Italy had grown to embrace more generally people with intellectual disability as well and what really impressed me tremendously was not only did they They trained people with disability for, in hospitality, but in all aspects of hospitality. They rotated them through every business unit of the hotel. So they weren't just hidden away in the laundry folding towels. They were, you know, front and centre

Andrea:

Front and center.

Tracylee Arestides:

Front and centre So they were front and centre, they were answering the phones, they were at the bar, they were doing housekeeping. they were also employed, not just in the hotel, but in other hotels. So it wasn't, Um, uh, closed loop enterprise that just employed its own trainees. there was actually, everything happened with the idea that there was a place in the world for these people, a place in the broader world. And the thing that I love, a parent, than, just a worker in the sector, was they had this wonderful thing called the Academy of Independence. When, where people were training there, they actually lived in the academy with their peers, and it was like a big messy group home that you live in in your twenties, where, you know, You complain about your flatmate not having done the dishes, and you, you know, flirt with the girl in the next room. And it was just, and you're also responsible doing your own laundry, uh, your own shopping, all of those real life skills. And there was fragmented in Australia, but nothing that addressed, what was, yeah, what is quite a, still a shocking issue in Australia around the unemployment of people intellectual disabilities.

Andrea:

And interestingly, this was all, um, painted in a beautiful, beautiful picture by an Australian movie director,

Tracylee Arestides:

Yes, yeah, Trevor Graham, who's, quite renowned internationally, actually, and most people would know Trevor from, his documentary, Mabo, some years ago, really groundbreaking. Yeah.

Andrea:

And he did the portrait of Chef Antonio instead.

Tracylee Arestides:

Antonio's Recipes for Revolution, which is, I always, I always say it's like a love story to Northern Italy. It's a beautiful film.

Andrea:

And, because Antonio is the chef that together with Alex started entire movement in

Tracylee Arestides:

Yeah, he is. Antonio and his brother have quite a famous restaurant in Asti called Tacabanda. which is famous in foodie circles for its use of regional produce and traditional recipes. And

Andrea:

I've got the best wine, the best produce, truffles, right?

Tracylee Arestides:

yes, yeah, everything. It's

Saraya:

I'll take everything but the truffle. Yeah, you

Tracylee Arestides:

Antonio's a big character with a big vision. And it was Antonio. Originally, that, was contacted by some friends of his in the town. Asti only a relatively small town. Was contacted by some friends who had a son with Down Syndrome, Niccolo', who had, done really well at school, but found once left school that there was nothing for him to do. And so, he started Antonio had never met anyone with Down syndrome either. And so, Niccolo started in the restaurant Antonio just, you know, discovered that, you know, surprise, surprise, he could work just as well as anybody else. He needed to, learn things in a slightly different way. And by the time I was in Asti in 2015, Niccolo was the head waiter. of quite renowned and he features quite heavily in Trevor Graham's film, Chef Antonio's Recipes for Revolution. And part of Chef Antonio's vision is that people with disability be brought out, and have that interface with people, just general, ordinary people. Yeah.

Andrea:

Yeah, it's a beautiful movie, beautiful story and yeah, Trevor did a fantastic job. We have it available at the hotel. We use it a lot. That's part of our induction process for all staff. It's what really gets people over the line if they still need to in terms of buying into the project. We also make it available for people to, to watch in streaming, when they come, they get a code from us and they can watch it. it's a beautiful, beautiful story that we really, highly recommend to people. But so, so you went to Italy, you witnessed that. you come back to us, do you go with Frannie or you

Tracylee Arestides:

No, I went on my own. I've actually got cousins in Italy, so I went to stay with my cousins. Not that I'm Italian. It's an accident, but I have Italian cousins.

Andrea:

Oh, Greeks, Italians, or you're not even Greek

Tracylee Arestides:

I'm not even Greek

Andrea:

Um, you come back to Australia, uh, it's 2016, you said, and then what happens? Like what takes us to 2018, which is when the company

Tracylee Arestides:

yeah, what happened then was, Alex and I, We kept in touch and we, well, we did more than keep in touch. Alex and I decided that, what we needed to do was, make friends for the project, to bring the project to Australia. So one of the first things we was, work with Professor Simon Darcy at the University of Technology and, The University Business School, they very kindly hosted a day for us, which Alex, came out for to talk about exactly this, about employing people with disability, specifically in hospitality. And, How it was happening in Italy and what the vision could be for Australia. And from there we, looked at, so this was our strategy to make friends for the project. And of course as soon as you say hotel in Northern Italy, everybody says, oh yes, I could be friends with that. but also to do a bit of a deeper dive into, What was happening with people with dis intellectual disability, particularly in Australia and in employment. And, at the same time along that, working towards, possible working towards incorporation as, a legal entity and a charitable entity. And then course, finding other people we could work with on the board. And we were ready to jump on that journey with us looking at you, Andrea.

