For Chefs Who Want To Enjoy Their Careers Without Sacrificing Their Lives
Aug. 25, 2022

104: Jonathan Ruby | Transforming Toxic Hospitality Culture

104: Jonathan Ruby | Transforming Toxic Hospitality Culture

Restaurant Coach/Consultant and former Chef Jonathan Ruby 'turns the table' on the toxic culinary culture in our food and beverage profession and how you, too, can create a workplace #culture that everyone wants to work for.

We debunk the veneration of self-sacrifice in today's restaurant culture and reveal how taking care of yourself is job #1 in the #newrstaurantculture.

To find out more about Jonathan Ruby and his mission, click here.

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

Transcript

Speaker:

Welcome back to another episode of turning the tables.

 

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And I am your humble host, Adam Lamb.

 

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Typically Jim Taylor of benchmark 60 joins us today.

 

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But I think right about this time, him and his wife must be

 

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welcoming their very first child.

 

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So that's really.

 

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We do this hashtag lunchbox live stream every week here on Thursday at noon.

 

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For some reason I put in 1205 start time.

 

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So I apologize for that.

 

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And I'm happy to announce that turning the table is now officially a podcast and it's

 

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available on iTunes, Spotify in everywhere that you get your podcasts on the show.

 

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We talk about staff centric solutions to restaurant operat.

 

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And it's a short show, 30 minutes.

 

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It's meant to give you a big punch in the mouth as something to think

 

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about and hopefully take back into your operation and test because we're

 

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all about making these solutions live.

 

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We don't wanna just talk about 'em.

 

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We wanna make 'em happen in our industry.

 

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And today I'm very happy to welcome to the show.

 

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Chef Jonathan Ruby.

 

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Who's also a, a solutions expert with benchmark 60

 

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morning, Jonathan, how are you?

 

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Hey Adam.

 

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Thanks for having.

 

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Wanted to make sure that before we go any further, I mentioned that this show

 

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as always is sponsored by benchmark 60.

 

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Jonathan is one of our solutions experts, partners with benchmark 60.

 

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And he brings a wealth of experience, not only as a chef, but also as a

 

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restaurant tour operations manager.

 

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And my Thomas is excited because.

 

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She can see us and Jonathan, let me just start off and ask for the folks

 

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in the audience who perhaps don't know you as well as they should.

 

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Can you give us kind of a little thumbnail sketch of your background

 

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and some of your early influences?

 

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Yeah, sure.

 

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I like I'm, I'm fortunate.

 

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I grew up with restaurant business a little bit.

 

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My grandparents had a couple places when I was, when I was growing up, but they

 

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had a pizza place and it was kind of like park pizza place, park, convenience store.

 

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And then they also had a seafood restaurant having been from Nova Scotia.

 

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So, you know, as before I was even.

 

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Probably legally allowed to work.

 

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You know, when I was like 10 to 12, I was Boston tables and washing

 

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dishes and helping them with prep.

 

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So I kind of began my admiration for the restaurant business, you know,

 

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having gotten to see the, the culture, especially the culture in the kitchen.

 

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And they're all, you know, a little bit like pirate back there.

 

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And I really did and kind of solidified my, my, my passion for that.

 

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It just like turned out I loved cooking.

 

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So I, at that point, you know, I did work experience, got jobs.

 

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In restaurants when I was in high school.

 

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And then at that point I went on to the culinary Institute, Canada and

 

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prince over island here in Canada.

 

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And that was just a really, that was a great experience.

 

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You know, the first year was, it was fantastic.

 

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It was really like, kind of edit the curve, having had that

 

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past restaurant experience.

 

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And so it really did like.

 

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It gave me a little bit of an edge.

 

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That's kinda like what I teach a lot of the people, if that school really,

 

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I got to really maximize my education with my past restaurant experience

 

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because when everybody was still learning to bring law, their first onion, you

 

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know, I hammered through that and then blown a pig set kind of thing.

 

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So.

 

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From there.

