103: Hustle Culture & the Hospitality Industry
Jim Taylor of Benchmark Sixty and Adam Lamb discuss the #hustleculture of our industry, and while it might have made most food and beverage operations more efficient, it may have come at the cost of staff safety and retention.
Turning the Table Is the most progressive weekly podcast for today's food and beverage industry, featuring staff-centric operating solutions for restaurants in the #newhospitalityculture.
Join Jim Taylor of Benchmark Sixty and Adam Lamb as they "turn the tables" on the prevailing operating assumptions of running a restaurant in favor of innovative solutions to our industry's most persistent challenges.
Sponsored by Benchmark Sixty Restaurant Services
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This show is sponsored by Benchmark Sixty; check out their unique staff retention solution.
In partnership with Realignment Hospitality
Adam Lamb:
Welcome back to our hashtag lunchbox live stream
Adam Lamb:
here at turning the table.
Adam Lamb:
This is episode three, and we're gonna be discussing the hustle culture.
Adam Lamb:
I'm here with good friend, Jim Taylor of benchmark 60 and is always turning
Adam Lamb:
the table is sponsored by benchmark 60.
Adam Lamb:
So yeah, of course we would have him, right.
Jim Taylor:
morning.
Jim Taylor:
How's it going?
Jim Taylor:
Well, I guess afternoon, if you're in the east, right,
Adam Lamb:
exactly.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
We cover all time zones here.
Adam Lamb:
We do.
Adam Lamb:
And so for those of you, this is the first time that you're actually seeing
Adam Lamb:
this we broadcast live every Thursday at noon and we're doing it on linked.
Adam Lamb:
YouTube and on Facebook.
Adam Lamb:
And the whole idea is staff centric, hashtag operating solutions
Adam Lamb:
for today's restaurant tours.
Adam Lamb:
And we speak to a lot of people in the restaurant industry.
Adam Lamb:
Don't
Jim Taylor:
we time.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah, everybody.
Jim Taylor:
I mean, had a conversation with a guy in a cafeteria the other day had a
Jim Taylor:
discussion with a senior living person last week, you know, the hotel part of
Jim Taylor:
the industry, you and I were chatting a lot about the hotel side of things
Jim Taylor:
the other day mm-hmm you know, mainstream restaurant QSR, full service.
Jim Taylor:
I mean, you name it.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And it's funny cause I'm not gonna do that because I'm gonna get an echo.
Adam Lamb:
You know, every, you know, it's so funny.
Adam Lamb:
It's no news that everybody's trying to, this is something I found on the web.
Adam Lamb:
Holy crap is a food brand.
Adam Lamb:
Can I answer your question?
Adam Lamb:
Thank you, echo.
Adam Lamb:
Yes, it did.
Adam Lamb:
holy crap is a food brand.
Adam Lamb:
Wow.
Adam Lamb:
That's amazing.
Adam Lamb:
Just mute him while I'm at it.
Adam Lamb:
Little echo down here in the dish pit studios.
Adam Lamb:
So it's no news to anybody that they're doing less or doing more with less.
Adam Lamb:
Which kind of backs into our conversation today about the hustle culture.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And how that's actually killing the restaurant industry right now.
Adam Lamb:
Well,
Jim Taylor:
I think it's always been killing the restaurant industry.
Jim Taylor:
It's just front and center all of a sudden, right.
Jim Taylor:
I was re I don't know.
Jim Taylor:
I was, I think I sent you some of the stuff.
Jim Taylor:
I was reading some stats the other day from restaurants, Canada, but
Jim Taylor:
I'm sure it's the same in the us.
Jim Taylor:
We're close to that.
Jim Taylor:
There was an unbelievably low number of restaurants compared to what I
Jim Taylor:
assumed that have actually increased people's pay this year, but it
Jim Taylor:
was almost 80% of restaurants are actually asking their people to work
Jim Taylor:
more hours than they already were.
Jim Taylor:
Before I talked to someone yesterday, she told me at 108 hours
Jim Taylor:
on her last two week pay period.
Jim Taylor:
What I mean that's not sustainable, right?
Adam Lamb:
Crazy.
Adam Lamb:
No, no, it's not.
Adam Lamb:
And I know that everybody's in this crunch where they can't find good help
Adam Lamb:
or so they say they can't find good.
Adam Lamb:
. Yeah, I just did a post this morning about, you know, the folks that
Adam Lamb:
are complaining that they can't get qualified staff are probably the
Adam Lamb:
same people who are still trying to hold onto their wage levels.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm from pre pandemic they're resistant to trying to add any
Adam Lamb:
benefit packages because they can't accurate calculate the ROI.
