What kind of ritual does your team close each shift with? Even a two-minute huddle to objectively reflect on service can bring closure to what is usually a long day for most of us. Cleaning the kitchen together doesn’t really
Alignment
How scattered we can be during a regular day in the kitchen. And it’s not always the nature of our work that’s to blame. We react unfavourably when something goes wrong. Some of us carry things we haven’t fully processed
Boundaries
What boundaries does your culture enforce between work and life outside it, chef? Are they fluid, permeable, or non-existent even? It might be that you trespass boundaries only in the event of a contingency. But even then, you can establish
Ownership
There are two sides to our tribal kitchen culture. One the one hand it shapes what you do and how you behave. It produces an almost infantile behaviour in employees. “Tell me what I should do to fit in, to
‘Busy’ness
This fortnight, Love Letters to Chefs asks you to look at your team culture and how it impacts work-life balance. Does your kitchen feed the myth of ‘busy’ness, chef? That unless you’re seen to be producing work – seen being
Comfort zone
In my research I came across many stories of head chefs feeling guilty or being made to feel guilty about prioritising their own work-life balance. I don’t know how you might personally deal with that dilemma, but in this post
The world is watching..
In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to
Ungrounded leaders
I cannot emphasise enough how much your own grounding matters as a leader, chef. Your own practice – whatever it might be that grounds you – is so very vital not just in helping you make better decisions, but in
What kind of environment do you create?
As an employer or a leader your impact on work-life balance goes way beyond the amount of annual leave you offer or whether you give your team members time off when they really need it. You also have to look
Talks and workshops
Love Letters to Chefs is now offering talks and workshops at food businesses in and around London to build awareness on work-life integration in Hospitality. If you like what you read here and believe it would be valuable for your