Working as a relocations packer is sometimes perceived as being very much a male profession requiring lots of muscle and little in the way of ‘smarts,’ but Crown Assistant Packer Dayna Rose Cunliffe is enthusiastically changing that stereotype.
Twenty year old Dayna has been with Crown for over a year and says that her gender hasn’t held her back in the slightest. When asked whether she thinks people will always view the packing and relocating profession as ‘man’s work’ she quickly states otherwise: “It’s not a boys’ job, anyone can do it. You’ve just got to work smarter and not harder. I think that actually comes more naturally to females. And it’s definitely made me healthier – I don’t need a gym membership!”
When you enquire about the reception she received from her male colleagues, she smiles and says it’s actually all been positive: “At first they approached me a lot. They were curious about me, asked a lot of questions and at first they tried to stop me from lifting stuff. But now they joke around and say things like ‘we’ll get Dayna to lift that fridge, she can do it.”
When asked what she most enjoys about the job Dayna stated that once she’s out on the road she enjoys the sense of autonomy: “Being my own boss kind of, when we’re out on the road. It’s me and my crew, but normally I am the team leader.” She makes good use of her affable personality by taking responsibility for the introductory ‘meet and greet’ phase of a house relocation and she prides herself on putting clients at ease: “I go over the house rules when we arrive, meet and greet. Make the client feel comfortable with us in their home, then run through the day’s itinerary.”
“I’ve got a skill for getting good customer satisfactions results. A lot of clients get a little confused at first when they see a girl but once they’ve seen that you can actually do the job, they seem to really like it. It’s nearly always the house wives and mums at home and I think they also really enjoy having me to talk to. I think that helps.”
Dayna says that she and the other Crown packers love to set themselves ‘the first day challenge:’ “The first day is a great challenge because we often try to pack the entire house on the first day and I like that challenge — I think we all do. If we pull that off then the client is always impressed and it’s good for the business too.”
Asked what personal skills are key for a professional packer, Dayna quickly nominates confidence and good people skills as being key attributes. But is packing as easy as what people often assume, or is it actually a more involved challenge than what people realise? Dayna says it’s both: “It is a straight forward and easy thing to do but it’s also an easy thing to mess up! For example women often seem quite happy to have me packing stuff like crystal and kitchen items as I probably go about it a little bit differently.”
Having a methodical and orderly approach to packing is essential Dayna says: “A good packer follows the guidelines, every bedroom has steps and you’re doing your inventing as you go, recording as you go, following the processes is crucial. That’s what makes the difference.”
Dayna credits the recent Crown Packing workshop as helping her lift her packing skills to a higher level: “It was really good. We gained new tips and techniques that will help us to be more efficient — ways to do things quicker. The trainers were really helpful. It was well organised and thorough and they went over everything a packer needs to know.”
So what does the future hold for Dayna? Her next goal is to defy another common gender stereotype and get her Heavy Truck license: “The next step is getting my class twos. I currently drive the little trucks and I want to step up to the bigger vehicles. That’s more of a challenge. It’s tricky getting in and out of those driveways in the big trucks. But I want to do that.”
So if you’re a young woman who’s not afraid to get your hands dirty and you’re looking for a profession that will provide plenty of variety, then Dayna says you should come join her: “I work with one other female here, my friend Kestra and we love doing this job together. I’d say to other women that I’m not actually a ‘tom-boy’, I’m a ‘girly girl’ at heart. But I’m also a physical girl who likes using her body and being active as well as using my brain and that’s why this job fits me perfectly! I’m sure it would for other women too.”
