It’s Time to 86 Harassment.
Written by HRuprise founder, Rebecca Weaver.
Have you ever or do you currently work in a restaurant?
Me too.
Did you experience harassment or discrimination from your managers, colleagues, customers, or all of the above?
Yeah, me too.
It’s not a surprise to learn that we’re not alone.
Chefs, bussers, waiters, and bartenders work their asses off, in roles as skilled as any office job. A lot of the people who specialize in this complex work are women, people of color, immigrants, and/or just plain young. I was 20 when I worked as a waiter. The job taught me a ton in terms of empathy, people skills, and complex project management. In fact, I’ve always maintained that everyone, no matter their career path, should work in a restaurant for at least a little while, because it teaches you life skills that no other job can.
But my waiter job also, unfortunately, introduced me to my first toxic workplace. From the chef who frequently propositioned that I “meet him in the cooler,” to the manager who screamed at me for minor mistakes on tasks for which I’d never been properly trained, it was clear to me that in this industry the stakes were high, the power was easily abused, and the resources for workers like me to advocate for ourselves were few to none. I quickly figured out that it was easier just to just let most things slide, unless they got “really bad.”
A couple of decades in HR later, I look back and see that actually, things were really bad.
And they still are.
But over the past few years restaurant employees have been speaking out about their experiences, and in the last year, their voices have become a groundswell for change. Famous chefs across the country have had their careers rightly disrupted by revelations of rampant sexual harassment and discrimination, most recently including Seattle chefs Edouardo Jordan and Blaine Wetzel.
Erin Wade’s Not On The Menu movement has introduced restaurants across the country to a simple and highly effective method of dealing with customer harassment of wait staff. And in the brewing industry, women’s advocacy movements like Women of the Bevolution and Brave Noise collaboration have gained national prominence as a response to a simple Instagram question from brewer Brienne Allan: “Is anyone else experiencing sexist comments?” And of course, she received an avalanche of response.
What strikes me most about these revelations is their pent-up power. They are fueled by the accumulated voices of people who’ve been silenced by the status quo but now finally have an outlet to share their stories.
I was part of a similar upheaval in the advertising industry not too long ago, and the parallels are striking.
The snowballing allegations. The reverberating betrayal and shock. The sudden clarity that this has been happening for years, but no one wanted to listen until now. As a woman who started out in the restaurant industry and has since devoted her career to revolutionizing HR, this resonates with me on a cellular level.
These revelations are forcing a reckoning in the food & beverage industry. Many of its leaders are horrified to realize that harassment is not occasional in their business, but endemic to it. Many have come to me and asked, “How can I prevent this from happening in my restaurant?”
In response, I’m launching 86 Harassment.
In restaurant parlance, “86” is shorthand for “We’re all out of something.” It’s a way for a manager or chef to rapidly communicate to the entire staff that the restaurant is no longer serving something on the menu. With 86 Harassment, our HR coaches are teaming up with food & beverage leaders to end harassment in the industry for good.
To get there, we’re focusing on inclusion and prevention, not just reaction. We have to get out in front of harassment long before it starts if we ever want to create meaningful change. How do we do that? By ensuring that workplaces are practicing meaningful inclusion on an ongoing basis; supporting employees in their workplace struggles independent of their boss’s interests; and providing employees with safe, confidential, and responsive methods to report even “minor” transgressions.
Members of 86 Harassment are independent restaurants, breweries, bars, and cafes that don’t have their own HR departments. HRuprise will provide them with robust resources and ongoing support to help them build an employee-centered HR without having to hire their own full-time specialist. These resources will include:
Anonymous reporting software for employee harassment claims
Independent investigations of harassment claims by HRuprise coaches
Employee access to confidential HR coaching for their workplace dilemmas
Templates and tools to help employers build more inclusive company practices
Ongoing training for managers and employees
I founded HRuprise on my conviction that confidential, employee-centered HR has the power to create safe environments for employees, and free up employers to spend more of their energy innovating and creating – or in this case, cooking, brewing, and connecting with customers. This model of HR is more effective than traditional HR because it centers your employees’ safety and fulfillment first. It also tells you the truth about your workplace culture even when it hurts, and offers meaningful actions you can take to make it better for everyone.
I’m proud to return to my early restaurant roots with this initiative and bring the hard lessons I’ve learned in corporate HR leadership to bear in this new space. Hospitality jobs are the backbone of our economy, and the people who work in them deserve to be respected and safe, just like all of us.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: REBECCA WEAVER
Rebecca Weaver is the Founder and CEO of HRuprise, a marketplace that connects people with HR coaches to help them grow, develop, and navigate their toughest workplace challenges. LEARN MORE
