We’ve all been there: the moment when waitstaff at a restaurant come to the table to ask how our meal is going. It can be a pro forma moment, going through the motions of hospitality, or it can lead to an issue being raised and addressed and a better experience for everyone.
Over the past six months, reporters at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have asked serious questions about how the hospitality industry is going. In some quarters, the feedback has been positive. But at the same time – and sometimes even in the same organisation – we have heard about the most unsavoury and appalling experiences.
The Grossi group restaurants on Bourke Street.Credit: Penny Stephens
Sexual harassment is a cultural problem across many industries, but hospitality – with its emphasis on having a good time, pleasing the customer, high pressure and ubiquitous alcohol – poses particular challenges when it comes to workplace safety.
When the Idiot Savant Awards, run by bartenders during Sydney Bar Week, announces in response to media scrutiny that it will no longer feature awards for “Hottest Bar Team” or “Best Toilets for Extracurricular Activities”, some might say we are at risk of wowserism.
But when what starts as “good-natured fun” ends in professionals being assaulted in their workplaces or even their homes, it’s clear that changes must be made.
Our reporting this week on the behaviour of celebrity chef Guy Grossi and the culture some employees say they have experienced in the Grossi group’s restaurants is not meant to suggest an equivalence with the allegations of abuse we uncovered in the Swillhouse and Merivale hospitality companies last year.
But the responses to our coverage from Merivale and Grossi himself exhibit a pattern. In each we are reminded first of how long their business has been operating; then we are assured that they are committed to ensuring the highest standards of workplace safety; and finally that they are keen to hear from employees who have complaints.
Talk of an “open door” when it comes to complaints of harassment and unfair treatment puts the onus on employees, many of whom are young, casually employed and economically insecure in an industry dominated by powerful and celebrated men.
Jamie Bucirde, who advocates for cultural change in the industry, believes it is trapped in a “trauma cycle” where chefs pass on bad behaviour to the next generation, and that the onus should be on prominent people in the profession to lead the conversation, something Grossi insisted in his statement he is ready to do.
There are many obstacles to change. Alexander Kelly, a co-owner of Baba’s Place in Sydney’s Marrickville, has pointed to the instability and demanding nature of the industry itself.
“You’re probably working 60 hours a week, trying to employ, train, market, co-ordinate. It’s not easy to find the time to have an HR system,” he told our food writer Dani Valent. “It’s not an excuse ... but it’s a challenge.”
When we revealed complaints of racism and bullying at Geelong’s Moonah restaurant, head chef and owner Tobin Kent suggested that some staff left because they “are not able to work under such high pressure and to such standards”.
A waiter who has worked at Moonah brought this back to the demands of the business, saying that Kent is “so focused on the cooking, the wine-pairing, the music, the crockery, everything that goes into it … he just needs a helping hand for managing people”.
In 2022, an amendment to the National Sex Discrimination Act stipulated that organisations must actively prevent workplace sexual harassment and sex discrimination, rather than responding only after it occurs. For those leading the hospitality industry, a proactive approach to employees’ workplace problems at the outset would head off the need for defensive PR strategies down the line.
Some industry leaders might scoff at the scenario outlined by Leon Kennedy, chief executive of Melbourne’s Mulberry Group, of a regular “audit of toxicity”, a space where people can talk about HR problems safely.
Some might question whether businesses that are just starting can take on such an additional task or the staff to make sure it gets done. But the alternative – “keep your head down, keep your mouth shut and crack on”, as bar owner and industry veteran Kaidee Grzankowski put it – is not protecting anyone.
This masthead’s head of Good Food, Sarah Norris, told readers after our reporting last year that achieving workplace safety would require “people willing to blow up industry norms”. To the extent that shouting at and bullying staff and other inappropriate behaviour are considered norms, it’s time for hospitality to take stock.
As Melbourne bar owner Nathaniel White wrote: “The pursuit of a safe industry to work for all should be everyone’s number one priority. If we all put a tenth of the effort into figuring out the answers as we do into something as fundamentally inconsequential as drinks, what could we get done?”
Surely everyone needs to roll up their sleeves and help clean up the mess.
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