Stockpot: What brought you to start the Burnt Chef Project?

Kris Hall: I've been working within the hospitality industry for around nine years, mostly from a wholesale perspective, and I have seen first-hand the struggles with mental health issues of 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 hotbed of psychological and psycho-social 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 attached to anyone who talks about their feelings. 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 turn 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 should become the industry’s new definition of ‘badge of honour’.

Stockpot: How is the stigma around mental health in hospitality different compared to other industries? How would you explain that?

Kris: In 2017 the NHS reported that 1 in 4 people in the UK are likely to suffer mental illness in their lifetime. However, a study of almost 1,300 hospitality professionals carried out by The Burnt Chef Project has found this is nearer to 4 in 5 people in our industry.

Hospitality is a unique industry, often with long, anti-social hours in excess of 60 a 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 three hours sleep and then working a 12 to 16-hour shift in a hot, dark environment and then repeating the process?

Stockpot: How do you see work pressure in hospitality related to the shortage in skilled personnel?

Kris: It’s always been a tough environment to work in, but we’re beginning to see fewer 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.

It is no secret there are increasing staff shortages as workers look to balance their work-life commitments equally and adopt freelance working or leave the industry as a way of achieving this. This further compounds the pressure and increases stress levels as a result of the gaps left by those who have chosen to find a better work-life balance.

While this is the case I do believe that the role of management within hospitality is changing. Management needs to be focusing more upskilling 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 service periods without a similarly long-term strategy?

Stockpot: What is the role of the owner or manager of a restaurant? What do they need to provide to ensure a healthy working environment?

Kris: Employers can increase their responsibility to ensure there is a zero tolerance policy towards mental health stigma in the workplace. They can then begin to actively promote themselves as an 'employer of choice' when it comes to the subject of mental health.

It is essential that management teams undergo training around mental health awareness or mental health first aid in order to improve their confidence in the subject matter and to engage with, and further support, their teams.

Managers could consider adopting anonymous employee wellness surveys with their staff to check-in with the general feeling of the team and actively monitor responses for any notable changes that may require further conversations.

Stockpot: What should be the responsibility of the chefs and foodservice professionals themselves?

Kris: Employees have a shared responsibility to lead the charge when it comes to mental health. Senior professionals should feel confident that they can open up conversations about mental health with their peers without fear of stigma or comeback. This in-turn provides confidence to those who might be struggling with their own mental health.

It’s important to realise that many employers, as well as the staff, aren’t well versed in the subject of mental health as it’s been taboo for so long. Staff can provide valuable insight and direction into their own personal experiences so that employers can make well-informed changes to improve the working environment.

Stockpot: Can you tell us about the actions the Burnt Chef Project is taking to avoid mental health issues and improve the situation in UK hospitality?

Kris: The Burnt Chef Project is working with thousands of individuals across the UK to open up the 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.

Stockpot: What are your ambitions with the Burnt Chef Project? Within the UK and abroad?

Kris: Hospitality employs close to 72 million people worldwide with 3.2 million within the UK alone. We have barely scratched the tip of the iceberg with our message and there is a lot more work that needs to be done in both improving the saturation of our message and challenging work place stigma.

I’d like to see the Burnt Chef Project become synonymous with leading the charge against workplace mental health stigma and to help the hospitality industry flourish and improve as conversations and attitudes on this subject begin to change worldwide.

Stockpot: Could you give some simple tips and tricks for restaurant owners and managers to start taking more responsibility in creating a safe environment where mental health is highly valued and looked after?

Kris: We suggest a number of measures which include:

• Distributing hours evenly across teams
• Adopting a zero tolerance approach to mental health stigma
• Ensuring staff know their rotas and days off at least one week in advance, giving them time to plan
• Upskilling staff to ensure a more even workload
• Spend time training staff to improve the management of their workload
• Reducing the number of working days to mitigate longer hours
• Offering flexible working hours to those with families and young children
• Regular breaks away from the working environment to reduce fatigue and stress
• Reducing split shifts to a minimum

For more information about the Burnt Chef project visit the website: www.theburntchefproject.com/shop.