Andrea:

Someone that you had a little bit of, they had a bit of a little bit of experience in

Tracylee Arestides:

yeah, exactly. And who was also experienced in that, yeah, as, as you are in that, not for profit philanthropic space.

Saraya:

Tracy, in the last, um, episode, uh, Andrea called me out for the way I came to Hotel Etico as in forgetting my cover letter. so he, he, you know, just put my, Put it out there for everybody to listen. Anything he didn't do well that I could possibly use?

Tracylee Arestides:

no, sorry.

Saraya:

Oh, come on. There's got to be something like, he didn't tie his shoes. He tripped over when you met him, he spilled coffee on himself.

Andrea:

So when we when we met, I was working, I was working for a foundation, the PAYCE foundation, I was running. I was running the foundation for property developer and I think the approach came through common friends and that we had,

Tracylee Arestides:

Someone who was working with SEFA, yeah.

Andrea:

And, and somehow, I mean, possibly in the back of your mind, you were hoping to find someone with some money to put on the table to, to, to set something up, I suppose, and I still remember the meeting that we had. So as soon as you opened up about what the project was about, I said,

Tracylee Arestides:

Yes.

Andrea:

You know, I can tell you now that most likely we wouldn't be able to support you financially because that's not the space in which the PAYCE Foundation operates, but I love this model. I want to be involved. I want to be your man on the ground. and let's make it happen. So if we don't get money, at least you get I think that's,

Saraya:

that a trade off?

Tracylee Arestides:

A good deal.

Saraya:

Pretty good, deal.

Andrea:

Yeah. So, yeah, just. Dive right into it. And, yeah, I had good connections at the time because I was working with, to set up our own structure at the foundation. Actually, I had work with, a legal firm called ProLegis, which was a firm that was specializing in not for profits and, charity registrations and look at the cat peeking, and, uh, we got in touch with ProLegis with Anne Robinson. And Anne referred us to one of his, one of her lawyers who was Luke Hall. and I'm using these names because, you know, like very interesting sort of, uh, closing of loops and sort of somehow reconnecting people. Luke now works for Baker Mackenzie, who is one of the, corporate partners of, Hotel Etico, and supports us. And so Luke what wrote our constitution and helped us register and incorporate. and so on the 18th of March, 2018, the company was registered. And became a charity.

Tracylee Arestides:

We should call that Etico day

Andrea:

Yes. So there's a few, there's a few critical days in the history of Hotel Etico and I've been trying to sort of think of what is the best day. I think we can have a number of Etico days in a way, but definitely the, uh, the formal registration of the is the 18th of May 2018, which was, uh, uh, at that time we didn't have any money. We had three friends

Tracylee Arestides:

The um, the key to being able to access any money was being incorporated and registered with the acnc. So once. Once that had happened, we knew, we knew that people loved the idea. We knew people in the disability space, could see the possibility and the passion behind the idea. parents of young people with disability was, you know, some of our biggest supporters. Initially, because, when you're the parent of a child with a disability, when they leave school, it's like entering some sort of labyrinth that you have no idea whether you're going to turn the corner hit a brick wall or find a golden pathway. So, I think, it really captured the imagin the combination of elements that make up Etico really captured the imagination

Andrea:

Yes. And at the time we all had day jobs. Alex was in Italy, you were working, I was working. We had sort

Tracylee Arestides:

a lot of late night coffees.

Andrea:

That's right. And so we had no money, uh, a few friends, a few connections, a great idea. And so we started, it was all so very random. Like I, I remember meeting a young lady, her name was Linda, is Linda, she was working at UTS at the time, looking, she had been referred to me by Professor Bronwyn Dalton, heads business school and she was referred to me because I had done some work with Bronwyn and um, she was looking for a mentor. And so she reached out to me, we have a coffee downstairs at Avenue at Chifley Tower.

