Operating a restaurant truly takes a lot of elbow grease. Every industry employee has to be fast, clean, efficient, able to multitask and communicate well for it to function smoothly. All while trying to be the best of their craft, making top-notch food, and meeting customers' expectations and demands. So there’s really no surprise that workers sometimes try to do everything just to get through the day, even if it means cutting corners or committing unethical practices.
However, all of this is happening behind the scenes, where such industry secrets are kept tightly shut. But mysteries exist so they can be revealed, and the online community “Kitchen Confidential” takes pride in doing exactly that. From poorer-than-poor conditions to ridiculous rules to dealing with weird customer requests, scroll down to find restaurant workers getting real and spilling secrets about the industry.
#1 Can We Stop Glamorizing This
Give us cooks a break to sit and eat a meal like a human.
Image credits: Honest_Concentrate85
#2 Reviews/Owner Responses Like This Make Me Unbelievably Happy On The Inside
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#3 I’m Still In Shock
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The restaurant and food service industry is expected to continue to grow in 2024. Experts also predict that it’s going to reach a profit of $1 trillion for the first time and create 200,000 job positions, pushing the total number of industry workers to almost 16 million people.
However, such impressive growth comes with a price, unfortunately, mostly for employees. And the high turnover in the food industry proves this. Data shows a staggering rise in this rate of around 75% - a number that has been growing since the pandemic. This percentage is more than one and a half times higher compared to other sectors.
#4 Prep Guy Left A Spoon In The Fish Batter. Figured He Was Saving It To Eat Later So We Plated It For Him
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#5 Thought You Guys Would Enjoy This
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#6 Local Restaurant Posted Online Today…
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Because of such high turnover, restaurant owners said that recruiting and retaining employees were among their top business challenges in 2023.
Chances are, you’re now wondering why so many workers are leaving positions in this sector. Well, ironically, one of the main reasons is that businesses are short-staffed.
A 2022 survey has found that 90% of food service employees have worked overtime, double shifts, or extra ones. Of those, 75% said they had to do so because of a lack of staff.
#7 Dishie Asked For A Handburger. I Had To Make It
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#8 Flipping Burgers
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#9 About To Work The Grill In 100°f+ Weather With No A/C. It Was Nice Knowing Y’all
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Bruce Tracey, a professor of HR management at Cornell, commented on workers' dissatisfaction with the industry, saying, “Hospitality jobs, especially front-line, are notoriously known for low-wage, low-skill kinds of work — it’s associated with working conditions that are not necessarily conducive to adequate life-work balance.”
#10 Stole This Off Facebook, Sounds Like They've Had A Few Chats About This Lol
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#11 My Prep Cooks Got Tired Of Slicing Onions
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#12 Yep
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Another factor contributing to high turnover is low pay. The effort to provide higher wages is there. However, it doesn’t seem to be enough. In the last few years, wages have driven up by 23%, and at the end of 2022, the minimum hourly pay was $17.30, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
#13 May This Person Find Their Special Pickle
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#14 Music Not Allowed In The Kitchen
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#15 Worst Day In Sauce History
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Unpredictable hours also add to the fact that people are leaving. A 2021 report found that 64% of workers received their schedule with less than two weeks' notice, more than a third had one week of heads-up, and a quarter said they had only 72 hours’ notice.
#16 There's A Story Behind This Sign That I Need To Know
Image credits: Bender_2024
#17 I Was Fired For Reporting Unsafe Practices. Shrimp And Chicken Were Left Out At An Ambient Temperature Of 81° F For Over 14 Hours
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#18 I’m Not Even Mad. That’s Hilarious
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“For an hourly worker, their pay is determined not just by their wage, but by the number of hours,” Kristen Harknett, co-founder of The Shift Project, comments. “You can’t create better conditions for workers by only having the one side of the equation.”
Additional challenges for restaurant industry workers include poor communication, physically demanding tasks, and difficult customers.