 

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You know, I, I joined the junior chef's association of Canada.

 

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My became an alumni representative for our school.

 

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I met Michael Smith.

 

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Who's like a, kind of a local Canadian celebrity chef used

 

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to chef at large chef at home.

 

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I helped him launch at the very best of chef at home, his cookbook him as well

 

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as I helped him at the athletes village for the 2010 Olympics Whistler, which was

 

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a really great opportunity from there.

 

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I kind of just went on to work at.

 

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A few Michelin star restaurants, like notably what bean in, in Manhattan,

 

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which kind of pigeonholed me as that poisoner for a little pitch.

 

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But I, I was happy to do it a bit.

 

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Love seafood.

 

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And I, you know, I moved around from island island.

 

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I lived in the Caribbean for a little bit in St marks.

 

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And then, you know, I lived in Victoria, like beautiful Vancouver

 

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island here in, in Canada.

 

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Working at some I am resorts and stuff.

 

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And then also, you know, I did some cool TRO.

 

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Trying to, you know, test the waters at different Michelin for restaurants

 

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and really like kind of my pursuit to, of that like ingredient, knowledge

 

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and technique, like, you know, HKA and glee was one of those places that

 

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really was, it kind of transformed my idea, my approach to food and you

 

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know, my obsession with bread with that amazing bread cart they have there.

 

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So yeah, just little snapshot and throw my life.

 

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I ended up here in Edmonton, Alberta.

 

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I actually came here to get shoulder surgery.

 

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Next thing you.

 

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I'm a restaurant consultant.

 

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So , I it's been great.

 

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I, I did transition my career at one point, you know, I had a, I had a

 

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daughter and I, I realized that like, you know, spending time with her

 

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and spending time with family was.

 

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Was just as equally, it became just as equally as important as my career and

 

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my career was kind of, you know, at the forefront of everything at the beginning.

 

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So I, and at that point I had started meeting some corporate executives for

 

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progressional groups and got into food development and kind of big picture

 

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thinking when it comes to the restaurant business, which then obviously you had

 

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me question a lot of the things that we were doing and, you know, and that,

 

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that's what segued me into the, the consulting business or working with

 

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benchmark 60 is that I just, the hope is to build a best for better restaurant.

 

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And congratulations on the birth of your daughter.

 

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How old is she now?

 

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She's sick.

 

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She's going on grade two.

 

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She's turning seven in October, but yeah, so it's been a little while ILA.

 

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Yeah.

 

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And previous to the show, we were talking a little bit and we thought

 

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we might discuss the demise of the toxic culinary culture, or as we're

 

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planning it in her crazy little ways.

 

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Do you remember in your career being kind of victimized by a toxic war culture?

 

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I know Canada is a much soft, sweeter place in a lot of ways.

 

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I'm married to a Canadian.

 

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So it's constant conversation about, you know, how different the cultures are

 

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between the United States and Canada.

 

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But I'm just curious if you could kinda reflect on culture within the

 

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back of the house environment, that didn't necessarily seem so supportive.

 

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Yeah.

 

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Oh, I mean the restaurant industry is, is not primarily dominated Canadians.

 

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So I think it's like, it's a pretty good mix of, you know, different cultures

 

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and different backgrounds when it comes to how we approach culture in business.

 

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And so I, I definitely I've experienced it, you know, it's that kind of that

 

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old adage where it's, you know, I, back in my day or like I, when I

 

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was coming up as a chef, you know, they weren't that nice to us, which.

 

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Which was true.

 

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Like, I I've seen a mirror of things.

 

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People were still throwing stuff around.

 

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This was kind of the, the heyday of Gordon Ramsey, really, where that was

 

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the culture, like chefs were, they were hardass and they had a hard line and it

 

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was say, yes, Shep and do it and, you know, show up if you're not 15 minutes

 

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early or late, some, some of it's not bad.

 

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Some of it's, you know, it was character building, but I definitely

 

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experienced it, you know, like.

 

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I didn't even know what the word meant.

