by Annie Sherman.
Mornings are a bustling time at The Boundless Bean café in Bridgewater. This morning—in the shadow of a snowstorm and elementary-school drop-offs and college students returning from holiday break—its 16 seats are practically a revolving door of customers. A few employees behind the counter pour coffees and triage orders. The milk sputters in the steamer. An employee mops the floor’s wet boot prints. Meanwhile, more customers shuffle in, eyeing the coffee menu and the bakery case with equal parts hunger and urgency.
The goal is not a quick caffeine rush and breakfast to-go at this charming, locally-owned business. Owners and husband-wife team Elena and Tom Hogan emphasize empathy and empowerment with their cappuccinos and cinnamon rolls.
The Spark
When the Hogans opened The Boundless Bean on Summer Street off Central Square last May, they did so with a specific mantra: to employ individuals with differing abilities and change the way those individuals are viewed in the workplace. The Hogans love coffee and baked goods are just a convenient method to accomplish that purpose. The deeper tenet of support centers their business model, allows those with varying abilities to fill 25 percent of each shift, and fosters a gentler approach to mentorship and management.
“For me, the most valuable lesson I’ve learned is seeing it in action, working alongside people, wonderful people that do have limitations and challenges, and learning patience,” says Tom Hogan, before he jumps up to assist a team member at the register when a crowd comes in. “You see the importance of someone. When they started, all they could do was stand back. Now they run the register, are learning how to make drinks, and are in the back making sandwiches. At first, they would have been intimidated by that. But they start to see success with it, and they see they can do it.”
This mission started with exposure to, and an understanding of, varying lived experiences. Elena Hogan has been working with individuals with disabilities almost her whole life. She volunteered in special education classrooms and the Best Buddies program as a young student. As an occupational therapist, she helped a diverse population of people with varied divergent capacities. One of her sons and a close family member are on the autism spectrum.
Elena says this only ignited her passion and solidified her desire to own a coffee shop that centered on individuals who need support. She had long wanted to do this, she reflects, but once it hit so close to their family, it became more personal, and she gained the confidence to take that final leap even though the timing and other factors weren’t perfect. One step in the right direction was better than no steps at all, she says.
“I just love baking and coffee and empowering individuals with disabilities. They’re kind of my three things. Occupational therapy was fun but I was in a clinic setting and not really helping people put it into action. … this is the more exciting side, to actually be on the goal end, instead of preparing them for the goal,” Elena explains. “I am passionate about helping individuals find a fulfilling path in life. … It’s so hard for anybody who needs some level of support or who can’t just walk in and meet job expectations independently. And I don’t think that’s fair. We all deserve a chance to work somewhere we feel appreciated.”
The Day-to-Day
That level of appreciation permeates every moment of their workday, from seemingly minor things like taking accurate orders and counting correct change to larger initiatives like teaching standards of workplace behavior. Mentoring and training also are pervasive, as the Hogans learned that all staff—those who have differing abilities and those who are neurotypical—need to learn how to work together. They say this means a gentler communication approach, a higher level of patience, and a slower pace.
Employees have varying capacities that need to be valued and accommodated. When an employee named George*, who has poor eyesight and perceptual difficulties, was making mistakes with orders and struggling with duties like securing the lid to the coffee cup, Elena started attaching the lid and handing it to him to finish the transaction. Or another employee, David* really can’t handle dirty jobs, like cleaning, she says, but Amanda enjoys cleaning, so Elena makes cleaning a specific task for Amanda, and assigns David to make boxes, fold aprons, and stamp bakery bags. Making custom duties for each employee based on their strengths and weaknesses, versus delegating an entire job description, is a flexibility that Elena considers simply being human.
“That flow isn’t as easy for people who haven’t been hanging out with a diverse population for as long as I have. Other employees were feeling challenged. “How is this going to work?” “I don’t understand why he’s not learning,” they said. And since we were brand new together in May, it wasn’t like I was just training Tom on how to be a team with Amanda. It was training everyone. And every one that needs support needs a different kind of support,” Elena says. “Tom’s great making drinks and on the register, and I really like to bake, but there’s no point in me spending a half hour of my day making boxes when there’s somebody else who wants a job that they’re really good at. So, we just have to have a very different, open-minded approach to looking at what tasks need to be done and who is good at those tasks.”
Duties like cleaning tables and mopping the floor on a post-snowstorm day are what Amanda does best. The 34-year-old Bridgewater native and part-time Boundless Bean employee since opening day says she has always enjoyed tidying up but wasn’t as good at the register because everyone was moving and speaking too fast. But as she has grown more confident and developed her capabilities, Amanda now is a cash register master.
“I do the bakery case. The register, but not so fast, nice, and slow. I do sometimes work in the kitchen. And I can’t say no to the boss. Never,” Amanda laughs, as she sips her favorite lemonade and nibbles a cinnamon roll, her immaculately painted fingernails on display. “I still need help counting the coins. But I’m independent. I’m responsible.”
There are some challenges to these triumphs, the Hogans admit, as is the case with any business owners who are new to running a coffee shop. There are 20 employees, but except for the weekday manager almost everyone is part-time, and some employees only work two hours a week, so juggling schedules with these varying demands is unrelenting. The constraints of the physical kitchen space limit the amount of product they can create simultaneously, because making cinnamon rolls, for example, dominates the whole kitchen.
But the Hogans approach each moment as a learning lesson and insist that this inclusive, for-profit, people-first business model can succeed in an increasingly fast-paced, impersonal culture. They sell a few products from organizations that support workplace inclusivity, and hope to add another location someday, Tom says, and perhaps they’ll train other organizations to prioritize inclusivity. He adds that it’s good for now and they’re very happy with it, but they can’t help but think that more people need this.
Amanda agrees. “This is my favorite job,” she says. “There’s no I in team.”
*Name changed to protect privacy
The Boundless Bean
10 Summer Street
Bridgewater, MA 02324
508 443-2981
TheBoundlessBean.com
Annie Sherman is a seasoned independent journalist, editor, and author who centers her work on the environment, food culture, travel, and design. She lives in Rhode Island with her family spending her free time walking the beach and tending an herb garden. AnnieShermanLuke.com