Against bad working conditions, sexual harassment and discrimination, for a better, future-proof restaurant industry: our Guide of Conduct
The restaurant industry has backed itself into a corner.
Hundreds of thousands of employees left the industry during the pandemic, not many returned, and too few have joined. The reasons are well known: long hours, little money, a ton of stress. If you want to start out in a top-tier restaurant, you’ll probably be doing so as one of the many unpaid, overworked interns who typically keep such businesses afloat. And if you’re still at it in your mid-30s, you’ll likely be asking yourself how much longer you want to keep up that sort of lifestyle. Then there are the headlines of recent weeks and months, detailing abuses of power, sexual harassment, and the everyday indignities that seem to run rampant in kitchens. Of course, not all of that applies to every single restaurant. But one thing is true for sure: our industry has long nurtured a culture of gritting your teeth, fostering a perverse sense of pride in being able to tough it out.
It is high time we changed that. After all, the restaurant industry does have so much to offer in the way of exciting, creative, versatile and inspiring careers. It would be a real pity if young people stopped finding their way into the kitchen – not just for restaurants, but for people who might thrive in our chosen profession. But for that to happen, our industry will have to remember what it truly is all about. No, not good food and expensive wine, but the people. The people we serve every day, who choose to spend a few hours in our care. And, indeed, the people who work for us, giving us their time and energy, and who, in return, deserve to receive at least as much as they put in, namely a positive working environment, appreciation, development prospects, good pay, shared enthusiasm, our knowledge and expertise. (And also a really good staff dinner.)
Our desire to return the restaurant industry to what is truly at its heart is why we kicked off an important process in early 2021 – starting, of course, with a good honest look at our own restaurant.
Examining in detail what are the working conditions at Nobelhart & Schmutzig as well as the industry at large, we wanted to understand what’s going wrong, where it’s coming from, and to what extent “industry problems” are also “Nobelhart problems.” To counteract our own operational blindness – and not least the fact that we were all socialised in “old school gastronomy” – we decided to call in a lot of external help. For example, we completed a series of workshops and trainings on anti-discrimination with the Vielfaltsprojekte. We also hired consultants to help us with wage benchmarking. On the one hand, this was about creating pay equity in Nobelhart & Schmutzig itself. In addition, we also had a survey conducted to find out what wages look like in comparable restaurants and how this compares with other industries. And then, together with the women in the team, we developed a code system to respond to sexual harassment or other bad behaviour by guests.
Perhaps the most central result of this process is our Guide of Conduct. (Which you can read below!) It documents our findings and, on that basis, sets out rules and standards. Above all, our Guide of Conduct is our commitment to not just talking the talk, but to really working to make a difference. And not just in our company, but in the industry at large.
What is the Guide of Conduct?
Our Guide of Conduct explains our values and principles and lists concrete communication and behavioral rules designed to promote desirable behavior on the one hand and prevent unacceptable behavior such as abuse of power, sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying on the other. It seeks to ensure that every member of Nobelhart & Schmutzig is given equal rights and opportunities while fostering a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all.
In developing our Guide of Conduct, we frequently found ourselves touching on issues that are the subject of controversial debates, e.g. anti-discrimination, sexual harassment, neurodivergence and gender. In light of the fact that these are quite complex topics, we decided not just to lay down concrete rules, but to provide longer explanations and to explain our viewpoints in detail. After all, we don’t just want to dictate rules to our staff, but empower them to make their own informed decisions and to engage in critical discussion.
How do we ensure that the Guide of Conduct is followed?
Every current and future employee of Nobelhart & Schmutzig (including management) has to sign the Guide of Conduct.
Nonetheless, we are all too well aware that such a document can easily gather dust in a drawer if there is no effort made to bring it to life. For this reason, we have devised a program of regular workshops and training sessions. There is also to be a special Guide of Conduct feedback and development session once a year, during which all members of the team will be asked to provide input and request changes if necessary.
In addition, we thought it important to put appropriate measures and structures in place to ensure that employees are able to address violations to the Guide of Conduct in a safe manner. This is based, above all, on the fact that people might be very reluctant to speak up about incidents, especially if they concern their superiors. Even in the larger culture, the cost of speaking up is usually borne by the person who does so, in the form of victim blaming or simply a lack of empathy and understanding.
Since we are aware of these difficulties, we have hired an independent respondent whom our staff can contact in confidence in case of any issues. This person is decidedly not an HR department whose job it is to cover our backs legally – on the contrary, their sole task is to support employees and to create a safe framework in which problems can be addressed and resolved.
Who created the Guide of Conduct?
The short answer: the entire Nobelhart & Schmutzig team.