 

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I was called Mamoa for the first, like who I was a teenager and I didn't even know

 

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what it, I didn't even know what it meant.

 

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That's what they called me in the kitchen, but it, they were

 

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calling me asshole the whole time.

 

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So I, I, yeah, it's, it's, it's unfortunate.

 

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I, it was just all that I ever knew at at the time, but I was coming up.

 

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It's definitely been a significant shift, right.

 

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Because the, the workforce not willing to put up with that kind of stuff

 

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and the way that we kinda suffered.

 

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What do you, where do you think we draw the line between say

 

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character building and abuse?

 

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Well, just there is no, there is no like line there's it's

 

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just one or the other I?

 

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Yeah, like it's it's it's not okay.

 

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It's I don't, I didn't even really understand why it was okay.

 

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Or where that stem from.

 

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It came from, you know, just stress, whether it was like money

 

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or trying to boost cover count.

 

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Likely, it was just a bunch of people who had their own, you know, struggles

 

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or had gone through their own level of abuse and just, it was just the way

 

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that, you know, give on to others the same way that they had received it.

 

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So, yeah, like there it is a pretty it's it's I think it's clearly

 

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define line it's it was, it was abuse and it, and it is, and I think.

 

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For some reason it was, it was just, it like kind of, I don't know, accepted as

 

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part of the industry, but I'm happy to say that it's, it's not like that anymore.

 

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Right.

 

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And I know things have been changing for a while.

 

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And also there was, you know, they say that changing culture

 

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within an organization takes about a minimum of seven years.

 

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And the industry is a big old battleship and nobody ever

 

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turns the battleship on a dime.

 

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Is there anything that you can point to in your career?

 

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When you decided that you wanted to make the industry a better place.

 

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And if you can just help me define what better means.

 

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Yeah.

 

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Okay.

 

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So what, what I was, I was just as equally as subject to that punitive sort

 

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of nature that I, I grew up in, right?

 

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Like that's what I was taught to do.

 

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Like we, you say yes, chef and do it, and it doesn't matter what my demeanor was,

 

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or it was all about, you know, food focus.

 

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And I realized as well too, though, that I wasn't, I personally wasn't getting

 

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what I wanted out of the business.

 

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Like I wasn.

 

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You know, I didn't have the worklife balance one.

 

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I was saying, I was saying no to all the family events and the wedding.

 

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He said, oh, I'd stop.

 

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And I was working 80 hour work weeks and I was tired and I was grumpy.

 

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You know, I, I didn't like people that didn't do well at their jobs.

 

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Like it was just a peanut nature.

 

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And then all of a sudden I realized that all the things that were affecting me

 

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in my life and the things that I didn't necessarily like about our industry

 

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was something that I could change.

 

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Like I could offer that to.

 

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The teams that worked for me, you know, I've you, and you

 

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likely heard it as well before.

 

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I didn't necessarily want my daughter to join the restaurant industry.

 

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Like I, I, I I'd met other guys.

 

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Like I was a guy I recently hired whose dad is a chef.

 

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He's a pretty notable chef here in this area.

 

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And I asked them, I'm like, Hey, do you wanna become a chef?

 

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Like your dad and said, well, my dad has one rule to be whatever

 

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I want, except for a chef.

 

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. And it's, it's one of those moments where I was just like,

 

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this isn't this isn't right.

 

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Something that I'm so passionate about.

 

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So.

 

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Fiercely in love with, I didn't want that for my daughter, which I, I

 

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was a bit of a disconnect for me.

 

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And I said, why does it way?

 

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And that was really that pivotal moment for me was, wanted the world

 

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for, and why can't this be right.

 

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It's almost limit.

 

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And to

 

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industry like, like in real terms, what does that mean?

 

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Well, I, I think like, you know, Even just looking statistically at, in what, for

 

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Canada, you know, the, the vacancy, the job vacancy in our industry is about 14%.

 

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But if you also look like, you know, wages are up, but they're only up

 

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about they're up about 12%, which for all us stock restaurant operators,

 

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that's, that's significant increase.

