7 minute read
Front of mind
Kitchens may be referred to as pressure cookers, but front of house also feel the effects of stress.
WORDS Madeline Woolway
MENTAL HEALTH HAS rightly become a focus for the industry. While many of the high-profile discussions on the topic have come from chefs including Lûmé’s Shaun Quade, Subo’s Mal Meiers and Oakridge’s George Wintle, front of house managers are also taking steps to reduce the impact of job-related stress.
In late 2015, research from China suggested waitstaff roles were among some of the most stress-inducing occupations in the world. The statistics were wellcirculated at the time, however, practical advice on how to combat the epidemic was thin. To begin, an understanding of the nature of stress is necessary.
Parlour Group venue Stanton & Co
According to Appetite for Excellence co-founder Lucy Allon, there are a range of job-related causes, many of which are industry-wide. “The hours are incompatible with the normal pattern of life — it can be isolating,” she says. “It’s difficult to sustain relationships outside of the industry, so it can make your world a bit narrow. If the team is strong, it can be a really supportive environment, but if you don’t have a strong leader, it can be a problem.”
While some challenges are common to front and back of house, others are unique. “Food is extremely volatile and customers are more demanding,” says Jules Damjano, venue manager at Parlour Group’s Stanton & Co. “The standards are higher across the board and competition is stronger, everything is a ticking time-bomb if not dished out like precise clockwork. Front of house have to deal with customers face-toface and you always have to put your best foot forward and lose your ego, which is hard to swallow for most people.”
Jules Damjano
Expectations have evolved with modern times, too, adding to the pressure felt by front of house professionals to perform. “From a front of house perspective, we’re dealing with people who have access to information and therefore have high expectations,” says Allon. “We have to not only fulfil these expectations, but exceed them. It’s easy to feel you might not have achieved your best night after night.”
There’s no denying there has been a meteoric rise of appreciation for chefs, but front of house has yet to become widely accepted as a career path. Allon faced resistance from family, who felt she should use her university education to pursue a ‘profession’. “I think the big issue in Australia is that front of house is not recognised as a career path,” she says. “People have to fight for their reason to want to pursue a career in front of house and you have to justify why you’re doing it.”
It’s a structural problem based on a pervasive lack of recognition that front of house roles require skills. “You have to be a quick thinker, charismatic and you need to have information at your fingertips,” says Allon. “You need the skills of an entrepreneur, which is why the industry is so dynamic.”
Given there are two sets of concerns — day-to-day and long-term — combating stress among front of house staff requires a multipronged approach.
Lucy Allon
When it comes to unfriendly hours, the industry’s tight margins and staffing crisis make the fix easier said than done. For his part, Damjano tries to spread the workload and give staff two consecutive days off. He also avoids rostering individuals for both open and close shifts.
Work–life balance is not always easy to achieve and workplace culture needs to be prioritised. “We obviously don’t want high stress levels and we want a good working environment,” says Joey Commerford, venue manager at The Press Club. “It’s not just things they do in the restaurant, it’s about getting staff to go to Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, other restaurants and even things that aren’t 100 per cent related to hospo.”
Damjano agrees. At Stanton & Co, the focus is on creating a family work culture where everyone looks out for each other. Management organise regular outings for staff to help foster team building. “We don’t just go to bars and restaurants, we go to parks, beaches or adult amusement centres such as Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq in Alexandria,” says Damjano. The manager also recommends creating a sporting team on Mondays to bond, release the pressures of being in the frontlines at work and see another side of your colleagues.
Allon agrees, and says team activities planned outside a venue are essential. “People are realising how important getting out of the business is for team bonding and mental health,” says Allon, who also runs Straight to the Source food tours alongside Tawnya Bahr. “It restores inspiration for why they’re in the food industry.”
It’s not just about bonding among the front of house team either. While there are unique stressors on the floor and in the kitchen, creating cohesion between the two zones can relieve strain. “I’ve worked in Hospitality for 12 years and often what lacks is cohesiveness between the kitchen and front of house,” says Commerford. “They’re two separate entities, but stress can be reduced when they talk about issues and find a resolution.”
Team dynamic can make or break a service, which is why Allon emphasises the importance of strong leaders. “It’s all about having open communication — they need to feel they can come and talk to you without it affecting their role,” says Allon. “As an employer or team manager, it’s about initiating conversations and not making it a case of them having to come to you. Ask questions like ‘is everything okay?’
“If we were having problems, I’d pull people off the floor and put them on the pass or behind the scenes. The dynamic is intrinsic to service and diners will pick up on it, even though they might not know what’s going on.”
Joey Commerford
Photo: karon Photography
On the job, Commerford’s team has a few strategies to help reduce stress levels. “The first is knowledge,” says Commerford. “If you have knowledge, you have confidence on the floor and you can better deal with stress than someone who isn’t equipped with knowledge.”
To this end, Commerford suggests investing in education. The Press Club’s approach includes weekly training structured around different topics. “We have a whole channel dedicated to training,” he says. “It might be sequence of service one week or ethos training. All these things are giving people what they need to be confident on the floor.”
When training is paired with empowerment, it results in staff who feel valued. “We have Slack [team communication app] and we have a channel for creativity,” says Commerford. “Staff are encouraged to post anything they find creative there. We also work on The Press Club projects next door and develop ideas — it’s all about empowering staff to believe they can make a difference in the restaurant.”
Encouraging staff to set their own goals is another avenue managers can explore. “At Monday dinner service, we set goals for the week,” says Commerford. “It’s indirectly related to stress. We talk about targets they can achieve that will make the restaurant better and that will make them better as an operator. Our staff member Jake set himself a goal to make the cocktail program more service friendly. Within a week, he had a full system completed.”
Joey Commerford, Reuben Davis, Vanessa Crichton and George Calombaris
Photo: karon Photography
The benefit of approaches such as this are two-fold. Staff are motivated on a shortterm basis and it can help change attitudes about career opportunities in front of house in the long run. “It’s not just about what they do here; it’s about what they take with them into the future,” says Commerford. “If you have knowledge you learned here, you’ll be a better operator in the future.”
Front of house professionals are in need of something to work towards, Allon adds. “I realised with negative feedback from my parents, I had to get formal training, but there wasn’t any and there isn’t really now. I had to find the best mentor to take me under their wing. You might have the resolve to do that, but it’s not necessarily easy to achieve.”
Appetite for Excellence 2018 Young Waiters national finalists
Photograph: Nikki To
It’s one of the reasons Allon started Appetite for Excellence with Luke Mangan. Not only does the program provide access to mentors and practical training, it also tackles team management and stress monitoring head on.
“When the finalists come to Sydney for the judging period and go on the produce tour, a lot of what we’re discussing is being aware of these challenges and dealing with them,” says Allon. “We try to give them talks from experts in the field, people who lead teams and can talk about things like nonverbal communication. The thing about hospitality is that the genuine warmth of service is something body language gives away. A lot of the training that’s hard to give is non-verbal training.”
2018 Appetite for Excellence national finalists
Photograph: Nikki To
Providing a platform for people to discuss stress management and the benefits of practical training, goal setting and team building is crucial. The earlier the opportunity is offered, the better. “If we can get these conversations and thoughts happening early, managers can find ways to innovatively deal with them,” says Allon. “They can be there to move the industry forward.” ■
