Redundancies from a Chefs Perspective

Do you like this post?

Greetings to All,

I received the following from one of the avid followers of the very blog.

Matthew

I work in relatively unknown hotel group viewing this from a worldwide perspective; however we have 12 hotels and may be as many under construction although delayed.

I personally have worked mainly in countries where the pay roll was your biggest expense followed by food cost. Returning 21% Profit in F&B was worth a celebration in these times.

Now I’m having the privilege to work in a hotel with above 90% occupancy yield and a return of profit in F&B of over 45% with a chef brigade of 200 plus.

As every other company on this planet, we have been hit by the harsh economic challenges (in our company we have been told not to use the word crises???). Not long before that we speaking about redundancies and restructuring.

What does this mean?

I guess we have to understand what the following two words mean?

The terminology of those two words as per Wikipedia is:

Redundancy: A major business modification, associated with personnel downsizing and asset revaluation

Restructuring: Is the corporate management term for the act of partially dismantling or otherwise reorganizing a company for the purpose of making…?

Here we have it, the two most powerful words, which I probably did not want to hear: DOWNSIZING AND DISMANTLING.

Since I started in my job just over 2 years ago, I worked very hard to build a team and trust, you can imagine, with over 200 chefs from 15 countries. Not an easy task, and now this.

For some time I tried to live in denial, which worked actually quite well. Never under estimate the power of denial; however the day came where my boss asked me to put a list together with possible names of leavers (as the company decided to call them).

I could not sleep for two nights, tossing and turning, as I struggled to get used to the situation. Well I found out that my boss had the same which somehow put me a bit in ease.

The question now was:

How do you choose work mates with whom you have shared the pain and joy of being a chef, who loyally worked 12 plus hours, to be made redundant?

In addition, only supervisors and positions above where allowed on this list. Meaning, none of the lower grades could be made redundant.

That put a big spin on the whole situation. Most of the managers and supervisors have worked with me over the last 2 years. I had the privilege of guiding them to their current position and many of them have been promoted within the last 6 months.

I don’t have to tell you how bad I felt, sleep is hard to get when your mind goes a 100 miles an hour.

As time went on, and we could not come to an agreement on who has to leave and who can stay, we needed a different approach.

We started to draw up rosters and had a look at how different Kitchens would operate if you take certain people, based on skill level and forecasted business level out.

We both had to learn that despite the fact that this is an emotional situation we could not afford to make decisions based on them. We had to approach this very scientific and with no emotions.

It has taken us about 2 weeks on and off until we had the 21 colleagues and friends on our list.

Then the waiting began.

During this time, HR had to prepare and consolidate and agree on the terms of redundancies which personally for me have been the worst week in my life, still living with the hope that it would not come to the worst.

I always praised myself in having transparent communication. This time I was not allowed to say a word, and as time went on I felt uncomfortable in my own surrounding. Especially knowing that chefs will be made redundant, still doing their very best to support me and the business.

Finally the date was set; we knew we have passed the point of no return.

We have spoken a lot in the group of designated people which had to deliver the bad news and whilst we were not in agreement of what will happen. We went on and did what was expected from us.

It took us two days, the worst in my professional life as a chef, until it was done.

It was such a humbling experience for me. Not one of my chefs has reacted with aggression or negativity. Most of them thanked me for the time we have spent together which broke my heart. I guess I could have dealt with aggression and verbal abuse better than with this.

Going back to the rest of my brigade was another hurdle to overcome. Looking in their eyes trying to get a grip of what just happened, the fact they lost friends was not an easy one. I could see the agony they went through during the past two days in not knowing if they are on the list.

Undoubtedly some kitchens have been hit worst and some not at all, but succeeding in creating one big team the impact especially in my direct reports was immense.

From anger outburst to malicious obedience the pallet of frustration was in every single one of them.

Only with lots of team talks and venting our frustrations we have come to the point of acceptance, the healing process will need much more time. The trust level is on an all time low.

Interestingly enough, in the coming weeks after the redundancies 30 plus chefs have decided that they do not want to be a part of this company or team anymore, and have decided to move on. Most of them chefs who worked with people together which have been made redundant.

I’m aware that it will take a long time to get my team back to the level of trust we had for each other and the company before the day. But this is something, we on my level, knew before we started.

I do not sleep better; I sometimes lie awake in my bed and think about what happened and what I would do differently. I do not find an answer.

I just know one thing I will not do this again.

The Sleepless Chef

Image Credit Flickr.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Currently 0 comment - But what do you think?