 

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But if you look at the stats overall, as, as a business, we're

 

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the lowest paying industry, one of the lowest paying industries.

 

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Out there.

 

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Like it's, it's just not attractive anymore.

 

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And I, that's where I wanted, I wanted to try to see if we can, we're not

 

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getting not, everybody's getting the same level of education, you know,

 

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it's not, there's not always, you know, not every position is transferable

 

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to different restaurant groups.

 

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I think there's a little bit of disorganization with our industry.

 

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And I think that if we work together or be more of these podcasts, reach

 

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out and, and, and speak more as a community, I think we, we have an

 

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opportunity to make that shift for us.

 

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I agree.

 

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I think we're completely aligned in that you're now working for benchmark 60 and

 

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just jump off, you know, Jemiah Thomas, just put in a thing that said, you

 

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know, we make up most of the co economy.

 

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I think the restaurant industry still is the number one employer and the world.

 

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So it's kind of weird that the largest single employer or industry

 

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in the world does such a poor.

 

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At at equity, you know, whether that's equity and pay equity and position.

 

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I often remind folks that my very first executive chef was a woman.

 

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My very first sous chef was a woman.

 

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So I've had a great deal of appreciation for what women have had to deal with

 

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in the industry, people of color.

 

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For those of you who don't know I'm of mixed race, my mother's Cuban and my

 

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dad's was American or American born.

 

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Although I don't necessarily look like it so I can pass on the

 

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privilege of my color, but it's still.

 

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You know, one of these things where I've, you know, been the butt of many jokes

 

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all the way back to, you know, elementary school and, and back into the profession.

 

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But I would often hear, you know, really shitty comments by other people,

 

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you know, as they're confiding in me, not necessarily them realizing

 

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that, you know, I have this respect for the women in the, in the

 

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industry as well as people of color.

 

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And for a long time, I would just kind of sit there and go, ha yeah.

 

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Okay.

 

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And not really stand up and it took me losing my not losing, but taking

 

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a job as an executive sous chef, a huge working under a very good

 

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friend of mine who needed some help in this particular organization.

 

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I hadn't been in a sous chef for, you know, 20 HES, but not to have that

 

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mantle of responsibility as being the executive chef, freed me up to do stuff

 

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like run around and have a thousand conversations a day with people.

 

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So very often the chef would come in and he'd lay down the law.

 

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And then I would, you know, walk back to these departments and

 

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kind of smooth everything over.

 

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And that's when I realized that communication.

 

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Job, one of our particular positions and it becomes difficult when you're

 

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trying to communicate the same thing to maybe people of, you know, certainly

 

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two different sexes or now three or four different sexual orientations all with

 

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their own history, all with their own family, because it used to be that all

 

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we did was hire a pair of hands, you know, or a position on the schedule.

 

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Okay.

 

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I need to grow cook for Saturday.

 

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Who am I gonna put in there?

 

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And I think now it's turning towards no, we hire.

 

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Full functional human beings.

 

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And we have to deal with them at that particular way, because to not be aware of

 

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what's going on in their personal lives, sets us up to be kind of deaf or tone deaf

 

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to same thing that affects us, you know?

 

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So how so it being part of benchmark 60, and I guess I just wanted to

 

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say that out loud, but being part of benchmark 60, we're bringing

 

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a particular different type of.

 

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Changing the perspective of a lot of operators, chefs, managers,

 

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DMS, so that they start looking at their staff as assets, rather

 

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than as debits to the bottom line.

 

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And as someone who is working with this productivity metrics, what have

 

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you seen insofar as the way that that starts to shape an operator's view?

 

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And how he, he or she starts treating their staff differently.

 

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Well, I mean, I know that's a big loaded question.

 

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Do that yeah, yeah.

 

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Yeah.

 

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Where do I begin?

 

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I , you know, the labor model hasn't really changed much.

 

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Like it, it really hasn't, it's been decades of, of the same hundred years,

 

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the same restaurant really model.