Saraya:

I'm seeing a pattern, it's all coffee,

Tracylee Arestides:

There's a lot of coffee in this story.

Andrea:

And, you know, I remember the day we sit down. And she showed me her CV and she talks to me and she says, well, I'm Italian. I have worked in disability. I have managed a hotel in Byron Bay and I'm an accountant. Okay. I said, Look, Linda, I can help you, but you need to help me because I've got something for you. And so then I think I spoke with you, spoke with Alex and I said, guys, I think we've got someone here that could possibly help us. We need to find a formula to make it work for us. And we asked Linda to do it and Linda was very resourceful. And in fact, I think we should have her as a guest one day. She lives in Spain now in Barcelona.

Saraya:

Can we go to Spain and do the podcast?

Andrea:

We could do that. Uh, got other friends there as well, which is great. Um, so yeah, so we, Linda, um, and so we're sort of digressing, but Linda one day, one night goes to a TFN event, the funding network, because she was the best networker and at the TFN, she was doing the mingling and networking that you do before the event. And she starts talking in Italian with a lady, an interesting lady that was there as a, as a participant, as a donor. And this, lady ends up to be Mrs. Salteri and Mrs. Salteri was there with her husband and they were participating in the TFN and donating fundraising and, and she falls in love with the project. And from then, we have a meeting with. With Paul Salteri and we discuss and we talk about it and, and he decides that I don't know if the Italian background helped, maybe it helped a little bit. I think I think it helped a little bit. decides to put a little bit of money on the table to help us. You know, he made us sweat for it, I think. Which is the best way. And, uh, and that allowed us to employ Linda and Linda took us sort of a few steps further and through her, we pretty much found the property and, um, yeah, the rest is history. So Linda was a critical, critical, um, initial person that did a huge amount of work, um, virtually for free. And it was all thanks to coffee.

Saraya:

Coffee, coffee, coffee. So for it, the two of you question. Did you think, fast forward to 2024, did you think we would be where we're at now with 15 trainees with, um, 70 percent currently in employment while we're working on the others? Did you think that we would be there in 2024? You go first.

Tracylee Arestides:

I had no doubt. I didn't know, I couldn't have put a pin in the timeline, but I had no doubt that, having seen how people responded to the idea across all parts of the story. You know, the whole spectrum. I had no doubt that the project would be successful. And that success looks like trainees and it looks like jobs and it looks like building and building and building that ripple outward effect of a wonderful community as well. And it looks like making changes to perceptions, you know, across the board. So I had no doubt about that at all. The timeline, I didn't know.

Andrea:

Yeah, I agree. I think it was clear from the beginning to all us that the model was a winner. it was perfect timing for the NDIS. There was, it just was an alignment of planets in a way. And it was clear that it was going to be successful. I think, I mean, and let's not forget this is before COVID. So, We, and as I said, we all had day jobs. We all had other stuff to do. And we were doing this at night and in our spare time. So we just put our head down. And as you know, once we're passionate about something, we just don't give up.

Saraya:

That's true.

Andrea:

But at the time there wasn't a timeline. It was just, okay, we knew what the steps had needed to be. One step, another step, another step. We knew that the money was critical. We knew that the registration was critical. We knew that the ACNC was critical. We knew that. We wanted to be an NDIS registered provider, uh, pretty much at that time already, we knew that we needed a property and we knew that we needed a, a bit of money to start. We knew the ingredients of the recipe, we just didn't know how to put them together in a way, even though we had the, the recipe sheet from Italy in a way, that sort of made a difference because we could then knock on doors and say, look, this is the evidence. Add to that the Australian context, it's going to work even better, and I think we've proven that, that we've just delivered, but, it, it hasn't come without a lot of work, a lot of ache, a lot of mistakes, a lot of hurdles,

Tracylee Arestides:

of learning to learn from the mistakes. But can I I think I was very lucky that that team of three that we were working with, Andrea, Alex, and me, that Andrea and Alex, apart from being, having their Italian heritage common, are both marathon runners. Yeah. So they there for the long haul,

Andrea:

Yeah, that's some, that's definitely something else that brings us, brought us together. So, um, yeah. And that, that helped.

