Hospitality Career Nightmares

I've got a knife in my head.It's quite subtle, isn't it?

Yeah,.

Yeah.See that?

If anything, it's an improvement.

Sometimes a little white lie isn't the worst.

I have never lied in my life.Apart from now.What's scary for you, Tracey?Coming up in the hospitality industry.

Talking hospitality.Talking hospitality.Moving the hospitality conversation forward.Talking hospitality.

Recording a Halloween special, Tracy.

We are.I love Halloween.It's just spooky and dark and.And.

Energetic.

And energetic.

Welcome to another show of spooking hospitality.

I've got a knife in my head.It's quite subtle, isn't it?

Yeah,.

Yeah.See that,.

If anything, it's an improvement.

Well, I.That's how I feel.I would need to treat him sometimes to be fair, but.

Sometimes you do behind the scenes and that's why we have lawyers and medical insurance.

Yes.

Moving on.What's the show about today, Joe?

We are going to be visiting scary things.Not necessarily trick or treating.

Okay.

But more things that we find scary in hospitality.Maybe sharing a couple of our own horror stories from service and.Yeah.Just getting into the spirit of things.

Okay, we can do that.

Yeah,.

Yeah,.

Yeah.

I told you, Timothy, like this time of year, that's what you're going to be doing the whole time.

So go on.Them who's had a scary time in their hospitality career.So who's going to kick the scary proceedings off today?Let's go with Jo.

I thought it would be apropro to share a scary time in my career that I can always really clearly remember.And I think it's a. I think it's a vote for every time that you need to fake it till you make it or put your best foot forward and just back yourself a little bit.Because I think there's an awful lot of people who have got a lot of potential who maybe doubt themselves a little bit too much.I'm not cursed with that affliction, but I think that, that, yeah, I just wanted to share a little something of something that was scary that actually turned out really good.

Okay.

So it was actually my first job as a GM and I was 24.

Just yesterday.

Just yesterday.And I may or may not have massaged my experience to get in the role.And it was terrifying.It was really, really scary.And the first day that I came into the business, I was aware that I was 24.I was very aware that everyone in the business was older than me, including the team I was going to manage, which is pretty intimidating anyway.But I just had one goal for the day or two goals for the day.Don't make any huge mistakes and don't tell anyone how old I was because I always looked a bit older than I am.I had more hair then, but I still looked older than 24.And I thought if I can just get through and people don't realize that I'm the youngest one there, it'll have been a good day.And the owner will show me around.He says, this is this person.This is this person.And he introduces me to Julie who makes the salads.And Julie is a 65 year old Greek woman who's worked there for 20 years.And she goes, julie, this is Joan.Hi, Julie, nice to meet you.She goes, him manager.

Wow.

And I just, I was.The color just drained my face.I was like, this could have gone better.And then what did she ask how old he nightmare.

And then she put a knife in your head.

Yeah.And it stayed there ever.

Since.

So did you answer or did you?

No, I was honest.I was honest.I said, I'm 24, but I promise you I'm gonna do the best job that I can here.And she didn't believe me.No.But it went really well in the end.It did go really well.It was obviously a lot of finding your feet and honestly was the best policy with that.And it went really well.Yeah.So it was cool.It was cool.It was, yeah, a really scary day.A really scary thing.But actually things took off from there.Within a few years I had multiple venues in the company.Within a few years I had.I was running 10 at one point.If I hadn't backed myself in the first instance to just take a leap and go, you know what, you can do this.None of us do a thing until we've done.

It.

Thing.Yeah.Right.So I did.And yeah, it was.It worked out really well.

I'm so pleased.But that could be the vicious cycle though, can't it?When it comes to getting new jobs is you need the experience to get the job, but you can't get the job without the experience.So sometimes a little white lie isn't the worst thing.

As.

Long as you can back yourself.

I have never lied in my life.Apart.

From now.

I've got a story.I'm going to be taking one out of your leaf, I'm afraid, Tracy.So don't get me wrong, I'm not Tracy.I'm not.What?But it's a cake story.