Adam Lamb:
Like how the hell is that gonna actually help us in the long run?
Adam Lamb:
And someone responded to the post.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
It's, it's weird how people are resistant to trying to do anything to better.
Adam Lamb:
The lot of their associates, which to me, just, just shocking mm-hmm and
Adam Lamb:
I don't wanna make anybody wrong, but you know, typically those are the
Adam Lamb:
operators that nobody wants to work for.
Adam Lamb:
So they're actually, they're actually right.
Adam Lamb:
You are right on the money.
Adam Lamb:
Nobody wants to work for.
Adam Lamb:
If you are not going to do something outside of the box, and we've been
Adam Lamb:
exploring all kinds of things that people have been talking about,
Adam Lamb:
but in so far as increasing benefit packages without necessarily
Adam Lamb:
getting kicked in the bottom line.
Adam Lamb:
But why don't you talk for a bit about what your experience of
Adam Lamb:
the hustle culture was when you were actively managing meeting?
Jim Taylor:
I was, I think, you know, I was really lucky to work for a really
Jim Taylor:
cool, really innovative, really growth focused, you know, front and center
Jim Taylor:
in the industry in Western Canada.
Jim Taylor:
Well, Canada in general, I was really lucky to work for a great company.
Jim Taylor:
But, you know, the interesting thing, looking back now, even some
Jim Taylor:
of the things that we did and we, we believed and they still do believe
Jim Taylor:
in taking really good care of people.
Jim Taylor:
Good benefits, packaging, you know, good reward and recognition, good
Jim Taylor:
compensation, all of that stuff.
Jim Taylor:
The people that worked there are some of, you know, they, they get
Jim Taylor:
really well taken care of in terms of industry standard, but there was still
Jim Taylor:
this like underlying hustle culture that was kind of never spoken about.
Jim Taylor:
But if you didn't follow it, it, you just sort.
Jim Taylor:
Who weren't successful.
Jim Taylor:
And you know, the thing that I always, and, and I looking back, I was guilty
Jim Taylor:
of this too, but the thing that I always think about is we use this term resiliency
Jim Taylor:
all the time with our people and said, you know, people who are resilient get
Jim Taylor:
promoted and people who are resilient move forward in this organization.
Jim Taylor:
And, you know, I would say not to pick on that organization, but it's
Jim Taylor:
about the industry in general, people who are resilient have opportunity
Jim Taylor:
and move forward and grow and get promoted and get a raise and all these.
Jim Taylor:
What the, what our industry's really saying by that though, you know,
Jim Taylor:
looking back now is not who's resilient.
Jim Taylor:
It's who doesn't complain, who just their head down works, who
Jim Taylor:
just goes in on their day off.
Jim Taylor:
Who does their admin at home?
Jim Taylor:
You know, I remember I used to write all of the, the one that sticks out to me or
Jim Taylor:
something I was thinking of this morning.
Jim Taylor:
I used to write all of my schedules when I was a general manager for December.
Jim Taylor:
I would write the whole month's schedule at once.
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
Because I wanted to, my goal was that I wanted to make sure that my team had
Jim Taylor:
the ability to plan around the holidays.
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
They either worked new year's or they worked Christmas, or they worked boxing
Jim Taylor:
day, or they worked new year's day.
Jim Taylor:
You know, like we tried to get that stuff out.
Jim Taylor:
But looking back at the resilience thing, well, I took one whole
Jim Taylor:
weekend cuz I didn't have time to do it within my work hours.
Jim Taylor:
I took one of my whole weekends with a couple of bottles of wine
Jim Taylor:
and sat there and wrote schedules for like 12 hours straight.
Jim Taylor:
and, you know, looking back at it now, I'm like, okay, so this was good for the,
Jim Taylor:
the team probably, but I burnt myself out in one of the busiest times of the
Jim Taylor:
year, you know, trying to do that stuff.
Jim Taylor:
So I think it's just, you know, this resiliency concept in our industry,
Jim Taylor:
we need to find a way to reframe that because people are just.
Jim Taylor:
Condition then it's, you know, you and I have talked about this badge of
Jim Taylor:
honor thing, put your head down and go, and it's just not sustainable.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
I'm glad you bring up the badge of honor thing because it's this it's this
Adam Lamb:
veneration of, of not, not just hard work, but really abusing yourself in
Adam Lamb:
order to support whatever version of you.
Adam Lamb:
You want to promote to your employers or to your friends or whatever.