Tracylee Arestides:

and that long term vision and goal was important during the time when there was no money, and as you said, there was a lot of working late at night. Um, were also very lucky that, some of the people who've been attracted to the project, I, had met a man named John Ackary. through the, Sydney Leadership Program. And,

Andrea:

Yes,

Tracylee Arestides:

John was, um, General Manager for Song Hotels, which are not a social enterprise, but I think a business for profit. Oh,

Andrea:

Yeah. It's an, well it is another social enterprise. It's part of YWCA, um.

Tracylee Arestides:

profit for purpose.

Andrea:

Yeah. that's right. That's right. So yeah, it's a social enterprise that is a profitable social enterprise. Does a great job. They make money for YWCA and we'll let John talk when he comes. But

Tracylee Arestides:

We were very lucky John, had a long, um, work history in, uh, Ridgid's Hotel Group, which I had also worked for years ago. So, um,

Andrea:

He was the missing of the puzzle

Tracylee Arestides:

Yeah.

Andrea:

so Jon, Jon joined us, I think in, on the 11th of October, which is tomorrow. Yes. As recording this 11th, I was sort of looking at some compliance lists stuff yesterday, you know, in my day job. yes, he joined us. Basically six months after registration and, uh, and has been part of the board ever since. And then the board has now grown to, a larger number, it's about eight of us. And we are a very, very strong skills based board, which. Which, you know, has expertise in HR, in marketing, compliance and governance, financial, management, investment, property investment. It's, it's, it's a great board,

Tracylee Arestides:

Yeah, from the outside might seem like a bit of overkill for a 15 bedroom, hotel in Victoria. But, um, this is not where we're going to stop, is it, Andrea?

Andrea:

That's right. So the vision is very big. We talked a little bit about the vision, actually, we haven't talked about it, we did it in the mock up. We didn't actually do it.

Saraya:

We did it in the mock up. In the outtake.

Andrea:

You can tell us what the vision is, Tracey, you tell us what the vision is for the hotel

Tracylee Arestides:

Well, the vision is, amongst other things, to have a Hotel Etico in every state and territory.

Saraya:

And Territory.

Tracylee Arestides:

In Australia, and by doing that to change the employment prospects for people with disability, but also to normalise the employment of people with disability. so everybody walking into a hotel and seeing someone on the front desk, it's not going to be unusual or special or nice, it's just going to be someone doing their job.

Andrea:

So we've made some reference in our previous episode, uh, without necessarily referring to it as a theory of change, but to our theory of change, which is not just limited to working with the individuals with disability and their families, but with all the guests and changing their perspectives and with all the employers and at a systemic level as well, because as I said, we had the initial evidence from Italy, we can now claim that we have evidence of this working in Australia within the within the Australian context, and we're now ready to expand. We are practically actively looking for a second hotel and more around the country. We're looking on the east coast of Australia, anywhere between Brisbane and Melbourne and anything where in between. we're looking for a larger hotel, not just a 15 room hotel. We're looking for something between 40 and 80 rooms. And that's on the back of understanding better the viability of, of a larger scale of hotel compared to a small boutique hotel. But as you've often referred to it. With me, like this is a little bit of the mothership in a way, or the initial, initial root of the tree that we're growing. and in fact, talking about the tree, there's an important reference to the logo of the Italian Hotel Etico, because the logo of the Italian Etico is a persimmon tree. Which is a symbol of, resilience and perseverance and ability to survive on tough climate and, and making this beautiful, bright, sweet fruits that are the persimmons that, uh, On the outside, they look beautiful. Then you go and have a look at them. What is this thing? You don't know how to eat them. And then you, you eat them and they're the sweetest earth. And on the tree, uh, that is, represented in the logo, there are 21

Tracylee Arestides:

Which is a reference back to Down syndrome and trisomy 21.

Andrea:

because chromosome 21 is the one that is responsible for Down syndrome. And then there is an arrow at the bottom on the root and the arrow that points down reference to the download method, which is the methodology that Chef Antonio developed in Italy to download the knowledge from the hospitality skills into the trainees that then sort of Bring it away and, and, and, uh, and develop their own independence. So, yeah, that's a little bit of a history behind the logo tree. Yeah. Uh, we'll leave the history of our, our logo became, um, for another

Saraya:

Cool. Um, Tracy, were you surprised when we emailed you to come on the podcast?