#19 Girlfriend’s Little Brother Just Worked His First Thanksgiving Double. This Was The Staff Meal
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#20 Soup Du Jour! (Dishie Refuses To Change The Water And Just Says He’s Been Washing Dishes For 40 Years)
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#21 How Does Everyone Dry Their Mops
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What can be done to improve the situation for staff is to increase technology in the workplace, which can take orders and payments and even bring food to customers. This way, the demanding workload is not as challenging for real human beings.
#22 The Way The New Guy Labeled This Box
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#23 A Tally Of Pet Names My Just Turned 18 Waitress Got Called In An Hour
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#24 Am I In The Wrong Here? I Called Off Yesterday After Talking With A Nurse, My Manager Told Me To Come In Today, This Is The Third Time Theyve Asked Me To Come In While Sick, Once When I Had Covid
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John Quinn, one of the heads of Bank of America also recommends offering workers additional employee benefits. “Even if those benefits introduce some incremental day-to-day operating expenses, the reduction in employee churn rates can give owners a very compelling and financially beneficial reason to invest in benefits for their employees,” he says.
#25 Whelp, Ok If That’s The Ticket
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#26 Fired After Working A Double On Christmas
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#27 He Should Probably Start Preparing His Own Food
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Extra suggestions that restaurant owners may want to consider include a lifestyle spending account, tuition reimbursement, or health savings account. “Another valued benefit is a dependent care flexible spending account to allow workers to pay, using pre-tax dollars, for daycare, preschool summer camp, before- or after-school programs, or adult care,” adds Quinn.
#28 Im Positive This Has Been On Here Before But I Couldn’t Help Sharing Again
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#29 Fng Was Asked To Strain Out The Stock
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#30 Just Told Doordash To Get F**ked. Feelsgoodman
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Trying to foster a healthy workplace culture is very important too. Establishing restaurant values, and communicating standards and expectations allows everyone to be on the same page and achieve shared goals. Allowing people to make mistakes and kindly approaching them is also crucial, as it boosts morale. Meanwhile, training to detect burnout, showing appreciation, and giving feedback helps to develop sustainable careers in which people aren’t overworked and unhappy.
#31 Our Walk-In Is Just A Closet With An Air Conditioner
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#32 New Restaurant Might Not Make It
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#33 After All These Years I Didnt Know This
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#34 Sliced Tomato’s For Burgers As Prepared By My Colleagues
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#35 *common Sense Has Left The Chat
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#36 So My Dishwasher Was Sent Home Beyond Drunk When He Was Caught Sleeping In The Customer Bathroom, Guess Who Has To Clean This Up. Happy 4th Of July Everyone
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#37 The Color Of The Water That Drips Out Of The Ceiling In Our Walk In
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#38 Line Cook Quit
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#39 When You Go In To Eat On Your Night Off
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#40 It’s Used Coffee Grounds. FoH Will Think Twice About Eating Things That Don’t Belong To Them
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#41 I Received This Tip Today. What Does It Mean?
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#42 Table Had Just Ordered And The Server Was Already Done With Them
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#43 Absolute Chad Chef
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#44 Tell The Owner We Need Potatoes For Potato Salad For A 55 Person Dinner, And He Brings In A 5lb Bag
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#45 Got This In A Little While Ago. I Have No Words
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#46 Work Smarter, Not Harder
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#47 Chef Forgot To Order Sugar. I’m The Baker
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#48 I Wonder What The Meeting Is About
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#49 Its Cool I Dont Need Those Fridges
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#50 My Sister Is Having A Disagreement On Presentation With Her Head Chef
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#51 Somebody Just Ordered This
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#52 Please Give Me A Notice
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#53 Love Cooking, Hate People
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#54 I Know Cubes Are In The Past But.... Squid Cube!