Adam Lamb:
And I have to think that looking back at my career, that I was my own worst
Adam Lamb:
enemy, you know, I was the one that was actually promoting the hustle culture
Adam Lamb:
and this idea that, you know, you're gonna go in there and you're gonna.
Adam Lamb:
You're gonna do the best thing.
Adam Lamb:
And then using that to train, shame and condition, everybody around me, mm-hmm
Adam Lamb:
and very often it's not anything that you say, but it's just like, if there's
Adam Lamb:
a tight relationship, you know, a lot of emotional capital that's been put into
Adam Lamb:
that piggy bank between you and your staff, as soon as they start shift, see
Adam Lamb:
you shift, then all of a sudden they all kind of fall back because they're
Adam Lamb:
all taking their emotional cues from us as, as supervisors and leaders.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm , which is what.
Adam Lamb:
Consider to be one like job one for us is to get rid of that whole hustle culture.
Adam Lamb:
Like if we're planned properly and what I mean planned properly, we're also
Adam Lamb:
planning for things to go sideways.
Adam Lamb:
You know, that the shipments are coming late or that we're getting MIS picks
Adam Lamb:
on our orders or what, whatever that is.
Adam Lamb:
We plan that into our day of action so that there's no stress.
Adam Lamb:
so that there's no hustle.
Adam Lamb:
Like one of my favorite examples is the health inspector is at the back door.
Adam Lamb:
So everybody starts scrambling.
Adam Lamb:
Like everybody's got prearranged orders of what they're gonna do, do, do, do
Adam Lamb:
do, but it's this mad scramble to, to have everything in perfect condition
Adam Lamb:
for when the health inspector comes in.
Adam Lamb:
When in fact that should be your operating standard anyway.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
So that there is no hustle and if it's not coming from us, then no one else is gonna,
Adam Lamb:
no one else is gonna do that for us.
Adam Lamb:
So you know, we've got a couple people from all over the world watching us today.
Adam Lamb:
We've got Stanley from Tanzania Africa.
Adam Lamb:
We've got John stable for, from the UK who says he is loving.
Adam Lamb:
So John , which is awesome because As this reach widens, you know, again, one
Adam Lamb:
of these things about our lunchbox live stream is to get a couple actionable items
Adam Lamb:
from our discussion so that folks can turn around, go back into their operation
Adam Lamb:
and start affecting change right away.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm because culture happens from the ground up.
Adam Lamb:
It's all elbow to elbow.
Adam Lamb:
It's nothing that comes out of a box or a, or a, or some corporate
Adam Lamb:
boardroom or the HR department.
Adam Lamb:
You know, I don't wanna make anybody mad at the, in the HR sector.
Adam Lamb:
We know it's about compliance and how important that is.
Adam Lamb:
And yet if culture's not happening at the ground level,
Adam Lamb:
it's just gonna get watered down.
Adam Lamb:
So culturally speaking, then we're gonna have to be the ones that breaks the back
Adam Lamb:
of this hustle culture and venerating, abusive working conditions and hours.
Adam Lamb:
Whether that means, you know, going to a four day work week,
Adam Lamb:
which a lot of operations.
Adam Lamb:
Or playing around with, or considering, you know, looking at your, at your P and
Adam Lamb:
L, is there a day where you can close and then get everybody off at the same day?
Adam Lamb:
I always thought that was brilliant that you could put your entire crew
Adam Lamb:
off the same two days so that you have this consistency all the way through.
Adam Lamb:
I'm not advocating that people close for two days, but it may make sense in
Adam Lamb:
part of the season or part of the year.
Adam Lamb:
I, I don't know.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
I mean, I know in Europe, August is typically a month where everybody
Adam Lamb:
takes off everybody except for people working in restaurants and hotels.
Adam Lamb:
yeah.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
And, and, you know, I feel like we need to sort of clarify something
Jim Taylor:
around this hustle culture thing.
Jim Taylor:
Hustle is important and hustle is mm-hmm.
Jim Taylor:
awesome.
Jim Taylor:
And hustle is fun and hustle.
Jim Taylor:
When it's needed.
Jim Taylor:
It's really, I mean, ultimately one of the most important, I think
Jim Taylor:
skills you can have mm-hmm if you look at any other industry, right?
Jim Taylor:
I mean, everything from when you're in a, if someone's an accountant to,
Jim Taylor:
someone's a pilot to someone, you know, there's hustle time and it's like,
Jim Taylor:
it's go time, you know, professional sports, the playoffs, all those things.