Tracylee Arestides:

Yes, knowing how much I love public speaking.

Saraya:

You're great at public speaking. very good at public speaking.

Andrea:

You're very natural.

Saraya:

Very natural, yeah. This isn't public speaking, it's just a conversation.

Andrea:

And so Tracy, then, um, going back to Saraya's question about me, I initially, Uh, was a volunteer on the board work as I said at night and then work increased and increased and increased. In the meantime, I also moved jobs in my day jobs and, um, and then COVID hits and then we went in lockdown and then we lost pieces along the way and then Saraya came along and we, you and I, Was sort of the, the forces behind sort of employing Saraya and I was saying in the last episode that we pretty much fell in love with Saraya from the word go,

Tracylee Arestides:

Yeah, we, um, we knew you were it.

Andrea:

She had the X factor

Tracylee Arestides:

the same vision and passion and just, that you just got it. You just got it straight

Andrea:

Yes. Yes.

Saraya:

That's really good to hear because you two have the biggest poker faces I've ever seen in my life.

Andrea:

She was really scared by the interview.

Saraya:

So, you guys don't give away

Tracylee Arestides:

Oh, make them sweat.

Saraya:

You did. You fully did.

Andrea:

Well, I told Soraya and the rest of the public that, you know, it was a very important role and we knew that we couldn't stuff it up. Uh, we had to get it right the first two of them. it was very important. And so she started in November, 2021. And I was still a volunteer and then work increased. and then throughout 2022, I approached the board and said, look, I think the time has come for, uh, for us

Tracylee Arestides:

Oh, look, it very obvious to the board that, we needed, that the hotel needed a full time, a very specific full time role. And it was also very obvious that, that was you. So,

Andrea:

And it was fantastic and it was a

Tracylee Arestides:

was just the nuts and bolts of how we, how we managed

Andrea:

Yes, yeah, and the board was very mature about it and, and, and in the end, come the 12 months from that, so November 2022, that's when I started officially as a CEO and,

Saraya:

It was a lot of fun. When Andrea wasn't here, I had a full year, a full year.

Andrea:

yeah, no, and it's been a great ride. So that's, uh, really thank you, Tracy and the rest of the board for the trust. and, uh, and again, the work hasn't become any easier, but it's, uh, it's now at least can be focused and, and, and, we

Tracylee Arestides:

and you're not working two full time jobs, which was effectively.

Andrea:

no, at least it's just one full time job. That's right. So, yeah, that's, uh, that's really, really good. Anything else about Tracy that we needed to, do we want to talk about a little bit about disability?

Saraya:

Employment. Yeah. I think it, like we don't have long, the timer, I can see the timer is counting down. We do have a timer. but I think just for context, because we are going to go our next episode into, industry and employment of people with a disability and breaking down barriers. But just for a little bit of context, do you want to talk a little bit about the disability employment in Australia at the moment

Tracylee Arestides:

Yeah, sure. This not a happy story. Disability, people with disability in Australia are far more likely to be either unemployed or underemployed than the general population by a significant amount and,

Andrea:

Double

Tracylee Arestides:

double the rate. Yeah, and of that, people with intellectual disability are even more disadvantaged than, other people with disability in terms of employment. And unfortunately that hasn't shifted. For over 30 years, despite a lot of energy and thought going into why this is so, there has been a bit of better uptake, slight increase the last couple of years, not quite sure why. I think people are still looking at why. but what it's meant is it's much more than just a job and an income. it's, by Excluding a whole sector of society from the workforce, you're also excluding them from a lot of social interaction, from a lot of connection, from building that social capital in their communities, from even being an active part of their family, and you're diminishing their life and their quality of life. by making a blanket decision before they've even arrived that they're not, able to be employed, which is the traditional argument that people with intellectual disability aren't able to do things.

Andrea:

hence the realisation, the common realisation that the ethical recipe was going to be

Tracylee Arestides:

yeah, that's why was such a, such an opener. with right training, yes, they, people with intellectual disability could learn. Even people with, what you would call quite, I don't like to use the word severe, but people whose, intellectual disability really hampered their functioning. Well, I'm, I'm thinking back to the film, Chef Antonio's Recipes for Revolution, and one of the, participants, or one of the employees at the hotel in Asty,

Andrea:

Yeah, Nicola.

