6 ms·

I have a few friends who work in restaurants (not Michelin-starred ones), and something I found peculiar is that pretty much all of them seem to be using hard d

• bowsamic 4y ago
  As far as I’m aware that is mainly an American phenomena
  • Etheryte 4y ago
    This is very common in Europe too, in fact it's so common I've heard stories of it from nearly everyone working in that field that I've chat up.
  • sva_ 4y ago
    I've only been to the US once, and those people I talked about are Europeans.
    • emptysongglass 4y ago
      Oh yeah I have so many stories of Danish kitchen staff. One head chef kept a rock of MDMA like a proper huge rock in the downstairs locker. Cocaine use during service was de rigueur.
  • jwilber 4y ago
    The article itself is in Copenhagen? You’re just going to completely ignore that?
    • bowsamic 4y ago
      Which article?
      • YeGoblynQueenne 4y ago
        I think the OP means this article: https://www.ft.com/content/a62a96b8-2db2-44ec-ac80-67fcf83d86ef https://www.ft.com/content/a62a96b8-2db2-44ec-ac80-67fcf83d8... But you were commenting on the use of drugs, which is not mentioned in the article? Is that correct?
• asah 4y ago
  I believe this has been true for a long time. I guess it's performance enhancing!
  • sva_ 4y ago
    It seemed to me more like those people were coping with their lifestyle (in particular having to adapt to changing shifts)
• colechristensen 4y ago
  Anthony Bourdain characterized kitchens like that as a place for misfits to work when much of the rest of the world just can’t accommodate people of a certain disposition. Doubtless there are plenty of people who could never survive an office lifestyle and it is not wrong that some people need it. There is a complicated issue where some people thrive in an environment which is abusive to people who have much different needs. Only accommodating the most vulnerable does leave people behind. (And I say this having had to speak up loudly more than once for someone being mistreated in the industry)
  • _zzaw 4y ago
    I think inflicting sexual, physical, verbal, and psychological abuse—to say nothing of paying one’s workers a pittance, or not paying them at all—goes a little beyond merely being a “misfit”.
    • colechristensen 4y ago
      Of course there is a point at which everything goes too far, but for a certain kind of person an amount of many of those things seems not to be abuse.
    • throwaway_49u 4y ago
      That's when you become a cop.
    • throwaway0a5e 4y ago
      That's pretty much just a statement about your frame of reference. These people could go and get jobs in a shipyard or a tire factory and their conduct wouldn't really raise any eyebrows.
    • jazzyjackson 4y ago
      I don't the the parent was describing the abusers as misfits, but that the job can accomodate people who don't fit in to other work to put it another way, it's not that the kitchen turns people into alcoholics, it's that alcoholics find it hard to work anywhere else (since they can indulge their vice while gainfully employed) As for abusers, they may find it convenient to fill their payroll with people who can't make it elsewhere (drug addicts, misfits), such that your employees won't quit the second you start sexually harassing them (edit: a sibling comment to you makes a good point about the cycle of abuse, start as a misfit, get hazed, perpetuate the cycle of hiring people who put up with your abuse because they have no where else to go)
• girvo 4y ago
  It’s at least partially to deal with the trauma that their work inflicts on them, at least if my friends were anything to go by. It’s not a nice industry for most. Plenty of sexual assault.
• flyingpiggs 4y ago
  I worked in fine-dining for several years before reaching a point where I had to make a choice to sacrifice everything for my dream, or take care of myself and give up on the dream. I saw many things that contribute to the rampant alcohol and drug abuse. 1. You work obscene hours. The industry standard for fine-dining is to work 60+ hours a week, and you're on your feet pretty much 90% of it. Also, you're only getting payed around 35k a year with minimal benefits, although this is changing somewhat in the last few years. Drugs and alcohol are just kinda needed by most people to cope with the stress. 2. You work odd hours. Most fine-dining restaurants close around 11 pm, which means you'd get out somewhere between midnight and 1 am. There's nothing else to do when you get out besides go to another bar or restaurant and get wasted. Also, since you work in restaurants, you know other people that work in bars/restaurants. Thus, when you go out to other bars/restaurants, you usually know people who hook it up in terms of drinks. I went to so many bars after work where we'd get "industry discounts" and literally pay like 20% of the listed price. 3. You're surrounded by it. This is one of the most important ones in my opinion. When I worked in restaurants, it was very common for wine vendors to pop in during our prep periods and say something like, "Hey, we just got a special shipment of wine from this fancy place in Italy. Here's the pricing and a free sample bottle for you guys to try out!" Or your boss comes in one day and says, "Hey, this beer isn't selling so you guys should just drink this keg before it goes skunk on us," and now suddenly, there's a free, half-full keg in the walk-in. A lot of what prevents me from drinking is that I'm just lazy and it's expensive, but if someone is going to bring me booze for free to me on a regular basis, you better believe I'll be getting drunk on a regular basis too. 4. The people it draws. Restaurants are known for being pretty lax when it comes to background checks so it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone when you get people who have more clandestine backgrounds.