Jim Taylor:
There's time where, when you gotta hustle.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
You know, I, I grew up in, in Calgary, Alberta.
Jim Taylor:
In Western Canada where the Calgary Stampe is mm-hmm and it's 10 days.
Jim Taylor:
And it's insane.
Jim Taylor:
It's this giant rodeo and beer gardens everywhere.
Jim Taylor:
And, you know, hundreds of thousands of people come to the city and it's go time.
Jim Taylor:
It's like 10 days straight of nonstop, especially if you work in a restaurant
Jim Taylor:
it's hustle time, but it doesn't have to be, you know, 108 hours on your
Jim Taylor:
paycheck in the middle of August when you shouldn't necessarily have to do.
Jim Taylor:
And, you know, I think we were a few of us on the team were talking the
Jim Taylor:
other day about the difference between hard work and having to work too hard.
Adam Lamb:
yeah, absolutely.
Adam Lamb:
That goes up with some of my earlier influences.
Adam Lamb:
There was a guy by the name ed ESE, who was the meanest front of the house
Adam Lamb:
manager I have ever met in my life.
Adam Lamb:
And when I met him, he was in his seventies and, and still
Adam Lamb:
work in the floor and he would constantly pound it into my head.
Adam Lamb:
You know, lamb, you gotta plan your work and work your.
Adam Lamb:
Got plan, your work and work plan.
Adam Lamb:
And some people are just chiming in with some of the things that
Adam Lamb:
they've seen that are, have been working in their operations.
Adam Lamb:
You know, hustle is great, Jim, except if you're a customer, right.
Adam Lamb:
If I don't want my service staff to be so hustled that I can't get my next drink.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
So there's this idea of.
Adam Lamb:
What benchmark 60 has gotten so good at at being able to accurately forecast
Adam Lamb:
and then actively manage workloads, which is completely different than just
Adam Lamb:
going in and saying, okay, your labor percentage was two points high yesterday.
Adam Lamb:
What are you gonna do to recapture that today?
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
That workload piece is.
Jim Taylor:
It's been a, a game changer for lots of places because you're, you know, not
Jim Taylor:
only, like you said, is it a labor a tool for, you know, management, labor costs.
Jim Taylor:
But if you look at that concept over an extended period of time, If you,
Jim Taylor:
if you go back to a time in, when you worked in restaurants, where there was
Jim Taylor:
just, you know, maybe, maybe you were short staffed or maybe it was a really
Jim Taylor:
exceptionally busy summer, or there was a bunch of events going on or, you
Jim Taylor:
know, whatever, there could be a million different factors, but go back to one of
Jim Taylor:
those times in your career in operations, when everybody had to just really
Jim Taylor:
grind for an extended period of time.
Jim Taylor:
Oh yeah.
Jim Taylor:
What happened?
Jim Taylor:
People quit right.
Jim Taylor:
There's a threshold.
Jim Taylor:
Right?
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
And that, that workload concept of measuring that in a restaurant allows
Jim Taylor:
you to get ahead of that and say, okay, I know that if, if we pass this
Jim Taylor:
certain level, everyone's gonna hate it.
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
And what happens then people quit.
Jim Taylor:
So, you know, there's direct connection between how hard the team has to work and
Adam Lamb:
turnover.
Adam Lamb:
Mm.
Adam Lamb:
This this badge of honor thing too.
Adam Lamb:
And speaking again of my own experience what it allowed me to do was to
Adam Lamb:
engage in some really poor behavior, insofar as my own health and wellness.
Adam Lamb:
You know, if you think of it as a totem pole and putting everyone up above me,
Adam Lamb:
then that meant that I was constantly in service to everyone else, except for.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And when it came time for me to, for lack of a better word, take
Adam Lamb:
some time and refill my cup, you know, I was pretty well broken by
Adam Lamb:
that point and no good to anyone.
Adam Lamb:
And then I would have to go back and basically recommit to all my
Adam Lamb:
fellow managers and associates, you know, and say, Hey, I, I, I realize
Adam Lamb:
I haven't been here fully for you.
Adam Lamb:
And I'm really sorry about that.
Adam Lamb:
You know, can you accept my apology?
Adam Lamb:
And this is what I'm committed to moving forward.
Adam Lamb:
I've always been incredibly transparent about what's happened in my professional
Adam Lamb:
and personal life, because if I want somebody to be vulnerable and
Adam Lamb:
transparent to me, then there's, there's no way that I can advocate for that.
