We all love to go out and have a good time and quite frequently that involves eating and drinking. We’ll go to our favourite pubs and restaurants, enjoy a lovely evening and then make our way home.

But what about the people behind the scenes?

Having worked in hospitality at site level since the tender age of 18, I’ve worked in a variety of venues serving all walks of life across the country and although each site was different, one thing remained the same in each. Team burn out.

The enjoyment of the paying clientele often comes at the cost of other people. Long, unsociable hours frequently with no break and little time to grab something to eat means that full-time members of staff in the hospitality industry are often facing mental and physical burn out.

So why do they do it?

There’s a superhero mentality which pushes them through, the drive to get through the shift, do the most covers and work the most hours.

They wear it like a medal of honour and challenge those around them to match it. It’s almost like they want to prove they’re indestructible which of course, they’re not.

The other answer is love of the industry.

It’s a commitment to the cause that you won’t find in any other sector.

  • Chefs are generally passionate people, proud of their skills and committed to giving you the best eating and drinking experience.
  • Front of house want you to have a good time, they often go to great lengths to ensure you leave feeling well looked-after and are genuinely disappointed if things don’t go quite right.

Another reason is they also build long lasting relationships with their colleagues based on shared experience and time spent together. When working in hospitality the highs are stratospheric while the lows can be truly heart breaking and while going through this together, they build strong bonds with one another that can last a lifetime.

Times are changing…

However, the reality is, that there’s only so long you can work 12-hour days and 70 hour weeks before it starts to take a toll on your health and your personal relationships and after Covid, many experienced professionals in the industry are asking if it’s worth it leading to many leaving the profession all together in search of a better work/life balance.

So much so, we created a specific category of jobs offering a healthy work-life balance, and it’s one of the most visited pages of our website!

This post-lockdown world has prompted a change of thinking lately with some of the larger hospitality providers recognising that this kind of work ethic is simply not sustainable.

Many companies have looked inwards and have asked “what can we do to make this better?”

The motivation comes from companies recognising that the building blocks of their business are the team and if the team are crumbling, so is the business.

With 4 day working weeks being talked about more commonly as a potential reality rather than a pipe dream and other companies looking at their pay structures to reflect the sacrifices made by hospitality professionals, change is coming but will it be too little too late for some?

With Christmas and the new year only just behind us, it’s often a time for reflection on the previous year. I hope that going into 2023 the industry is serious about looking after it’s people and making sure that team burn out is reduced amongst those who choose to remain.

Hospitality is one of the most rewarding careers anyone can get into but until we start taking care of those that pursue their hospitality dream, we will see more and more people leaving it forever.