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#55 A Very Real Note Passed To Me By A Customer At My *pizza* Restaurant
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#56 This Is From A&w Near Me
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#57 My Disaster
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#58 I Accidentally Used Pancake Mix Instead Of Biscuit Mix. Y'all Think Anyone Will Notice? The Other Cook Doesn't Know Yet
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#59 One Sysco Driver Finds A New Way To Make Me Ask "Why?" Every Delivery. He Doesn't Think. At All
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#60 Prepping Carrots And Came Across This Monster
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#61 My Kitchen’s Hood Is So Loud They’re Giving Us Earplugs
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#62 Not Sure Whether To Laugh Or Cry
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#63 Fire Inspector Accidentally Set Off My Ansul System
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#64 Found This On Craigslist
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#65 Aitah For Not Letting Them Cook Asparagus With Plastic Rubberbands Left On Them?
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#66 Owner Bought This Instead Of Reg Butter, How's This Gonna Go?
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#67 I Was Told To Pick Through These And Wash Them Off To Serve. Is This Wrong? It Seems Gross To Me
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#68 Whoops
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#69 Co-Workers Put Up A New Sticker For Our Ticket Machine
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#70 Never Thought I’d Have To Make This Sign
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#71 Nuff Said
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#72 Thought This Group Would Appreciate…
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#73 Fun Fact, Adam Sandler Brings His Own Ezekiel Bread To Restaurants
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#74 Ok Then
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#75 You Already Know We Roasted Tf Out Of Jakob
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#76 What Do We Even Do In This Situation?
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#77 They Don’t Want Me To Scrape Or Clean It
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#78 My Dishy.. Broke Up With Me?
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#79 Walked In To Work Today And Saw This
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#80 Someone Had A Single Chicken Wing Roll Off And Touch The Table. She Asked For One More Remade For Her
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#81 Seen On My City's Subreddit
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#82 Why Do You Hate Brunch?
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#83 Guys... I'm The Truffle Guy From Yesterday. I'm Begging You Pls Don't Shoot The Messenger
So the guy just ordered 400 oysters on top of the 200 we already had ( and are getting old) + the ones in the showcase for sale... Long story short, what do I do with 600 fresh oysters we can't sell??? Ideas so far: shuck>sousvide>freeze>fried oyster special. Home made oyster sauce.... Today I almost passed out when I realized the situation
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#84 How Does This Make It To The Table?
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#85 My Demented Chefs Rules Aka "Kitchen Truths"
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#86 This Is How The Kitchen Are Putting Out Chicken Wings. Should I Say Something To Management? It's An Embarrassment
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#87 Just Found Out What This Restaurant Uses For “Goat Cheese”
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#88 Is This Legal?
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#89 Wanted To Make Some Beer Dogs Tonight For A Father's Day Buffet. Asked The Bartender For Whatever Beer Was Not Moving And Got A Bunch Of Bud Light. Made "Woke Dogs" With The "Woke Beer". They Won't Drink It But They Sure Will Eat It. Every Single One Was Gone
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#90 Got Fired Over Text This Morning. Happy New Year!
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#91 “We Gotta Defrost The Shrimp” - Chef
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#92 Another Critter Situation
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#93 Allergy List From Customer!
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#94 Made A Guy A Burger. He Wanted A Picture Of Me And My Ukulele. But He Also Wanted The Burger In The Photo. This Is My Job
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#95 S Hook Found In Our Pasta Tonight
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#96 People Have Been Asking Why Chefs Hate Brunch…
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#97 I Need To Use Up 36 Gallons Of Skim Milk Due To An Ordering Error. Any Ideas How To Use It Up?
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#98 Someone Paid $95 For This…
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#99 Congealed Oil Fat. For The Grubbiest Of Waiters
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#100 Pretty Sure I'm Never Going To This Chipotle Again. Good Lord
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#101 Chef Is Trying To Convince Me This Is Medium Rare
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#102 Pervert Dishie Got Fired After Three Days And Keeps Sending This Stuff To My Boss
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#103 Just Experienced The Worst As* Kicking I’ve Ever Had. Happy Father’s Day Everyone!
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#104 Local Spot Enforcing Their Own Rules. Thoughts?
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#105 Premise Of This Show Was Ridiculous
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#106 So Owner Decided He's Going To Cook A Couple Days A Week. This Is His Station. Yes We Are Open
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