Adam Lamb:
If I'm not gonna do it first now need to practice a little discernment
Adam Lamb:
because not everybody needs to know what I do in my personal time, but
Adam Lamb:
I'm pretty sure that, you know, we're all gonna come up against the same
Adam Lamb:
factors if we're in this business.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm so I like to also.
Adam Lamb:
Remind people that if you're in this business, you are by defacto, a sensitive
Adam Lamb:
soul, or have a sensitive spirit because you get something emotionally from being
Adam Lamb:
in service to somebody else, which is an honorable thing, which is a sacred thing.
Adam Lamb:
Very true.
Adam Lamb:
But it's a completely different thing when you advocate your own.
Adam Lamb:
You know, you either tie that to your self worth or you put yourself
Adam Lamb:
at the bottom of the totem pole.
Adam Lamb:
You just got back.
Adam Lamb:
I mean, not just got back because you're still not sweating, but you took
Adam Lamb:
time out of your busy day to do what?
Adam Lamb:
A 45 minute thing
Jim Taylor:
this morning.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
Still a little red in the face.
Adam Lamb:
Well, why do you, why do you think that that's
Adam Lamb:
important for you to get done?
Adam Lamb:
First thing in the, in the day consist.
Jim Taylor:
Well, for me, it's just as much mental as it is physical, for sure.
Jim Taylor:
I mean, it puts you in the right space.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Because there's this energy that gets built up in our
Adam Lamb:
bodies being under this stress.
Adam Lamb:
And really, there's only a couple of different ways to expel that energy.
Adam Lamb:
And one of the most powerful ways that I've seen is, you
Adam Lamb:
know, by exercising for sure.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Because there's just nothing better than sweating in that particular.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
In a positive way, right?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
And so to anybody who says to you, well, listen, man, I don't have a choice.
Adam Lamb:
I got a hustle.
Adam Lamb:
Like sometimes it just pisses me off to see some of these posts by people
Adam Lamb:
who are claiming now on LinkedIn of, you know, now we have influencers on
Adam Lamb:
LinkedIn that are trying to like use the algorithm as they would for TikTok or, or.
Adam Lamb:
Or, or Instagram, but they're advocating this hustle, hustle,
Adam Lamb:
hustle, hustle, hustle thing.
Adam Lamb:
Mm.
Adam Lamb:
Like it, like, it's great you to go out there and hustle like, yes,
Adam Lamb:
you gotta pull up your bootstraps.
Adam Lamb:
Yes.
Adam Lamb:
You're responsible for your own success, but how are we gonna break people
Adam Lamb:
out of this hustle culture within the industry that basically negates
Adam Lamb:
self and puts everyone else above us?
Jim Taylor:
So here's one of the things that I think is interesting, and this is
Jim Taylor:
aligned with what you're saying right now.
Jim Taylor:
If you look at what's going on in, in multiple other industries, outside
Jim Taylor:
of restaurants and, and multiple governments, actually there's starting
Jim Taylor:
to be these limitations placed on what happens in the workplace, right?
Jim Taylor:
Ontario, a province in Canada, for those that aren't in Canada.
Jim Taylor:
Has now implemented a, a law that your employer cannot call
Jim Taylor:
you outside of office hours.
Jim Taylor:
It's illegal.
Jim Taylor:
Okay.
Jim Taylor:
So that's a protecting of employee workload, right?
Jim Taylor:
You get the, the four day work week, things that are happening, you get
Jim Taylor:
even something as simple as, you know, people went crazy a few years ago
Jim Taylor:
when Facebook said where, whatever you want to work, wear a hoodie.
Jim Taylor:
I don't care.
Jim Taylor:
You know, our, our industry, and this is where I I'm, you know, sometimes
Jim Taylor:
on a bit of an island, but you know, people like you and, and a few others
Jim Taylor:
are, are definitely helping to rally the troops on this is that the same type
Jim Taylor:
of stuff is possible in our industry.
Jim Taylor:
We just, our industry just seems to just be stuck and not be able
Jim Taylor:
to wrap our heads around it.
Jim Taylor:
And it still, this.
Jim Taylor:
108 hours on my paycheck every two weeks.
Jim Taylor:
It's still this, you know, I don't want to close an extra
Jim Taylor:
day because you've gotta grind.
Jim Taylor:
And it's a, and it's a penny industry and it's margins are tight and you know, those
Jim Taylor:
types of things, but it it's possible.
Jim Taylor:
With and, you know, while still doing some of these other things that the rest
Jim Taylor:
of the world has figured out how to do.
Jim Taylor:
Correct.