It's a story.

About cakes.

That's not okay.

And.

Stealing my thunder.

Takes Tracy's Thing.

Yeah, well, it might not be after this.So I did an event and we ordered a cake.It was one of the first gay weddings in the country.And we ordered this cake and it arrived wrong.It was supposed to be three, like three or four tiered with pillars and roses in between each.This cake arrived all iced together.

Oh,.

Right.So what we did was me and this lady called Henya, we got the cake knife and we cut every layer open.

Oh, my God.

Then we put roses, shoved roses in between the cakes.

Edible ones or like.

Just.

Literal flowers,.

To be fair.Really?Yeah,.

Literal flowers.And we put it and it balanced and it was great.And we got it out there and when we lost video, as the cake is starting to go from straight.

Oh, no.

And it starts slowly and you can see it tilting.

And.

Then they go to cut it and you're like, I want to see.My heart was in my mouth.I'm like, words my mother never taught me.And they cut it and they didn't even notice.

Oh, wow.But.

By the end of the evening, Tower of Pizza.That was really.That was a really scary moment.

Oh,.

My.

Gosh.And especially a wedding.So the lies you've never told before, right?Yeah, yeah.It's all coming out now.

This wasn't supposed to be a confession.Let's do.

It.So my obviously is a cake story and it's a bit of a horror.Horror show, to be fair.So I had been asked to make a funny enough three tiered cake, but I was like, it's great because it's a naked cake, which means no icing, no buttercream like that on the outside.And it had fruits around it.So quite a straightforward design.So I thought I'd come up the night before from Hampshire to London, got to my resting place in Croydon and always want to check the cake, make sure it's okay.I'm getting like chills or something.It has scarred me so badly.Opened the boot and I had it in like a carrier.That keeps it nice and cool.The bottom layer had completely disintegrated.Now I'm used to making cakes that are covered.

Yeah.

So there's extra reinforcement.Not thinking about the fact that I had to drive 75 miles with the vibrations on the motor, that sort of stuff.So it completely disintegrated the 12 inch layer, which meant the 10 inch layer had slightly fallen.

And.

The top one somehow managed to be okay.So I've suddenly got fruit all over the place because I'd already placed everything where it should go and There was just that moment of, oh, what, what?What do I do?I'm 75 miles away from home.Do I fix this cake for tomorrow morning at 10?And I was like, calling my old neighbors because my old neighbor used to make a cake.Could you help me out?Is there anything you could do?And she was like, that's fine.Okay.Auntie, can I use your oven?Yes, that's fine.Okay.Supermarkets are still open, but then I thought, I don't have the equipment I need to.To do what I need to do to save this cake.So after an hour and a half of firefighting, decided to drive back home.And I got back home at 11 o' clock at night, baked until about 1:30 and then drove back to Croydon, this time with the cakes separate, which I should have done and always do that, separate.But that journey back to Croydon, even though I knew that'd be okay, was just like.It's like when you've got a baby in the back and you want to keep stopping and making sure they're okay.It was like, I'm hot and everything.Just talking about.Because it was just horrible.And then I didn't have much sleep and it was just, you know, what should have been a lovely, restful Saturday night turn into a horror show, basically.And it was my own fault because to save time, I stacked the cakes when I shouldn't have.

Yeah.Literally no sympathy.

You're so mean.You're so mean.I.

Mean, you can't be nice dressed like that, can you?Like, it's got to be a bit mean.

Well, I guess so.Well.

Done, you.That's dedication and that's why you're professional.

Thank you.But.

Moving on, I believe there's more.

Yeah.Your cake story was better than Tim's.

Crumbs.

The next one thing I want to talk about is more nightmare fuel.

Okay,.

So have you ever had.I've got the killer story, so I'm gonna go last.

Okay.

Have you ever had a moment in service when you are at an event in a venue, serving, trading, talking to guests, where you've just wanted a hole to open up in the ground and swallow you whole?

