Mental health issues in hospitality industry ‘disturbing’

Mike Egan is busy with a split shift at his Wellington restaurant Monsoon Poon.

I started the day scrubbing dishes. He will finish the pass and deliver plates of food to hungry customers.

He will do the work behind the scenes later. At the moment he has to help keep the machine that is a restaurant loading.

A staff shortage, created by Covid-19 and exacerbated by a plunge into mental health, is biting the hospitality industry hard.

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Egan says he and others in the hospitality industry are struggling to make room for a public stack back in the ‘public living rooms’ of our city.

So much so that some restaurants and cafes in the city close more days, close departments, run shorter shifts and work understaffed.

But it is the mental health of staff and owners that raises the most concerns, says Egan, who is also national president of the Restaurant Association of New Zealand, Te Tao Roa.

“The issue of mental health has manifested itself over the past few years like nothing I have ever seen in the 40 years I have been in this industry. This was quite worrying among our members. This is one of the main issues. It’s not fair [their staff] but their own mental health.

In fact, a May Restaurant Association survey showed 59% of the 566 members who responded reported that their mental health and well-being suffered as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on their business.

“It’s the young people who really suffer the most, says Egan as he takes a break before another meal.

“Anxiety is the biggest problem. It is the perfect storm of the pandemic, the cost of living, their workload at university and their future with student loans. ”

He says members tell him staff will call and say they can not come in or have to leave during their shift because they are overwhelmed.

“We all run around trying to be really busy and call someone in to say they can not work due to anxiety, and we say, well, have a few days off, but we still have 100 people going for dinner. discussed is … We If you are a waiter down, and we have to deal with it, then we get anxiety, and it goes on and on.

“It does not go away. We just need to come up with strategies to deal with it and help our staff and ourselves.

“We have to be sympathetic. The owners just have to be careful. Some of the other staff take up the extra shifts. We say come back to work when you are ready. ”

Bayley, a 23-year-old hospitality worker, has already struggled with mental health, but with study, work and the uncertainty the pandemic has accumulated over her future, her anxiety has increased.

Something had to give, and it could not be worked, because how would she pay her rising rent and food, she says. So after four years of architecture school, she parked her study.

It was really hard to talk about mental health, but to be able to discuss it with her managers was her “saving grace,” says Bayley, who only wanted to use her first name.

Mental health is currently a major threat in the hospitality industry. It’s Alistair Boyce, owner of the Backbencher Gastropub, Cellar-Vate cafe and The Immigrant’s Son Espresso who speaks.

“I would say 30-40% of my staff suffer from some form of mental health issue related to two-and-a-half years of restraint and Covid and all the anxiety that comes with it.

“These are children who try to work while doing their distance education, while trying to pay high rents and afford expensive food.

“They come through education and work with no immediate hope in sight. Previous generations could look forward to OEs and owning their own home and enjoying an income … and a future they could strive for. At the moment, the hopes and aspirations of our economy and our social economy are at an all-time low. ”

It did not help business was sporadic, he says.

You can double your turnover in one week and halve the next.

“Then you have to try to man it and the staff will be anxious about it, because none of us know from day to day how busy we are going to be or how much support we need or how many staff we have. caterpillars It’s a time of incredible stress. ”

They had the usual staff turnover but no new workers to hire, says Boyce, whose staff has already endured abuse and disruption of shifts during the counter-mandate protests at Parliament in February and March.

The government used to have to open the borders to keep up with the rest of the world because it was an international labor market in which we compete, he says.

“We need the rest of the world to get in and out. [Aotearoa].

“This is very important, otherwise you will see that CBDs turn into ghettos. You can see it in life on the street. It becomes very ghetto-like and sometimes it is completely dangerous. ”

The Backbencher is now closed on weekends and Boyce is considering closing a weekend night as well.

“It is a week-by-week, day-by-day process to manage the staff I have and what they can handle.