Jim Taylor:
I woke up this morning to some very interesting messages on in, in my, in my
Jim Taylor:
DM, from somebody who was quite passionate about the fact that everything that we're
Jim Taylor:
trying to accomplish at be benchmark 60 is a total fantasy we're on our own.
Jim Taylor:
It's never gonna happen.
Jim Taylor:
Call me every name in the book.
Jim Taylor:
Right?
Jim Taylor:
Where do you get off?
Jim Taylor:
You're an idiot.
Jim Taylor:
Like really?
Jim Taylor:
It was, it was actually interesting and it actually reminded me that, you
Jim Taylor:
know, it's that much more important than I think we even realize, right.
Jim Taylor:
Especially in restaurants,
Adam Lamb:
I couldn't agree more.
Adam Lamb:
You know, to a certain extent there are operators who are
Adam Lamb:
always gonna be ahead of the wave.
Adam Lamb:
You know, they're gonna be so far out in, in front.
Adam Lamb:
Because they recognize a good strategy or a good idea worth implementing, or
Adam Lamb:
at least playing around with mm-hmm and there are gonna be those that are gonna
Adam Lamb:
come kicking and screaming to the table.
Adam Lamb:
The unfortunate thing is those that are kicking and screaming may not necessarily
Adam Lamb:
have a table to be brought to because their operations may be closed by then.
Adam Lamb:
I mean, it is just so tight out there and I am empathetic in understanding
Adam Lamb:
of the weight of responsibility that some GMs, DMS chefs, managers have.
Adam Lamb:
Absolutely.
Adam Lamb:
I mean, it is absolutely fucking crushing yet.
Adam Lamb:
If we don't make some small strides.
Adam Lamb:
Towards protecting our associate's emotional and
Adam Lamb:
physical safety, physical safety.
Adam Lamb:
I think for the most part we got right.
Adam Lamb:
We've got OSHA in the United States.
Adam Lamb:
And to your point about these laws that are being implemented about eight
Adam Lamb:
months ago, I talked to an Australian chef who works in Germany, who told
Adam Lamb:
me it is illegal for him to contact an associate out of work hours.
Adam Lamb:
Yep.
Adam Lamb:
Can't call him on a day.
Adam Lamb:
Can't call 'em in . Nope.
Adam Lamb:
And I'm thinking to myself.
Adam Lamb:
Okay.
Adam Lamb:
So that changes the dynamic a lot because here in the United States, we have this
Adam Lamb:
implication that you are always available.
Adam Lamb:
Right?
Adam Lamb:
And it's a different thing.
Adam Lamb:
If you're on a call list and you have to call in and, you know, to see if
Adam Lamb:
you're gonna shift, but you know, here's a LinkedIn user who said part
Adam Lamb:
of my interview process asks candidate what they do daily to keep them of
Adam Lamb:
sound mind, and body and escape.
Adam Lamb:
Escape reality.
Adam Lamb:
Cool.
Adam Lamb:
that might lead to a couple other things but my expectation is they'd be a hundred
Adam Lamb:
percent mentally healthy and physically outside of work, and then be able to
Adam Lamb:
give the job a hundred percent inside the walls, which is kind of like, you
Adam Lamb:
know, a new way of thinking in that we're not just hiring a pair of hands we're
Adam Lamb:
actually, or, you know, a position on a schedule, even though that's the way
Adam Lamb:
you might organize your schedule, which makes sense a bunch of different reasons.
Adam Lamb:
So we celebr.
Adam Lamb:
This, the LinkedIn user for their capacity to actually think outside the box.
Adam Lamb:
And there is nothing saying that an operator can't say to a staff, okay,
Adam Lamb:
we're implementing a new policy.
Adam Lamb:
We will never call you on your day off.
Adam Lamb:
Or we won't, or we won't call you after hours.
Adam Lamb:
Mm-hmm . Now you might have a call, you know, scheduled check-in.
Adam Lamb:
But there's nothing saying that things that are happening in other countries,
Adam Lamb:
can't be applied to our, to our current operations here in the United States.
Adam Lamb:
And by the way Canada Calgary, Calgary, just got named one of the
Adam Lamb:
top 10 places to live in the world.
Adam Lamb:
So it did.
Adam Lamb:
Yep.
Adam Lamb:
Had some places had a couple places in Canada's on the pitch and doing well up
Jim Taylor:
there.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
And you know, that, that concept around, you know, this LinkedIn user with this
Jim Taylor:
question around, what are you doing to mm-hmm, keep yourself protected and keep
Jim Taylor:
yourself motivated, keep yourself healthy.
Jim Taylor:
And you know, those things, I mean, props to that operator for actually doing that.