Tracylee Arestides:

yeah. Um, who was very limited in his Functionality. But during the training, learned how to use kitchen knives and make pasta and yeah, it was, it

Saraya:

One of the biggest misconceptions, about, about employing somebody with a disability that they can't use a knife or they can't be put in the thick of it. Like, yeah.

Andrea:

Antonio says that the first thing that he does is put a knife the hands of the trainee getting to chop parsley

Tracylee Arestides:

I I can can hear all parents gasp when they saw that in the film. But then, look, I'll tell you what my favourite one is is when people walk into the bar at the hotel and they see someone with Down syndrome. I mean, I say Down Syndrome because it's a very, People wear it on their face, very obvious of disability. They see the barman and have Down Syndrome they say, Oh, are they allowed to do that? And you can say, Well, actually, they're over 18 and they have their RSA. So yes, they are to do that.

Andrea:

it pretty much immediately when they start here and they can't wait. And they send us messages saying, when am I getting my card? What am I getting my card? So, yeah, that's it.

Saraya:

I think it's a, another misconception that people, with a disability can't drink. So I, I can't drink, of course they can, again, they're ovr 18, but then when they see. Like, so people with a disability can't drink, they can't have fun. They can't have a good time, um, which means, you know, they can't be around alcohol. They can't work behind a bar. They don't know how to make a cocktail. Um,

Andrea:

yeah, they remember, I remember people telling us, but you talk to them normally.

Saraya:

I had that conversation so many times. Somebody said that to me once. I was like, what? Yeah.

Andrea:

But at the same time you need to acknowledge that it's all about exposure

Tracylee Arestides:

and there's that other thing that you hear often in the disability sector is you can't be it if you can't see it. And that's the same people without disability. If you never see somebody with a disability doing something, how are you ever going to know they're going do while there's been a lot of individuals with disability who have done exceptional things as individuals, there is a sort of, got to be aware of that tyranny, that narrative of the exceptional individual. just as much as you have to be aware of the tyranny of low expectations, that someone with a disability can only be folding towels out the back.

Andrea:

In fact, I mean, as bad as the word normal is, we are all about normalizing situation, the situation,

Tracylee Arestides:

And that means normal expectations too. So not everyone with disability going to be, you know, shaking cocktails like Tom Cruise. but they might be doing the best hospital corners you've seen on the hotel bed, or they're really, really good at greeting people.

Andrea:

And what about pay? What is your view about pay,

Tracylee Arestides:

okay. I think that you should get paid for the work you do. And I don't think that you, we should treat people with disability any differently to anybody else.

Andrea:

but how do you deal with the concept of productivity or lack of productivity?

Tracylee Arestides:

Okay, well that's, I think that's a really interesting question because how do you deal with productivity or lack of productivity with employees that don't have a disability? I mean, have all worked with slackers, we all know and we've all worked with people who go above and beyond. But none of us are sitting there without checking off whether they're, yeah, measuring them up on a scale of one to ten and working out what the percentage is. So, that I think is a really flawed approach to, productivity and people with disability. I think a far better approach is the approach of reasonable adjustment. So what you do in a workplace to ensure that this employee is as productive as they can be? I think you should do that for all your employees actually and that might be Okay, they can only work a three hour shift before they get tired and they start to slow down. So great, you do a three

Andrea:

we we spoke about last time about the fact that, you know, our trainees get paid from day one full award wages, and that's an important element of our model. And, I'm completely with you, like in, in a number of recent presentations that I've. Made on panels and speeches that with a hospitality industry, I've tried to sort of pitch to them that they need to reframe the concept of value, right? Because normally we associate in a normal business. Productivity and value, right? Instead, what the industry needs to do is to need to see value from a more holistic perspective. And then that the value that there is in employing a person with disability goes beyond the productivity of that individual person. It goes to the culture that changes internally in the organization because of the inclusion, it goes to the inclusion of guests, you know, we have, that's right. And so there's, if they, and I can see a lot of nods in the room when I say it. And so. There's that reframing, that re shifting of the conversation around value. I think things will start changing because it's not just about the widgets and how many things you produce in amount of time. Uh, but it's about what, what the person brings to the business. So yes, we made a decision very early on in the piece to pay people full award wages, and we've never looked back,

Tracylee Arestides:

Yeah, I think something we can be very proud of in terms of systemic change and modelling systemic change.

