Repair Cafe Culture - Part 2: Why Engineers and Designers Love Volunteering at Repair Cafes

It’s entirely possible you need no further persuasion that helping people fix their appliances is a nice thing to do, and you already volunteer, that’s great. If you came up for the social, perhaps you stayed for the technical. Or perhaps (like me) you went for the technical and ended up enjoying the social? My point being - Repair Cafes have a lot to offer, regardless of your initial interest or inclination - you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised at how they may boost your career prospects and design and engineering skills!

Image: Repair Cafes (UK, Hong Kong): Good for you, me, and even your company you work for!

As much as I feel sustainability is vitally important in life and at work, I feel one should make a special case for business / professional engagement - and why your manager should approve your request to volunteer as part of company's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) or ‘For Social Good’ initiatives. Most companies allow a couple of days per year to help with ‘good causes’ on company time, in exchange for a few photos for some good, low-key Public Relations. In terms of PR, it’s unquestionably a sound thing to do, but if a company needed a more ‘actionable’ or ‘ROI-based’ justification (as let’s be honest, they often do) - then I’d like to help put forward a robust case here, that this is a ‘no-brainer’ for any technical company to consider. 

If, as an Engineer, you volunteer at a Soup Kitchen, teach Football to Kids, or do a Litter Pick for your local school - all of these are most certainly laudable, and you should certainly keep doing them. However, I'd like to hold this up to the ‘Ikigai Test’...

Image Credits: Dreamstime. Based on Ikigai principles (Wiki).

Put simply, “Ikigai” is a Japanese concept for ‘a reason for being’. What I love about it, is that it provokes a more frank, internalised, and holistic discussion about not just what you’re inclined to do (because you’re good at it / love it perhaps) - but how this holds up to the competing tensions of real-world ‘needs’, and considers the ‘value’ of such an action(s).

If you are a Mechanical Engineer, or some other technical person - skilled in the art of making things, non-technical volunteering opportunities are of course wonderful to do - indeed, part of the attraction may well be that you’re doing them precisely because they’re a break from your job and the mindset that comes with that. No argument with that - enjoy!

However, it’s also fair to say that although most people you know could likely volunteer to serve soup, teach a bit of casual footie, or perhaps litter pick… few of the general public can repair something to a high degree of skill (and safety), as an engineer or designer (like you) who has a bona fide qualification and years of considerable experience in doing so… Fair?

Although I actually believe that we should all do things outside of our immediate comfort zone, and expand our mind and horizons, (ie do multiple things if you can), I’d also be honest and say most of us lead busy lives with multiple commitments, and so, being pragmatic - if you were going to do ONLY ONE volunteering gig - logically speaking, I’d say you should apply an Ikigai mindset to be most impactful. 

To be contrary you could apply your engineering skills in cooking better soup, picking litter with a new gizmo you invented, or having the ‘knack’ of putting up goal posts faster and better than most people, because of your technical prowess - but I’d still say these are eclipsed by working at a Repair Cafe where truly your skills are in demand, and highly prized.

A Good Chef Tastes What They Cook

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there is almost an ‘ethical duty’ as a designer and engineer - to see how products break, and arguably also the impact when they fail. Seeing the ‘broken’ appliances will either be attributed to bad design that led to mechanical or electrical failure, or to poor ‘user experience’ design, which led to an incorrect diagnosis. I will share a few examples of these later to illustrate that there is a broad spectrum of things you can learn from seeing perhaps 3-10 appliances in a day, in just a few hours at a Repair Cafe.

Image: Visiting eWaste recycling facility, SWEEEP Kuusakoski, UK - to see a Dyson DC35 vacuum cleaner (some 10+ years after I co-designed it at Dyson’s R&D department). It’s important to see what your handiwork looks like after it’s reached the end of life. More on the previous Blog: Fight to Repair.

As for persuading your boss (or if you are the boss) this is equivalent to sending an established musician to volunteer at a local orchestra, or a chef to inspire kids into learning to cook, etc. - there is something powerful in teaching, which should not be derided as “those who can - do, those who cannot - teach”, which completely overlooks the very worthwhile skill of communication as something technical people should cultivate. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the ‘Sheldon’ stereotypes of Engineers (for all their ‘smarts’), being a bit reclusive, perhaps neurodiverse, shy or just not always so hot at at explaining things in layperson’s terms - this is yet another compelling reason to support an ‘introverted genius’ to join a Repair Cafe, as 90% of the time they will be in their element ‘fixing and doing’, but that last 10% let’s say, they’ll need to explain a little bit to the owner of the device what’s wrong, and why it can or cannot be fixed, perhaps with a bit of humour, reassurance, charm and yes, authority.

