We need to talk about mental health and the way we value hospitality work
+ Mental health & hospitality work, mouldy jam, and vegan 'meat'
Nice Pear: a weekly(ish) feminist foodletter | Issue #002 | 26 July 2020
Hello!
If you’re new to this newsletter, you can read my mission & ethos here. Now, let’s jump straight into this week’s essay:
We need to talk about mental health and the way we value hospitality work
Part of what I wanted to do with this newsletter, and with my writing and reporting more widely, is to highlight some of the issues that disproportionately affect hospitality workers.
There is a stigma against working in the hospitality sector, especially as an adult.
Many see hospitality as ‘unskilled’ work (it is absolutely not - but that's a conversation for another week). When I last worked full-time in the sector, I internalised this devaluation of hospitality work (which contributed to one of my worst ever depressive episodes).
So, why are mental health issues so prevalent in the hospitality sector?
Let’s start with some statistics:
The hospitality sector is the 3rd largest employer in the UK and brings in 5% of the UK’s GDP
In the UK, the sector has more employees on zero-hours contracts than any other. Around 12% of people employed in the accommodation and food industry are on a zero-hours contract
Additionally, 58% of people employed in the UK hotel and restaurant sectors earn below the living wage
Accommodation and food services have the highest employee turnover rate of any sector in the UK. 35% of workers in the sector change employer within a year.
Almost half of all employees in the hospitality sector are young (44% are under 35)
Around up to 24% of the UK hospitality sector workforce is made up of EU nationals. That's not even counting all the hospitality workers from countries outside the EU
Hospitality workers may not be as aware of their employment rights as those in other sectors.
Even for workers who do know their rights, it's easy to feel that you’re unable to ask for them. Throughout the decade I worked in retail and hospitality, I felt replaceable. I thought that anyone could do my job.
I thought that by speaking up and asking for what I needed, it would be easy for my employers to fire me and hire someone in my place. (It is not - GlassDoor puts the average cost of recruiting one new employee at around £3,000. Even if that cost is lower for the hospitality sector, it is still a significant outlay).
I know through experience that a lot of hospitality workers have no formal contract in place at all. Others are on part-time contracts, but work full-time hours - which they aren’t guaranteed.
So what does all this have to do with mental health?
Zero- and low-hour contracts do work well for some demographics - I’m thinking especially of my days at university when I could pick up extra hours over the holidays and drop right back down to the bare minimum during exam time. But it's a different story for professionals working full-time in the sector. Having no guarantee that you'll earn enough to survive, only adds to an already stressful lifestyle.
And hospitality work can be a very stressful lifestyle.
Unpredictable shift patterns make it hard to socialise with people outside the sector. The constant hustle and grind while barely getting by. A largely young, and disenfranchised workforce surrounded by (often discounted) alcohol. The culture of heavy drinking in some parts of the sector is almost inevitable. We all know that alcohol is a depressant.
Why do we undervalue hospitality work?
We have so much work to do, to better value hospitality and service workers. Unionisation, fair pay and proper contracts that guarantee workers the money they need to live (and not just survive) are all a huge part of that.
Recently, I read something I hadn't considered before, in relation to service work. Part of the reason the sector is so undervalued here is the UK's obsession with class. Historically, servants and maids carried out the work of the hospitality sector. These would be people from poor and working-class backgrounds, usually women and racialised people. The way we value the profession of service is tied to antiquated ideas about class and identity, and to how we value the work of women and non-white people.
We need to destigmatize hospitality work itself. We need to value the work of people in the sector, and to view hospitality and service work as a 'real' career. We need to normalise talking about mental health in the sector. To prioritise the basics of self-care for the chefs, waitstaff, delivery drivers and bar servers who work long hours and erratic shift patterns, giving their physical and emotional labour - usually for minimum wage.
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Things to read this week
In veganism: a farmer/butcher explores an Impossible Foods factory - and the implications of ‘vegan meat’ on our food supply chain. While I don’t personally enjoy faux-meat (I am very much a ‘beans & tofu’ vegan), I do see the need for it as a way to ‘wean’ people off the standard meat-heavy Western diets that contribute to the climate crisis.
The ability to produce meat-like products, cheaply and at scale, should make it easier for people to move away from a heavily meat-based diet. But, there are worries that the new industry’s disruption could displace “independent farmers, ranchers, and butchers”. Small, sustainable farming is just that though: too small to meet the demands of today’s meat consumers.
I love Atlas Obscura’s irreverent and surprising takes and could read their food writing forever. Something that caught my eye this week: an exploration of the history of meat consumption (or meat non-consumption) in ancient Japan. “The monks believed the new trend of eating meat was ‘destroying the soul of the Japanese people’”.
In another foodletter I could consume all day long, Vittles goes more in-depth than I have on the stigma against hospitality workers in the UK today.
Perhaps food media’s biggest story this week was the working conditions (and food hygiene conditions) at Sqirl. The New Republic has a great rundown on the LA jam restaurant (a trend that’s yet to catch on in Yorkshire) accused of harbouring a hostile work environment - and a great deal of mould. Including the ways in which food media actively hides (and even encourages) toxic, misogynistic and racist working environments in the restaurant scene.
This piece in Eater is based on workers in the US, but I think much of the sentiment and about returning to work in a pandemic can also be applied to our own hospitality workers: there’s a very real fear about catching COVID-19, but also a keenness to get out of the house and return to ‘normality’ - whatever that means now.
As a former picky eater, I laughed-out-loud at this rundown of Serious Eats’ staffers’ fussy childhood food habits. There was a lot that I wouldn’t eat as a kid, but I was particularly wary of anything with a sauce (which seems WILD to me now). What foods did you avoid as a child?
Things to eat this week
I made a batch of polenta this week, using a (pared-back) version of the recipe I published last March. On the day I made it, I ate it creamy in a bowl, with caramelised onions, mushrooms and kale and then put the leftovers in the fridge to harden overnight. I pulled that block of polenta from the fridge late the next day, chopped it into cubes, and stir-fried it in sesame oil, with cherry tomatoes, broccoli and a handful of cashews. It was kinda eclectic but tasty 🤷♀️
Andy and I got takeout from Tharavadu, which you should absolutely do if you are in Leeds - it’s South Indian food. Get the idli and thank me later 🥟
I haven’t done this yet, but I will definitely be putting my next batch of brownies in the freezer ❄️
I also had a chip butty for lunch the other day (despite my dad forgetting the word for chip butty and offering me a potato sandwich, which is absolutely not a thing) and posted about it to TikTok because, of course I did 🍟
Where to find me this week
I haven’t actually published anything new this week, but as always you can find me @ZoePickburn on Twiter, Insta and other social media.
Thanks!
Zoe
Freelance writer & journo | Food blogger & newsletterer (she/her)
Say hello@zoepickburn.com with stories, commissions & foodie chit chat