 

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And, you know, it started with the ADE system, but like, Where is the,

 

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where, where is the innovation then?

 

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And, you know, like we, we are Fort bothers lo in the culinary

 

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world, like Scopia, you know, creating our brigade system.

 

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And there was a reason that they did that, and it was trying to create a

 

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better restaurant environment that everybody knew who was doing what by when.

 

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Right.

 

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It was the, the big, the first action plan.

 

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And I think we're overdue.

 

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We're well overdue to create a, a new action plan, a new who does

 

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what by when in restaurant business.

 

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And I think.

 

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Our, the holistic approach at looking at the people, the number

 

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one commodity in your business, focusing on them and, and their,

 

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their happiness is just gonna attract a better, a better restaurant world.

 

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Like we even selfishly, like let's create a better restaurant worlds.

 

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We have better restaurants to go to, you know, since post pandemic,

 

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you know, it's the kind of run joke.

 

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Like everything's just gotten a little bit worse, you know, like, and it's.

 

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Everybody's a little bit shorts staffed.

 

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Everybody's a little tired.

 

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Everybody's stressed out.

 

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Everybody's worried about money and inflation, all these things.

 

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And so the key is really just like remembering that it's,

 

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it's not a grilled hook.

 

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It's a person, it's the, it's the people that you work with and, and

 

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you ask them what they want and find out how to get it and, and just make

 

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a better, better space at environment somewhere that's attractive to work.

 

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And I think it's, it's less of like, we're not doing them a favor by coming,

 

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getting them to come work for us.

 

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It's the other way around.

 

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Right.

 

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And we.

 

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Or else we don't make profit, we don't have the business.

 

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And, and so with benchmark 60, taking a holistic approach by looking at

 

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it a little bit differently, we think about like focusing on work

 

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and, and really focusing on the people also not only make us as, as

 

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profitable as we always have been, but create a better work environment.

 

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And, and then, you know what, everybody crying, labor shortage,

 

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you don't have to cry labor shortage.

 

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You get to keep the people that you have.

 

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And then they're out there telling everybody the great of

 

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a workspace they've got and then that'll just track more talent.

 

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And then everybody.

 

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I I know benchmark sixties, famous tagline is retention is the new cool.

 

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And for those who are maybe not necessarily familiar with what that

 

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actually means is that retention is actually focusing on retention is

 

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step one in creating a great workplace culture and community, but it also

 

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becomes a point of attraction for those out on the street that are actually

 

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looking for a place to be treated well.

 

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Everybody knows what happened during that pandemic.

 

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We lost millions and millions of jobs.

 

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Some folks went to other industries, some folks did not come back, but

 

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you know, the burnt chef project did a survey, not too long ago that said

 

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that, you know, 64% of everybody left the industry planned on coming

 

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back within the next 12 to 18 months.

 

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So these are people who obviously love the industry, love what they

 

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do, but they just couldn't put up with a bullshit any much, any longer.

 

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First off.

 

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I think we gotta say a big shout out, thank you to them and for standing for

 

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what they believed in, because that has woken up a whole lot of people who perhaps

 

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were again, kind of tone, deaf to Ze or the demands of the associates when they're

 

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like, you know, things have to get better.

 

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Well, that's why I love calling, you know, COVID the great reset, you know,

 

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it, wasn't the great resignation.

 

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It's the great reset.

 

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And it's our respons.

 

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If we're wary enough to actually do something about it.

 

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That's what so charged me up about my first conversations with a gym and this

 

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productivity metrics, because I realized that this was kind of the back door to

 

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showing operators a number one that you're not, you don't have to give up profit.

 

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You don't have to give up margins, but actually this is an opportunity

 

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for you to realize money.

 

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That's just being left on the.

 

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Right that you can capture and then reinvest in your people.

 

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So I think that that's probably one of the most revolutionary things that

 

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I'd heard in a long time and realize that a lot of the conversation around

 

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community culture and all that kind of stuff actually begins with management who

 

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are invested in really looking at their staff, managing their workload better.