No.However, I have been in a situation when I worked in bars and there's a cocktail bar, and one of my team, one of my best barman, who I'd brought in, let's just say he'd indulged.

Okay.

Okay.

And he was missing every single glass.He was pouring the alcohol.

Oh, my gosh.

In front of.And it was newly opened.We're New only opened bar.He's like, hey, look, new ownership, new management.Look how professional we are.And he kept missing the glass.It's so badly.In fact, I ended up literally taking him off and doing the cocktails.Wow.I mean, there was no explanation.

Yeah.What'd you say?

You're fired.

Yeah.

So that was probably the most.I'm feeling hot now.

Yeah.Just.Yeah.It's amazing how it makes you feel, isn't it, reading these stories?

It's a nightmare.Welcome to the party.

Was he, like, drinking himself Mine?Well, actually, do you know what?I was witnessing it happening to someone.So I was at a brunch, as you do on Saturday, with a friend, and everything just kept happening near us.So this waitress, she didn't seem like she was new or anything, but she could have been.But she came with a tray of drinks for the table that was next to us in the corner.And she managed to.It was a.They're having brunch as well.She managed to spill three cocktails.All of it.Ice went everywhere.And honestly, her face, bless her, she was just like, are you sure it didn't go on you?We're like, it's fine.Don't worry.And then about 20 minutes later, the table next to that one, she did exactly the same thing.And you could see her just look up.And her boss just kind of looked at her, like, really?Like, really?But he was like, why this corner, this huge restaurant?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it kept happening near us.So then she came over and said, can I get you anything else?I was like, a cocktail?

Yeah.

She saw my face and she was like, oh, I'll try not to spilt this one.I said, maybe don't bring it on a tray.

Yeah,.

Let's just bring it out on its cocktail.Honestly.What's.

That one?What's her name?At Soup.

Oh,.

Yes.Not a cocktail.

I just felt so bad for her because I just thought.And then what?The other.You.

Felt so bad for her, you ordered a.

I put her in the exact same situation.Third time,.

The second table.Like, oh, we needed a wash.So, you know, they.

Tried.

To laugh it off, but, oh, it was.I felt for her so much.I wonder if she's got a job now or she's back to being a kitchen with water or something.

Not there's anything wrong with that.

No, no, no, no, no.It's just hierarchy, that's all.I.

Mean, yeah, it doesn't matter if you drop something in the sink.Right?

What about you, Joe?

Well, mine's a similar kind of ilk, but I'm gonna drop myself in it again.So I was opening a restaurant in quite a high end restaurant in you wouldn't believe it, but Blackpool, of all places.Gorgeous, genuinely gorgeous, gorgeous restaurant.Like completely unique, like very high end.And we'd been doing opening training for a couple of months.This was just after Covid and I had explicitly done like every type of training, role plays, steps of service, everything.As in we're talking plates with Maltesers on, with relay races and an Olympics to see who came first, second and third prizes.And I mentioned that because trade training was a big deal and it's similar to what you experienced there, Tracy.So we had a guest, a group of guests in with eight, eight people, eight covers at the table.And you had this big crash, big dining room.And you come over to the table and there's gin and tonics and four gin and tonics, four beers all over the table.A couple of people got covered in beer.There's the starters are ruined.And there's this waitress who I've trained myself, who's very, very, very good, standing there just like she wanted the grounds to open up, open up an eater.And came over and said, I'm the manager, I'm very, very sorry.Did the sort of trying to do guest recovery.And I said, look, I'll take your order from this point on, you don't have to worry, like, you know, da, da, da.And she was obviously devastated.I said, look, that's not your table anymore.Don't go back to them.Because she was obviously super nervous.I didn't want it to get any worse.I was like, I'll take that table off you, you're good.And I was talking to the bartender at the time, he goes, oh, what happened?I was like, honestly, I don't know.She, you know, it's a, it's a third shift.I trained up, really.When I'm putting these drinks on this thing and you can see where this is going and I honestly don't know.And I was.And I walked over anyway, so I'm standing there and I was like, right, guys, I've got your replacement.It's all, thanks.We've reset the T. Well, it's a good five minutes, everybody's looking.I went, what?As a joke.