Andrea:

Very, very proud.

Saraya:

Yeah, I think that that that's a great example. And I think when we go and work with employers, they are industry partners pay full award wages.

Andrea:

Yes, we don't partner with anyone that doesn't pay full award wages. So that's, that's true.

Tracylee Arestides:

And on another level, that actually speaks to full inclusion of people with disability as well. Yeah, yeah.

Andrea:

someone that works on full award wages pays tax and gives back to the community and the taxpayer as a taxpayer like anybody else. So there's no question around that. So, yeah, absolutely.

Saraya:

Before we wrap it up, I have one more question for you both. Um, anything you guys would do differently in the journey that we've had so far?

Andrea:

I'm sure there's plenty.

Tracylee Arestides:

look, I'm sure there's plenty too, but part of the joy of not doing things differently is that we have learnt rapidly and we have rapidly been able to adjust this model, not just for the Australian context, And for all the Italians out there, that does not mean just adding pineapple pieces. But we've actually been able to adjust it for our participants, our trainees, and their families. And also in talking to industry. So we've been able to, um, yeah, whatever mistakes we've made, have all fed into, you know, the Etico machine to make it better. And more fit purpose. And I think that's the most important thing.

Andrea:

A couple of our founding values, pillars within the organization are learning from our mistakes and owning them and striving for continuous improvement. And so that's, that's fundamental for us. And so that's how we roll that. So. Yeah, probably wouldn't change anything. We would have done probably lots of things differently, but we wouldn't have learned as much as

Saraya:

a question just directed you. Um, would you have hired me without a cover letter? I

Tracylee Arestides:

I think we did hire you without a cover letter.

Saraya:

I was made to submit.

Andrea:

And we pointed out the last time she wrote a cover letter without the help of ChatGPT, because it didn't exist at

Tracylee Arestides:

yeah, it did not.

Andrea:

um, I think she passed the test.

Saraya:

I'm

Andrea:

going to take that as a yes, you would hired me

Tracylee Arestides:

most definitely. It's about the vibe.

Saraya:

It is actually, I think you do get a gut feeling for people, especially in this space, in this industry, you get a feeling for people's passions. You get to really know

Tracylee Arestides:

It's also about the willingness. I look back at some of the other hires we've made. I think also it's about the willingness to grow. Because we're not a, Etico not a project that stands still, it's not a service provider that is

Andrea:

You go backward.

Tracylee Arestides:

this, is about, um, it is about growth.

Andrea:

Yep. Absolutely. And those that are not here necessarily anymore, it's probably because of that, uh, of that

Tracylee Arestides:

Or that they hit ceiling or whatever, but it's, you know.

Andrea:

yeah.

Tracylee Arestides:

And I'm very much forward to our next, our next location, next community, the next lot people that will be here. And

Andrea:

exciting, very scary, but, um, it will happen sooner rather than later. Okay. Let's wrap it up.

Saraya:

Wrap it up. Do you have any last final words? Anybody? Tracy.

Tracylee Arestides:

reach my word count the day.

Saraya:

Well, we appreciate you being our first guest and,

Tracylee Arestides:

you very much for

Saraya:

love, we're a little bit surprised, but you knew that we would. Yeah. Come up with a podcast eventually, sure of it.

Andrea:

Yes. It's been a great pleasure. Tracy, I love working with you. I love having conversations, starting conversations with you that end up completely different place from where they were meant to start

Tracylee Arestides:

Thank you, Andrea. And this the, it's got

Andrea:

ways. And, um.

Tracylee Arestides:

and the ideas of it all that keep the adventure alive for sure.

Saraya:

We're also very excited for your next personal journey of being an empty nester staff, Frannie leaving the home and getting married. So we'll be following along on that one.

Andrea:

All the best for the wedding, um, and looking forward to working with you for many, many more years to come. many. So with this, thank you, Tracy.

Saraya:

Thank Tracy

Andrea:

Thank you Saraya and, let's make room for all and keep fighting for

hotel-etico_4_10-10-2024_183136-1:

inclusion. Thank you.

Tracylee Arestides:

Love

People on this episode

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Andrea Comastri

Host
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Saraya O'Connell

Co-host