 

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And then communicating that to the staff in such a way that they get it.

 

Speaker:

Holy crap, man, this, you know, this company really care.

 

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Because there are very few metrics for like, oh yeah, we really care about you.

 

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Oh yeah, sure.

 

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And now I'm just gonna have to put my head down and just keep crunching again.

 

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So, because that's the only way to get through it.

 

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And I know that there are some folks out there in the industry who

 

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are gonna listen to this and think it's all pie in the sky, right?

 

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Oh, really?

 

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You're gonna give servers benefits, you know, shit like this.

 

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Yes.

 

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You.

 

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You absolutely can, if you can find that cash, why wouldn't you do that?

 

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Like what would be in your mind, an objection from an operator who wouldn't

 

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want to take care of their people better?

 

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Yeah, the, you know, I think where some of it comes from is that like our own

 

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past experience, you know, like when I was a wine cook, I didn't get benefits.

 

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I made, you know, $10 an hour at, you know, I worked ridiculous hours

 

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and I didn't get paid overtime.

 

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And I think some of that comes some of the decision making from now the, the

 

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now restaurant owners is some of that comes from that past shared experience.

 

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You know, like why, why shouldn't this person have to fight to

 

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the top the same way I did.

 

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And, and it, it just, it's, it's just broken really.

 

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Like it's, it's not.

 

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It's not, that's not the way that the, our new workforce is going.

 

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They're not gonna accept those things the same way that we

 

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did and unfortunately did.

 

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Right.

 

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And we just need to come up with new ways to make them hap make 'em happy really.

 

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And in the end, it's just, there's, it's one simple sentence.

 

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It's cheaper to keep the people up.

 

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Ah, do you know what the average is in Canada right now for having to to.

 

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Higher and train staff average.

 

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Do you know the average cost kinda thing?

 

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Yeah.

 

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Yeah.

 

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It's, I would say like anywhere from 1200 to $2,000 an employee, and then as, as

 

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an investment to get 'em in train them, you know, depending on the operation

 

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that could be, you know, lesser, lesser, depending on also a position as well.

 

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But it's, it's always a significant, it's a risk.

 

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Like you're now all of a sudden hiring somebody, you don't.

 

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And, and you have to try to sauce 'em out and figure them out and

 

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find out what makes them tick.

 

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And, you know, although like there's some easy ways or easier ways to do

 

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that now, basically asking them what they want, but I it's, you know,

 

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it's still, it's, it's an investment to hire and train more people.

 

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And I, that revolving door, you're just, you know, it's,

 

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it's exponential at that point.

 

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So it's, it's always the, the most successful restaurant groups

 

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that I've ever with or you know, I've had the pleasure of like

 

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chatting with, is that they're.

 

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Their pockets are deep with people.

 

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You know, I I've met vice presidents that serve as dishwashers, and those are the

 

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companies that typically are the most successful, at least in my experience, you

 

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know, they're the ones that are constantly have a, have a rotating door are the

 

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ones that are always are struggling.

 

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And they're the ones typically have the questions as how do we keep our

 

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people or how do we find good people?

 

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And I.

 

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Often the answer is you already have them.

 

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You just need to invest in them.

 

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Can you, can you talk quickly?

 

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And, and I know that we're getting short on time, but I don't, I

 

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don't wanna rush you because I think this is really important.

 

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You mentioned earlier in our conversation that the industry itself is a little

 

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bit fractured and wonky on, like, how do you build skill that actually

 

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transfer to, to other markets?

 

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Can you talk a little bit about that?

 

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Yeah.

 

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Well, I.

 

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Our our industry.

 

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You can have a director of operations, you know, for us, you know, a small two

 

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unit business, and then you can have director operations for a 30 unit business

 

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or director of operations for a hotel.

 

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Although they all fall within the hospitality industry.

 

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That's kind of what I was alluding to is that their skill, their education, their

 

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background, their ability to transfer those skills to another even hospitality.