Oh,.

No.

Oh, no, no, no, no,.

That's not it.But that shows the level of confidence I had.I was like, just kidding, guys.Oh, you.Oh, you.So I popped the first gin and tonic down.I popped this and then those.Are you counting?So I've now got six drinks on the tray.The second gin and tonic down.I hear, what the.And this guy just stands up in front of me and what should I see?But the entire tray of drinks has gone down his back.

Oh, you didn't even notice.

It.I didn't know it.And genuinely.And I couldn't.And I didn't know what to say.I was like, what can you say at that point?The fact that I was reassuring them by saying this shouldn't happen to me.I'm the guy that trains them how not to do this made no difference at all.So anyway, turns out what had been happening was like, what are the chances?Two in a.

Day.

What are the chances?Two in a day.And again, not blow my own trumpet, but for that to happen to me.Come on.Something's up.I checked the trays.Turns out the chefs had been using the trays to make the kegs more comfortable to sit on in their break.So each tray had a W shape in it because the center of the train pushed the middle, drop the edges, and then bowed the sides so they would pre.

It.

Was like sabotage.

Oh, my God.

Honestly, I couldn't.

Put.

Never experienced anything like it.But to this day, I actually use it as a silver lining and all that stuff.

Yeah.

I use it as a training thing because I'm like, look, whatever happens to you on this shift, it won't be as bad as this thing that happened to me.

But it also goes to check your equipment.

Check your equipment.

Check your equipment.

And never let a chef sit on a tray.

Yeah.

And here are two more talking hospitality, learning lessons.Who says we can't be educational,.

Right?Nobody.Nobody ever.

So the final question I have for us today is what scares you about what's coming up in the industry?For me, And I'm an optimist, Right.I love people.I love the industry.But I have got a fear about.We were talking about this at lunch, Tracey.The phone thing and the dependence that people have got on their phones and that parasocial sort of relationship building thing that is happening digitally rather than in person.I have had.I've recently been recruiting for.For my place of work, and I've had lots of young people coming through who are.You can see a lot of potential in them.But the number of them who, in the very first minute or two of me speaking to them, meeting them for the first time, pulled their phone out.One of them brought it up as if it was a really good thing.Saying, look at this on my phone.And interrupted me to show me.Because he thought that was an.A relevant thing to bring into the conversation.I'm like, my goodness.And on his trial, I came around the corner having not been around for about half an hour.He's with the supervisor and he's standing on his phone.

Wow.

In the middle of service.And I'm like, my God, I didn't think these are certain things.You think I don't have to train that.

Yeah, yeah.

What Adams.I don't know what we're going to uncover in another five years that we didn't think we had to teach.What are these kids missing and these who are.And I'm not casting a spurgeon of different age groups and everything, but these were the kids who went through their.Really fought.They're really formative socializing and growing up years in Covid where they missed those year or two of interactions.It's not a criticism.

Observation,.

But it's a bit scary.

Oh, gosh, I can't even imagine.

Right.

At least slightly.At least do a slightly.

But you say that, but then we've all.There's always been.

Sorry, what was that?

I'm still here.You say that, but then there's things like that.In my day.In my day, it was more to do with.There was chewing gum.

That.

Was the thing.Chewing gum.Keep.What's your name?Asmr.

Thank you.Do I have the job.

Anyway?And that used to just be.I used to literally just get a bin, put it there, and then would say, now we'll start the interview.

And.

I think some of that's education.But always it.Because you're over 30, you're no longer a millennial.Gen Z or whatever it is this you are this week.

Exactly.

What's scary for you, Tracy, coming up in the hospitality industry.

