The Bamboobies Effect

People are tired of working in the foodservice industry and I'm mad.

If you like being on your feet 8 hours a day, standing next to vats of boiling oil, having your fingerprints worn off, giving up your weekends, holidays and evenings so you can wear a hairnet and closed-toe-non-skid shoes--HAVE I GOT THE JOB FOR YOU!

I often say that Foodservice Work is 2nd only to Childcare in terms of being arduous and exhausting. (Granted, I could add, say, Military Service, Farming and Truck Driving is also in the Top 5) There's a call to serve and us food workers LOVE (almost) every minute of being in a hot box, working cheek-to-cheek (that's a butt reference) and being bombarded with stimulus and uncertainty. It's in our blood: our energy and passion comes out of our constantly-moving hands, we have to be on our feet and we are willing to give up (almost) anything to do it. I can't explain it. We just love it.

It's real work. And it's a real job. So, why was The Great Resignation spurred by those fleeing the foodservice industry? Why, when we're so productive and love to create and serve, did we take government subsidies to just stay home? Why are we being bribed and lured to back to work? Why are we now being replaced by robots?

One Reason: Because MANAGEMENT SUCKS.

As Keanu Reeves famously said in the movie Parenthood (about being a father, but the principle's the same) "You need a license to buy a dog or drive a car. Hell, you need a license to catch a fish! But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father." Read: Manager.

Here's a story: Years ago, I was hired to replace the Production Supervisor at a CPG manufacturing operation. The person that held the position before me had left her family home, moved cross-country, attended a 2-year local culinary academy, and this company was her first commercial kitchen job. She was gorgeous, bright-eyed and hopeful of her new culinary career. She lasted 18 months and was now leaving her food production job to join a company called Bamboobies (which I think makes maternity items out of sustainable materials). Not food. Not in a kitchen. Not culinary. Not what she sacrificed her life to pursue. She now has a desk job. A "real job". A (hopefully) unabusive job.

In my short tenure at the company, I quickly learned why she left: Although they made a great product, the owner/manager was abhorrent and unconscious. As Keanu says: a butt-reaming asshole. In my heart, I was hoping that she did not treat my young predecessor like she did me, but I knew she did. And now I was being asked to recruit more help for her, and I absolutely couldn't. As much as I would love young hopefuls to have an opportunity to work in the food industry, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing how they were getting treated there. I confronted the owner, telling her that she was abusive and cruel. When she snapped and said, "Stop calling me abusive!", I said, "Then stop doing it.".

Why in the WORLD would we want to work sooooo hard, both physically and mentally, give up so many liberties and amenities that other professions have, just to be treated like crap? No wonder all of my people are fleeing to Bamboobies. And they'll probably never return, shrugging their shoulders at a life that coulda-been, doing something they really loved. It's not just the pay: BAD MANAGEMENT is scaring them away.

Thanks a lot, you butt-reaming assholes.

If you are in a decision-making/managerial/supervisory position in the foodservice industry and do not have your leadership and management guidelines dialed-in, expressed, philosophized, studied and calculated to ensure the attraction, maintenance, sustainability and healthful mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of all of your employees, you are negligent at best, and criminal at worst.

You are Bamboobing my people and I'm coming for you---and them.