 

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Is, I think there's like, there's too much of a gap.

 

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It's not enough of a standard there's, you know, one operating

 

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system, they become an expert on.

 

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So they're good at reading the data and understanding it and being

 

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able to communicate that with their teams, once you transfer that.

 

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And, you know, I went through a little bit as myself even it's that,

 

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you know, once you move into a new group, a new culture, a new mission

 

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statement and, and the new operating systems and new appeal or SOPs and all

 

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that, it's, there's a learning curve.

 

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That's steep, like extremely.

 

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And I think we should be doing, we should be focusing more on the education

 

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of the, of those entry level partners.

 

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You know, you know, we bring into our business and, and, and spend

 

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the same level of investment.

 

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They're they're also a higher level of pay.

 

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They're expecting benefits.

 

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They're expecting what all the other industries are.

 

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And, you know, if you look at other, you know, careers that you

 

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can take, you have to spend four years in university to do it.

 

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And, and what we're, what I would think is that just there needs to

 

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be more education in our business.

 

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There needs to be more standardization across like what these I've I've

 

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hired people who are general managers, chefs, and directors of operations.

 

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And.

 

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It's, they're not always the same.

 

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It's not it's and which isn't a bad thing.

 

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And like new sets of eyes, new ideas is great.

 

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Sure.

 

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But it's like, will they be able to do the job?

 

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And that's the disconnect.

 

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And I think, you know, the restaurant industry to kind of comment on,

 

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you know, transferable skills into maybe different businesses.

 

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It, it, it, I think.

 

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Fresh operators typically are probably some of the best operators in any

 

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business, because maybe we we've been grown to be these Jackal trades.

 

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You know, like there's not like there's not on office spaces where

 

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you gotta come in and fix a dishwasher or, or fix the plumbing or put out

 

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a fire or deal with staff shortages.

 

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You know, it's, I think our abilities are skill sets are so

 

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broad that it, it, it would be.

 

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I think if we continue to invest in education and ization of our industry,

 

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then we, we will be able to open up more and more doors for everyone.

 

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And to you.

 

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That education piece.

 

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Are you also referring to training?

 

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Like there's, there's one thing about education, you know, outside

 

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of the industry or prior to coming in the industry, but are we doing

 

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enough, you know, at the unit level to train the people that we have.

 

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I mean, you talked about this retention, you know, taking care of your good people.

 

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At what point does training become an it's the, the most imperative

 

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thing that, yeah, like we should be EV like often, you know, as operator.

 

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We can't see the forest for the trees.

 

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We're in the thing that works always in the weeds really and,

 

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and you're always busy and you always have something better to do.

 

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And I think if we're not trying to train ourselves outta those things,

 

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then we're not gonna grow our community.

 

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We're not gonna grow a restaurant or a business.

 

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Like it's, that's what I teach everyone is that don't do anything yourself that

 

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you can't teach and, and take every moment and every opportunity to teach it.

 

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Also, they want, they wanna wear, they want, want advancement and.

 

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You're gonna just kill two birds, one stone there.

 

Speaker:

That's kind of going against the grain of the pride of somebody who's come

 

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up through the ranks, gotten their jacket with the embroidery on it.

 

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Now I'm the executive chef.

 

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Now I'm the apex predator in the, in the, in the fish tank.

 

Speaker:

There are a lot of guys and gals out there that wouldn't necessarily

 

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train their people with all their special skills because they think it.

 

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Job security fear.

 

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Yeah.

 

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Which is a shame because I I've always felt that my job as the executive

 

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chef was to train myself out of a job.

 

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Yeah.

 

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Well, I mean, it's not too much job security, but you know, how else, how

 

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else are the people that I work with gonna be able to have the skills to go

 

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on, to become chefs in their own rights.

 

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Well, I mean, unless you're happy, just be in like having

 

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to do everything all the time.

 

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You know, there's, there's a part of it where I think for most leaders,

 

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there's a turning point in your career where you realize that you can't

 

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do it all, you can't do everything and you're eventually gonna burn.

