Speak Up

Monday, September 19, 2011

Hamburglar

Ethics in the workplace isn't just a workshop you've been forced to attend. It also involves more than stealing post-its or reporting a coworker of pinching reams of paper. In the restaurant industry ethics comes down to things a bit bigger than post-its: people. Is it wrong to open a restaurant and take half the kitchen staff from your old job? On the one hand you are working to create a successful business and where else would you get the best cooks, but from your previous job? On the other hand it's unethical to recruit former coworkers. On the other, other hand (yeah things are getting freaky) how much responsibility is held by the person being recruited?

Have you or your chef walked into work to find half your cooks have jumped ship? Have you jumped ship yourself and was it worth it? Have you recruited your bosses employees and slept at night? 

I'm not sure where I stand on all of this. What about you?

Food is Love, 
Hilary 

1 comment:

Tiger Lily said...

When my husband left the Fifth Floor in SF to go to Chicago to open L2O, 90% of the cooks followed. They were not asked to follow, they slowly moved out on their own and got other jobs while waiting for L2O to open.
Sometimes teams like to stick together or at the least the tops guys...I do though think you do it in the right way~by not taking everyone, leaving a successful kitchen...but taking a few guys to help and support you in the new place.
Does that make sense? It's a fine line. I think it's worse to be "poached" during service! During my stints at both CTrotter's and Ducasse I was handed business cards during service! Totally wrong!