We couldn’t help but notice the great work The Burnt Chef Project has been doing recently to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health of workers in the UK hospitality trade and we’ve decided to donate a proportion from every sign-up to this great cause.
What made you start The Burnt Chef Project?
I've been working within the hospitality industry for around 9 years from a wholesale perspective and have seen first-hand the struggles of mental health issues with both colleagues and friends. Long, anti-social hours, tough environmental conditions, and consistently high pressures to perform are just some of the things that professionals within this sector are dealing with on a daily basis.
Years of these conditions provide a hot bed of psychological and psychosocial issues such as high stress levels, anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug abuse not to mention the impact that the working hours and conditions have on personal relationships with friends and families.
There is a strong stigma within the hospitality trade. The term "Badge of Honour" is often used and refers to an individual who will suffer in silence at personal cost over letting the team down or to save being singled out. We want to change that on its head and redefine the term. Every person within hospitality should be able to discuss the state of their mental health and gain support from their peers and employers. It is important that although mental health can't be seen it is regularly discussed and policies reviewed. Those that speak out against the stigma and should be the industries new definition of Badge of Honour."
How is the stigma on mental health in Foodservice compared to other industries? How would you explain that?
In 2017 the NHS reported that 1 in 4 people in the UK are likely to suffer ill mental health in their lifetime however, a study of almost 1300 hospitality professionals carried out by The Burnt Chef Project, has found this is nearer to 4 in 5 people.
Hospitality is a unique industry often with long anti social hours in excess of 60 per week, little to no access to natural light, a ‘work hard, play hard, culture, and perhaps less rigid or informed policies on workplace adjustments when it comes to mitigating the risks of high stress environments. It would strange to imagine a white-collar trade working in a similar way without a great deal of press coverage. Could you imagine a lawyer or telesales operative starting work at 6am after 3 hours sleep then working 12 – 16 hour shift in hot, dark environments before repeating the process?
How do you see work pressure in Foodservice related to the shortage in skilled personnel?
It’s always been a tough environment to work in but we’re beginning to see less people turn to hospitality as a viable career path.
UKHospitality had reported that the industry was in a year on year growth trend of +3.9% before COVID-19 yet despite this we have found that only 35% of our survey respondents would recommend working in hospitality.
Whilst this is the case I do believe that the role of management within hospitality is changing. Management need to be focussing on upskilling their staff so that they can better manage their time and are more resilient when faced with busier periods.
You wouldn’t ask someone to run a marathon without training so why should we be expecting staff to walk straight into long services without a similar long-term strategy?
Could you describe the actions the Burnt Chef Project is taking to avoid mental health issues and improve the situation in UK Foodservice?
The Burnt Chef Project is working with 1,000s of individuals across the UK to open up conversation and bring more awareness to the fact that poor mental health and a lack of mental hygiene is further contributing to the pressures felt in the industry.
Our existence drives conversations within workplaces and the profits made from the sales of branded merchandise from our website goes towards paying for mental health awareness training and management training so that we can upskill staff across the UK.
You can learn more about The Burnt Chef Project here