 

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And you're also gonna get more out of the people that work with you

 

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than, than you can undo yourself.

 

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And I, you know, it.

 

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It's just not an option they, that they wanna learn.

 

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And, and I encourage everybody to ask why, and you should be trying

 

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to work yourself out of a job.

 

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That's that's also the only way that you're gonna get yourself ahead.

 

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You have an army of people, all stepping the same direction, as

 

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you all believe in the same mission statement, all fighting the same

 

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battle for like, or you end with you.

 

Speaker:

That's that's gonna get you further ahead in your career than you'll be by doing it.

 

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So, what I'm hearing you say is it doesn't necessarily always have to back

 

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or hip or knee surgery or the birth of a child for you to smarten up and

 

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realize that there are better things to do with your time than being, you

 

Speaker:

know, tied to the tied to the stove.

 

Speaker:

A hundred percent.

 

Speaker:

Yeah.

 

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Jonathan, we have just a second left and if you had just one little.

 

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For our operators who are gonna go back, you know, into their

 

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restaurants or their kitchens.

 

Speaker:

What's a little piece of wisdom that you can leave them with that maybe will

 

Speaker:

cause them to change their perspective.

 

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I think, I think the biggest, one of our biggest obstacles in this

 

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business is we're afraid of what our, our team members are gonna say.

 

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I think what I, what I often coach operators is that just

 

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ask them what they want.

 

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It's simple.

 

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Just go to them, ask them what they're looking.

 

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Ask to look like about their, about where they work and what it is

 

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that they wanted, where they were.

 

Speaker:

I think we're just, we're typically just too afraid of what the answer's

 

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gonna be and not knowing how to do that.

 

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And I think it's, you know, the more we have these conversations and the more

 

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that we you know, spend our outreach and connect with more people, the better

 

Speaker:

we are in answering those questions.

 

Speaker:

And the less fearful we have to be about asking though, I think

 

Speaker:

that's an excellent place to stop.

 

Speaker:

And if someone wants to learn more about you and connect

 

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with you, how do they do that?

 

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Jonathan?

 

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For sure.

 

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Yeah.

 

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So you can find me on LinkedIn.

 

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I'm also part of the benchmark 60 group.

 

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So you can reach me at jonathan@benchmarksixty.com or

 

Speaker:

Jonathan Ruby LinkedIn there love to connect sounds perfect, man.

 

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Jonathan, thanks so much for joining us on this episode of turning the table.

 

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And for those of you who are still with us next week, we're gonna have

 

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leadership development coach and mentor.

 

Speaker:

Alison Ann on as our guest.

 

Speaker:

And I think Jim Taylor may or may not be back.

 

Speaker:

I mean, he, if he's smart, you know, he'll stay home because we at benchmark 60.

 

Speaker:

Yes.

 

Speaker:

We also recognize that the new dads get to have parental leave.

 

Speaker:

we're on the cutting edge.

 

Speaker:

Thanks very much folks.

 

Speaker:

We really appreciate you joining us, please like share and comment

 

Speaker:

and we'll answer every single one.

 

Speaker:

Thank you very much until next week.

 

Speaker:

Thanks for joining us on this episode of turning the table with

 

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me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

 

Speaker:

This episode was sponsored by benchmark 60 we're on a mission to change

 

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the food and beverage industry by focusing on staff, mental health and

 

Speaker:

wellbeing by forecasting and actively managing workload productivity.

 

Speaker:

Over 200 restaurants and food and beverage operations have discovered

 

Speaker:

for themselves how to increased staff retention and become a preferred employer

 

Speaker:

in their market by using our proprietary.

 

Speaker:

If you'd like to have an operational culture that everybody wants to work

 

Speaker:

for, then check out benchmark 60 on the web@www.benchmarksixty.com.

 

Speaker:

Thanks for taking the time to be with us and the courage to try

 

Speaker:

new things for the restaurant.

 

Speaker:

Profession's oldest problems.

 

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Turning the table is a production of realignment media.