In summary, for an Engineer, volunteering at a Repair Cafe where they’d be a great fit - the ‘stakes’ are low, but the ‘wins’ are high. 

*And if you’re feeling really keen, also visiting an eWaste recycling plant is an equally sobering and inspiring team bonding exercise. 

Heroes and Heroines of Repair

Without getting too Hollywood about this, there is something of the ‘Hero’s Journey’ (or indeed, Heroine’s Journey) in attending a repair cafe: Through a series of repairs and challenges - you will learn more about design, engineering, failure, communication skills, improvisation, collaboration, hypothesising - and yes, likely how better to interact with the humanity of all of this, in a relatively [compared to the workplace] friendly and unintimidating environment. 

Repair Cafe volunteers do not get abusive ‘heckles’ from the public, like comedians on stage, and any ‘competitiveness’ between volunteer fixers is at most jovial, and usually non-existent - as the fixes are of course randomised, so it’s never a ‘like-for-like’ battle. I regularly hear one fixer lean over to another and ask ‘so this has stumped me - any suggestions?’, without any awkwardness or ego, and I really loved that, and felt encouraged to do the same. Occasionally, fixes ‘change hands’ to solve the issue. Two heads are truly better than one, but it’s a generous atmosphere which makes this feel natural and easy. (Nobody’s trying to ‘get your promotion’, so it’s pretty chilled). 

Image: Cynthia at Repair Cafe Hong Kong. Enthusiastic, welcoming and knowledgeable - like a good ‘Triage’ doctor in A&E - perfect to assign the best strategy/team for a given problem/fix. (Repair Cafe HK).

Image: Not yet at 50/50 split on gender, many women in Hong Kong Repair Cafes were equally involved with the fixing and training of new members. (Vessel Repair HK).

Although a far from comprehensive survey, from what I’ve observed and heard anecdotally - this is also why more women are joining, although there is a way to go as with the Engineering profession as a whole, but if you are a woman reading this, I would say (as quite a ‘sensitive’, non-alpha male type) Repair Cafes (founded by Martine Postma) feel genuinely very calm, friendly, smart, lighthearted and safe places, and I cannot say that about all places I’ve worked, so I’d say that women have always been part of the management teams where I’ve visited, which influences the hiring and operational culture directly, I’d say your odds are good of feeling welcomed there!

Image: Repair Cafe Open Day, 21 Feb 2025, at UCL, organised by the Institute of Making. A fix of male and female fixers, and participants. Run more as a ‘hands-on’ day, of exploration and learning, but of course still aiming to fix (e.g. re-sharpen gardening tools), and repair also (Toy RC Car). There were also activities like Kintsugi (the art of accentuating cracked ceramics, alluding to a ‘flawed/fragile beauty’) which expanded the concept of Repair.

In summary, I hope this and the following ‘field notes’ from London based Repair Cafes and Hong Kong Repair Cafes make for persuasive arguments as to why you’ll no doubt enjoy a bit of playing ‘captain hindsight’ and pointing out the ‘crazy’ design choices of others… whilst hopefully remaining humble enough to realise that could be your own handiwork if you’re not vigilant, and indeed learn from others’ mistakes! 

Truly, I think Repair Cafes are a perfect complement to Academia. As students we tend to ‘nod along’ that electronic redundancy matters, part tolerances matter, safety measures matter - and so on, but when faced with deadlines, new tech, and all the real world pressures, it really is harder to not look at the issues above and see empathetic reasons like the camera battery case was perhaps cheaper (even if bad user experience design), and the Reset button was just easier to put there (less likely to get wet), and the iron manufacturer knew full well it didn’t have to be better than the average (most irons are hard to repair - so why try harder?).

Contents:

Part 1: Repair Like Your Life (and Career) Depends On It! (link)

Part 2: Why Engineers and Designers Love Volunteering at Repair Cafes. (This article)

Part 3: Five Design Issues, Every Engineer Should Know About. (link)

Part 4: Twelve Things I Learned At Repair Cafes. (link)

Part 5: How Did We Get Here? (link)