  • justsomehnguy 4y ago
    > There's nothing else to do when you get out besides go to another bar or restaurant and get wasted As a regular one in a bar which is frequently visited by the guys after hours[0] I can only confirm this anecdata. > "Hey, this beer isn't selling so you guys should just drink this keg before it goes skunk on us," Yep, is a thing too. > but if someone is going to bring me booze for free to me on a regular basis, you better believe I'll be getting drunk on a regular basis too Of course. All other points doesn't help too. PS guess where am I writing this? [0] this is greatly depends on the location and the feel, but it is not an uncommon thing. If you are near this you would learn of such places pretty soon if you tend to be there after half of the midnight.
• nathanvanfleet 4y ago
  Isn't this exactly what Anthony Bourdain wrote about in the 80's and 90's?
• mschuster91 4y ago
  > and something I found peculiar is that pretty much all of them seem to be using hard drugs and consume excessive amounts of alcohol on the regular. Former barkeeper here. The thing is, hospitality in general is an incredibly stressful job, it's not just limited to restaurants, but anything involving hostels, hotels, motels, restaurants, bars, discos or event venues: - the wages usually suck, although the post-covid crunch has seemed to improve the situation. - a lot of employers outsource the operational risk on their staff by having customers tip them instead of providing an actual living wage. - in low-class places, the clientele is just trashy (think needles in the urinals or regular brawls levels of trashy). In higher-class places, the clientele is incredibly entitled. Think of "Karen complaining at Walmart" memes, make it 100x worse, and you get the expectations that customers have. Both can be incredibly exhausting. - the employment conditions suck, many places are horribly understaffed, shift lengths are insane and breaks are rare. And in places where the designated smoking space for employees and customers is the same, customers usually seem to think that it is okay to order a beer while you're still out for a smoke. - related to the two above points is anything involving alcohol. Many venues don't have dedicated security, which means you are the one who now either has to drag out a confrontational drunk moron, call the police or keep a crowd of people smoking outside quiet enough that the neighbors don't call the police on you. Not fun. - anything with gambling present always has the associated side effects: thieves, robbers, people who lost their money and now want to trade their last possessions in the vain hope of winning the jackpot, or people who react aggressively to being out of money. Personally, I've been stolen from, I've been robbed, I've been offered anything from likely-stolen phones over marijuana to blowjobs, and I've seen someone bash in the screen of a one-armed bandit with his head, requiring an EMT and police. - the equipment is often enough horribly complex (artisanal coffee machines), incredibly brittle to operate or requires excessive amounts of deep cleaning simply to keep it somewhat healthy (McDonald's ice makers). Unfortunately, customers aren't really accepting when stuff is broken down. They want their McFlurry. Like, right now. And they'll scream as long as they want until they get their McFlurry. And you're not allowed to kick these entitled arseholes out. - moments of actual appreciation (beyond a tip) both by managers and customers are rare. For people who require external validation for their mental health, they are in for a hard time. - managers are reluctant to give their poorly paid staff the power to eject people from the premises out of a fear of bad Google/Yelp/FB reviews. The results are Karen-meme people. - Places with kitchens... oh well, these are a nightmare in itself. Everyone is shouting all the time, the machinery is loud, the cooking processes create a lot of noise, heat and smells, the ventilation is more often than not a joke which makes all the issues worse, you have a hard time moving around because everything is cramped, half the machines aren't really designed to be ergonomical, and a lot of stuff is inherently dangerous (sharp knives, pans, fryers, freezers, gas flames). - The working hours can be a real kick in the nuts. Basically you work when everyone else does not: late in the evening, on weekends, on public holidays, at night. And unlike police, utilities, public transport or EMTs your average hospitality job is not unionized, which means employers get away with a lot of insanities: double shifts, day-evening-night-day-evening-night rotations that completely wreck with your sleep schedule, manipulated time sheets to avoid trouble when the authorities come to inspect, no healthcare or other benefits... The result of all that stress is that people have to cope with it. And most do that by drugs. Some like me smoke, some drink, some use cocaine or similar stuff simply to have enough energy to make it through the shift. And some turn to sex, the industry is fucking like rabbits.
• slyall 4y ago
  I've read a few workers say that they take up smoking because smokers get a 10 minute smoke break every hour or two. Of source the legally-mandated breaks are often missed.
• dghughes 4y ago
  I'm not a cook but the professional kitchen at a casino where I worked was daily drama fest. Knife fights, needles strewn in the outside smoking area, disappearing cook (had an abusive girlfriend), the mashed-potato controversy. Even after staff left and new arrived it was the same thing. My guess it was the heat, long hours, time constraints to get food out and perfect. Most people would react that way.
  • rascul 4y ago
    > the mashed-potato controversy I don't know what that is but it seems like something I would very much like to learn more about.
    • dghughes 4y ago
      Staff could buy meals there was a staff menu separate from the main menu. An incident where someone (just one single person) complained kitchen staff didn't have to pay for meals erupted in a decade long snit. The kitchen wouldn't make mashed potatoes for staff. I think even until this day 17 years later.
  • Georgelemental 4y ago
    > the mashed-potato controversy https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoodleIncident https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoodleIncident
  • jamal-kumar 4y ago
    The mashed potato controversy? Sounds extremely petty compared to all of that stuff but I'm curious to know if I'm wrong about that