Mine isn't what's coming up, it's what's always been there.And it's people not choosing hospitality as a career, choosing it as a stopgap.And I wonder if that will ever change.I wonder what it is we can do to make that change.But it upsets me.I mean, I.It's kind of like pot calling kettle black here.Because when I was younger, the thought of hosting people was like, I don't want to do that.So.So I was in retail.That's what I chose to do.And when I went into hospitality, had my shop, all that sort of thing, I was like, oh, my God, I could have been doing this for years.I Loved it.I absolutely loved it.And I wonder how many people don't see or get the opportunity to see that side because they just see it as, oh, I'm at college, so I'll do it.You know, it's a little Saturday job, whatever it might be.It's just sad to me that it's not really sat down at a conversation with a family.What's your future gonna look like?Hospitality.It always ends up happening afterwards, if that makes sense.Yeah, I don't like that.I find that scary.

But Chris Rose, who's the commercial director for Hit Training or what was called hit Training and it's now make opportunity, his viewpoint is very much.But we should also embrace the fact that some people perceive this as a stopgap, not try and resist it.

Oh no,.

Actually, yes.Use it.Stop gap.Because we'll catch more people and anybody who knows any, like all of us here,.

You probably stay.Probably.

Stayed.

Yeah,.

We.

Probably didn't plan to be in hospitality and yet here we are with a knife in the head.And well, realistically the.You fall in love with it there and I think.So I think we maybe need as an industry to also reconsider that.Actually this is okay.

It's maybe it's just an entry into.

So then you.Then we can get them and show them.

What it's all about.Yeah,.

Just another way of thinking.I thought that's quite an interesting way of doing.

It.

What scares me most about coming up in the industry, I think it's what's going on at the moment with all the businesses that are closing.For me, hospitality is entrepreneurial, is creative.Obviously it's the people.You get to meet a lot of people.And my biggest fear is don't.I'm not anti corporate in any way, but is that the.Some of the corporate businesses that are quite soulless, some of them, and they're all very money oriented as opposed to people oriented.That takes away what from the essence of hospitality, the joy of hospitality is you are making somebody's day happy.That makes you happy.And if you're working in an environment that doesn't understand that.But it's about cash only.Because business is business, but it's cash only.You don't create that energy and that vibe that you can have when you've got more entrepreneurial businesses.Today's small businesses, tomorrow's big entrepreneurs as well corporate.But what we need to have our grassroots.And the grassroots comes from the fun, the enjoyment, the reason why you get up in the morning.Okay,.

Soul, isn't it?

You don't make cakes because you have to.You do it because you're bloody.Yeah.You don't do your events because you have to do it.You do it because of the creative.And how do you make this an event?How do you do this?How do you get people's reaction out of it?You see people's reaction.That's hospitality.And I think my biggest fear is that we could lose that.And we are losing.

Yeah.

And let's keep going.Let's keep spreading the news as talking hospitality, that this is why we should have great people in the industry.We can do something about it.

Agreed.

Love that, Tim.

Okay.And of course, that sounds not very talking hospitality discouraging, but actually that's why we're here.That's why the three of us are also doing talking hospitality, because we want you guys, your listeners, the viewers, the people in our industry and people that are thinking about coming industry, because we know we've got some schools that are listening to us, that there is an opportunity to be positive.There are things that can happen and we just need to spread the word.And that is why we are here today.And that is why talking hospitality exists.

And why it works.

And why it works.And.

Why it works.

That is what I actually love about what we're doing, genuinely, is that we get to shine a spotlight on some really cool people that are doing some really cool things, that from the outside looking in, if you're not in the industry, you don't know about these really cool roles, these really cool opportunities and these really cool careers that do exist.But we want to get that conversation going.

Absolutely.Absolutely.So it is Halloween, remember?So we need to send a message out to our viewers and our listeners.

Well, I guess there's only one more question to ask.

Do you spit or....

Trick or treat?

Treat.

Talking hospitality.Talking hospitality.Moving the hospitality conversation forward.Talking hospitality.