Treatment of staff in hospitality

[Restinggoddess]

My kids work in hospitality - as chefs
They work long hours, give their best and want to do well - just want to do a good job, have a home and a family

However - it seems hospitality is a law unto itself in terms of HR - the owners of the establishment can just fire at will, having put staff through the ringer

Anyone else got experience off this ?
They seem to see you staff as just fodder for the machine - some don’t bother with pensions etc
Colleagues of mine in HR say hospitality is a law unto itself

Does this ring true with any of you?

Yeah your colleagues are right unfortunately in my experience. I would encourage your kids to look elsewhere, what quals do they have? With just GCSEs you can be an emergency services call handler and pay with shifts and overtime usually works out at about 25-32k a year.

Yeah.

Long hours, ending up working for less than min wage, bullying etc all rife.

I got out, my OH is a Head Chef.

I wouldn't encourage any of my kids, if I had any, to be Chefs. Stats on Chefs having affairs, broken relationships, breakdowns and drug and alcohol issues (anecdotally) are horrendous. Most of them have knackered their bodies by 40.

They have a passion for cooking - come up with new recipes, work hard, show respect and aim to do all that they are asked …. All for it to be flung back in their face
Restaurants that are owned by crazy people then have an HR department that make sure they get rid of staff just as their probationary period is up. It is cut throat

Not sure why I am posting - other than to vent but also to alert people that next time you are eating out think about the staff and in particular the kitchen staff who are treated in such a way

Thank you for the suggestions re another job - DCs have degrees so very much past GCSE

If anyone who owns a restaurant is reading this - your staff are not your slaves, like most people they just want a job, a home and a family - time to improve this industry

^ yep. All of this. Two chefs in our family and I also worked in catering when younger so saw the stuff that goes on with my own eyes.
I’ve told teen repeatedly not to go into catering, the chefs I know are burnt out and miserable but have no other skills really.
We are always really considerate to hospitality staff and will never even eat out on Christmas Day. One relative has never had Christmas dinner at home since the age of 16 as he’s always cooking Christmas Dinner at work, even though he has children. No work life balance in catering.

People have been trying to imrpove it for years. It's getting better but still a long way to go.

Some of the biggest barriers are:

• patrons are unprepared to pay the real cost of meals out. This means that to stay afloat staff are salaried then work ridiculous hours.

• its not treated as a proper profession so staff turnover is high, meaning those who are good but stay have to work 10 times as hard to keep things going and work with untrained new be's.

• the general public is horrible to deal with causing teams to feel on edge.

This is horrible! Have you put this on social media, tagging Travelodge and the area?

Ignore my response. I was on the wrong thread. Sorry!

Totally agree Rainbowsandrainouds1

We need to publicise this so much my DS worked in an open kitchen- sometimes 12 hours surrounded by people eating and he wasn’t allowed a break. Having something to eat himself was seen as a weakness

We need to call out this attitude of macho and the rogue owners who treat staff as dispensable