“This is the most difficult period I have traded and managed in hospitality, and I have been in the industry for over 40 years.”

As a business owner, the fallout from Covid has definitely taken its toll on her mental health, says Diana Parker, of Sweet Mother’s Kitchen.

There was pressure during Covid to try to maintain the business, make the right decisions, honor staff contracts, keep them busy, but not too busy.

“Hospitality has always been a bit of a rollercoaster, but now it’s a lot harder to determine what’s going to happen.”

She made the call last Saturday night to close due to a lack of staff.

“I had one staff member, you can not get temporary chefs and it makes no sense to ruin people just to keep your business open.”

There’s so much mischief and gloom out there … but customers were much more patient with a generous spirit, says Parker, who admitted while hospo suffered that there were many others out there who were doing it hard.

There is a lot of pressure on people in the industry, says Stephen Edwards, general manager at the Wellesley Boutique Hotel, cafe and bar.

“Because we run the business so thin and so close to the bone and everyone else does the same thing, there is pressure for all of us to perform and not report sick…

“I had staff who had to take time out because it all came on top of them. I was also under a lot of pressure. I get eczema when I get stressed and it plays out. ”

Edwards says he cut “all the fat” out of the business. The hotel’s café is only open four hours a day and is now closed on Mondays.

“I’m killing parts of the business that were only marginally profitable.”

The staffing issue affects cafes and restaurants throughout the city.

The Capitol restaurant is open five nights a week and will be open for lunch service if staff levels were not so tight, says executive chef and co-owner Tom Hutchison.

Staff leave and illness were issues to consider when opening up for service, but it was also a “lean customer base” that put him off opening up more frequently, he says.

Masala Cafe & Bar has been hacking back since February to open five nights due to staffing issues and was only back to six nights this week.

Egmont Street Eatery has cut back on two meal time services due to staff illnesses and a shortage of workers.

Charley Noble said it would close for lunch service on Monday and Tuesday for six weeks this week in an effort to look after their staff during an ongoing labor shortage.

Ortega Fish Shack dropped from opening five nights a week to four nights for the next two months because their kitchen had few chefs.

Field & Green has closed for lunch on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays since the start of the pandemic and only recently reopened on Fridays. They are closed two days a week to give staff a decent rest, says co-owner Raechal Ferguson.

They rescued people who were ill and staff “acted” to fill in the gaps, including chefs who came out to do work in front of the house, Ferguson said.

Cost of living bites

Above all, the industry has struggled with rising costs.

Stephen Edwards’ coffee supplier broke it to him that he increased the price of coffee beans by 20% on July 1st.

He set up coffee prices at the Wellesley Cafe at the beginning of the year. However, he will not be raising prices again any time soon. “I feel for everyone with the cost of living. Everyone is struggling and I want to do the best I can to keep the prices down. ”

Parker says she will have to rework Sweet Mother’s Kitchen menu to manage the cost.

A bunch of emails in her inbox from suppliers told of price increases – everything has generally gone up, she says.

“It happened so fast.”

Everyone experiences cost increases from their suppliers, says Egan.

Coffee, meat, fish – on, on, on.

Everyone is worried about the cost and supply of flour due to the war in Ukraine, he says.

Cooking oil has risen – so much so that Egan buys in bulk and shares the cost with fellow restaurateurs.

The cost of containers has risen. Where previously he could bring a container of China full of glasses and restaurant hardware for $ 5,000, importers triple that, he says.

Everyone looks at their menu. You put your prices where you need to and customers really understand, says Egan. In fact, they give tips like Rockefellers to show their appreciation for what the industry is currently dealing with. Staff have only made a thousand dollars in the last few days, Egan says.

Sometimes it’s easier to strip things off the menu. No more lobster at Monsoon Poon for now, after the price jumped from $ 110 to $ 145 per kilo.

Restaurants did not want to price themselves out of customers’ reach. People need and want to go out, says Egan.