Jim Taylor:
Yep.
Jim Taylor:
I think that, you know what, I would encourage every employer, whether
Jim Taylor:
they're in restaurants or not.
Jim Taylor:
But every employer to think about is how powerful would it be?
Jim Taylor:
If you could say to your people, listen, I expect that you work
Jim Taylor:
hard when you come to work.
Jim Taylor:
Mm-hmm right.
Jim Taylor:
That's there's that one side, right?
Jim Taylor:
This is your job.
Jim Taylor:
You've gotta work hard.
Jim Taylor:
Mm-hmm but we're gonna implement something to protect you
Jim Taylor:
from having to work too hard.
Jim Taylor:
Correct?
Jim Taylor:
We're gonna do things for you to not just say here's an extra dollar.
Jim Taylor:
Thanks for working your butt off.
Jim Taylor:
Not just, here's an extra day off.
Jim Taylor:
Thanks for working so hard.
Jim Taylor:
We're gonna actually do something proactively as a business in terms
Jim Taylor:
of, and use data as, as we've discussed a lot in the past to do
Jim Taylor:
that so that we don't even have to have the conversation about burnout.
Jim Taylor:
Because we already know we're protecting how hard the team has to work.
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
I mean, think about that from a, from an employee standpoint, you're
Jim Taylor:
talking to your friends about, and they're telling you how exhausted
Jim Taylor:
they are and burnt out there.
Jim Taylor:
And I go, well, my employer actually has a system and a strategy that
Jim Taylor:
they use to protect us from burnout.
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
It's totally different.
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
Let's flip that.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
That, that gets back to like, okay.
Adam Lamb:
Now all of a sudden that shifts the perspective on the.
Adam Lamb:
because listen, if you're getting, if you're getting treated really
Adam Lamb:
well at work, chances are you're gonna talk about it, right?
Adam Lamb:
just because what you hear from everybody else is such a horror show
Adam Lamb:
and you just, you shake your head.
Adam Lamb:
But pretty soon that operation now becomes that becomes a point of attraction
Adam Lamb:
for staff who, who wanna work hard.
Adam Lamb:
Who wanna do the things that they love?
Adam Lamb:
You know, this other thing about badge of honor, there came a point in my career
Adam Lamb:
where I felt like I had been tricked.
Adam Lamb:
I had been bamboozled.
Adam Lamb:
I had been no, this should be good.
Adam Lamb:
I had been taken advantage of because of the passion that I had.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
Some operator looked at me and said, man, he really he's
Adam Lamb:
really passionate about what he.
Adam Lamb:
I'm gonna use that.
Adam Lamb:
I'm gonna ride that like a rented mule until he can no longer pull that
Adam Lamb:
plow and did that time and time and time again until I started to create
Adam Lamb:
healthy boundaries for myself and be able to say no, there's some really
Adam Lamb:
great, funny Facebook rails and talks about where they're playing a part
Adam Lamb:
of an employer and an employee about getting asked to do extra stuff.
Adam Lamb:
And some of 'em are funny, but some of 'em are like pretty PO.
Adam Lamb:
like where you kind of look at that and go, why do I always say yes?
Adam Lamb:
Why can't I say no?
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
Like, what am I afraid of losing?
Adam Lamb:
If I say, no, I'm not gonna go to this non-mandatory company
Adam Lamb:
outing that they're not paying for.
Adam Lamb:
They're not paying us.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
We're gonna do a picnic or whatever, which is great for team building.
Adam Lamb:
But again, I always made sure that meetings were scheduled.
Adam Lamb:
People got paid for 'em mm-hmm regardless of whether they had to come in from the
Adam Lamb:
outside or, you know, it's on shift.
Adam Lamb:
These are just small accommodations acknowledging the fact that they're
Adam Lamb:
human beings that we're dealing with.
Adam Lamb:
And one of the things I posted about this week is there's a, there's a circular
Adam Lamb:
economy and marketplace called resource network that is here in Asheville, Austin,
Adam Lamb:
Texas, about five other cities, where you as a vendor or as a restaurant tour, can.
Adam Lamb:
Start a marketplace and get, and sell your product.
Adam Lamb:
So now you have this other potential client base and you get paid in resource
Adam Lamb:
dollars, which are secured by their own cryptocurrency called source.
Adam Lamb:
But then you can also turn around and use those crypto, that those
Adam Lamb:
resource dollars as benefits to your associates because they can book
Adam Lamb:
massages, hyperbaric chamber sessions, yoga there's, even companies on there.
Adam Lamb:
There's one here in Asheville that.
Adam Lamb:
Some awesome organic, raw food delivery.
Adam Lamb:
You know, it's just like a Bo basket of, you know, vegetables and
Adam Lamb:
meat and all that kind of stuff.
Adam Lamb:
Associates can use all of that and it hasn't cost you a dime, but it
Adam Lamb:
gives your associate an ability to now here's all these resources
Adam Lamb:
that you have an ability to have access to that didn't exist before.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Adam Lamb:
And you have a brand new potential market.
Adam Lamb:
So there are definitely ways to.
Adam Lamb:
To rattle the cage of those of us who wanna still hustle and remind
Adam Lamb:
ourselves, remind each of us that, you know, it's important to take time.
Adam Lamb:
It's important to continue to sharpen the spear as well as softening your heart.
Adam Lamb:
Because if we're sensitive people, why the hell do we want to close
Adam Lamb:
our hearts to either customers.
Adam Lamb:
Or to our fellow associates.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
Yeah.
Jim Taylor:
And, and I think, you know, you were saying earlier about making sure
Jim Taylor:
that people whoever's, you know, taking the time out of their data,
Jim Taylor:
listen to us rant about this stuff.
Jim Taylor:
Mm-hmm, make sure they've got a couple of things to take away.
Jim Taylor:
And, you know, the hustle side of things is still ultimately gonna help,
Jim Taylor:
you know, determine success or not.
Jim Taylor:
Right.
Jim Taylor:
Sure.
Jim Taylor:
But it's about.
Jim Taylor:
Thinking about it differently hustle when we need to, not all the time.
Jim Taylor:
And, and, you know, to your comment a second ago around this, you know, feeling
Jim Taylor:
like you have to show up to that unpaid staff meeting or whatever it was the crazy
Jim Taylor:
thing about, you know, thinking back over the last few years and how our industry's
Jim Taylor:
changed so much, there's always been this retention issue in, in restaurants.
Jim Taylor:
It was just masked by worker.
Jim Taylor:
So don't come to the step meeting.
Jim Taylor:
I don't care.
Jim Taylor:
There's someone we'll get rid of you and there's someone
Jim Taylor:
that will replace you tomorrow.
Jim Taylor:
And now ain't
Adam Lamb:
happening.
Adam Lamb:
I know, I know Jim.
Adam Lamb:
That's about all we have time for today.
Adam Lamb:
We wanna really appreciate Stanley and And John Stableford and a
Adam Lamb:
few other viewers for putting in their comments really appreciated.
Adam Lamb:
It certainly helps guide our dialogue on the show.
Adam Lamb:
Absolutely.
Adam Lamb:
Because we're doing this as a service, you know, it's taking time out of our day.
Adam Lamb:
We're we're happy to do it.
Adam Lamb:
Not only because we get to be with one another and, and talks some
Adam Lamb:
mad shit, but also to be in the inquiry of what it would look like to
Adam Lamb:
co-create a restaurant industry that.
Adam Lamb:
Would be proud to work in.
Adam Lamb:
So I'm down.
Adam Lamb:
And I guess I would answer and for those of you who are watching this on
Adam Lamb:
replay, please add your comments below because we're gonna ask, are you with us?
Adam Lamb:
Who's with me.
Adam Lamb:
Right.
Adam Lamb:
Tim Taylor, who
Jim Taylor:
was with me.
Jim Taylor:
Let's make some moves.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks, Adam.
Adam Lamb:
Yeah, my pleasure.
Adam Lamb:
It's that's it for this week on turning the table and we'll see you next Thursday
Adam Lamb:
on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, please.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks for joining us on this episode of turning the table with
Adam Lamb:
me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.
Adam Lamb:
This episode was sponsored by benchmark 60 we're on a mission to change the
Adam Lamb:
food and beverage industry by focusing on staff, mental health and wellbeing
Adam Lamb:
by forecasting and actively managing workload productivity over 200
Adam Lamb:
restaurants and food and beverage operat.
Adam Lamb:
Have discovered for themselves how to increase staff retention and become
Adam Lamb:
a preferred employer in their market by using our proprietary system.
Adam Lamb:
If you'd like to have an operational culture that everybody wants to work
Adam Lamb:
for, then check out benchmark 60 on the web@www.benchmarksixty.com.
Adam Lamb:
Thanks for taking the time to be with us and the courage to try
Adam Lamb:
new things for the restaurant.
Adam Lamb:
Profession's oldest problem.
Adam Lamb:
Turning the table is a production of realignment media.