The longer answer: First and foremost, our (very online shy + hence anonymous) “resident philosopher” and Billy Wagner. They spent months going head to head over the various topics in the Guide of Conduct and repeatedly solicited different perspectives, including members of the team, the Vielfaltsprojekte, our legal counsel, etc. We presented our first draft to the entire team at the beginning of November 2022, which we then discussed page by page, sentence by sentence. Then it was back to the drawing board. After another round of revisions and additions with the entire staff in February 2023, we have now arrived at our final-for-now version of June 2023 – one document with no less than 20 editors.
Curious about our Guide of Conduct? Download it here:
Guide of Conduct
Click here for the open job applications
Against bad working conditions, sexual harassment and discrimination, for a better, future-proof restaurant industry: our Guide of Conduct
Hundreds of thousands of employees left the industry during the pandemic, not many returned, and too few have joined. The reasons are well known: long hours, little money, a ton of stress. If you want to start out in a top-tier restaurant, you’ll probably be doing so as one of the many unpaid, overworked interns who typically keep such businesses afloat. And if you’re still at it in your mid-30s, you’ll likely be asking yourself how much longer you want to keep up that sort of lifestyle. Then there are the headlines of recent weeks and months, detailing abuses of power, sexual harassment, and the everyday indignities that seem to run rampant in kitchens. Of course, not all of that applies to every single restaurant. But one thing is true for sure: our industry has long nurtured a culture of gritting your teeth, fostering a perverse sense of pride in being able to tough it out.
It is high time we changed that. After all, the restaurant industry does have so much to offer in the way of exciting, creative, versatile and inspiring careers. It would be a real pity if young people stopped finding their way into the kitchen – not just for restaurants, but for people who might thrive in our chosen profession. But for that to happen, our industry will have to remember what it truly is all about. No, not good food and expensive wine, but the people. The people we serve every day, who choose to spend a few hours in our care. And, indeed, the people who work for us, giving us their time and energy, and who, in return, deserve to receive at least as much as they put in, namely a positive working environment, appreciation, development prospects, good pay, shared enthusiasm, our knowledge and expertise. (And also a really good staff dinner.)
Our desire to return the restaurant industry to what is truly at its heart is why we kicked off an important process in early 2021 – starting, of course, with a good honest look at our own restaurant.
Examining in detail what are the working conditions at Nobelhart & Schmutzig as well as the industry at large, we wanted to understand what’s going wrong, where it’s coming from, and to what extent “industry problems” are also “Nobelhart problems.” To counteract our own operational blindness – and not least the fact that we were all socialised in “old school gastronomy” – we decided to call in a lot of external help. For example, we completed a series of workshops and trainings on anti-discrimination with the Vielfaltsprojekte. We also hired consultants to help us with wage benchmarking. On the one hand, this was about creating pay equity in Nobelhart & Schmutzig itself. In addition, we also had a survey conducted to find out what wages look like in comparable restaurants and how this compares with other industries. And then, together with the women in the team, we developed a code system to respond to sexual harassment or other bad behaviour by guests.
Perhaps the most central result of this process is our Guide of Conduct. (Which you can read below!) It documents our findings and, on that basis, sets out rules and standards. Above all, our Guide of Conduct is our commitment to not just talking the talk, but to really working to make a difference. And not just in our company, but in the industry at large.
What is the Guide of Conduct?
Our Guide of Conduct explains our values and principles and lists concrete communication and behavioral rules designed to promote desirable behavior on the one hand and prevent unacceptable behavior such as abuse of power, sexual harassment, discrimination and bullying on the other. It seeks to ensure that every member of Nobelhart & Schmutzig is given equal rights and opportunities while fostering a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for all.
In developing our Guide of Conduct, we frequently found ourselves touching on issues that are the subject of controversial debates, e.g. anti-discrimination, sexual harassment, neurodivergence and gender. In light of the fact that these are quite complex topics, we decided not just to lay down concrete rules, but to provide longer explanations and to explain our viewpoints in detail. After all, we don’t just want to dictate rules to our staff, but empower them to make their own informed decisions and to engage in critical discussion.
How do we ensure that the Guide of Conduct is followed?
Every current and future employee of Nobelhart & Schmutzig (including management) has to sign the Guide of Conduct.
Nonetheless, we are all too well aware that such a document can easily gather dust in a drawer if there is no effort made to bring it to life. For this reason, we have devised a program of regular workshops and training sessions. There is also to be a special Guide of Conduct feedback and development session once a year, during which all members of the team will be asked to provide input and request changes if necessary.
In addition, we thought it important to put appropriate measures and structures in place to ensure that employees are able to address violations to the Guide of Conduct in a safe manner. This is based, above all, on the fact that people might be very reluctant to speak up about incidents, especially if they concern their superiors. Even in the larger culture, the cost of speaking up is usually borne by the person who does so, in the form of victim blaming or simply a lack of empathy and understanding.
Since we are aware of these difficulties, we have hired an independent respondent whom our staff can contact in confidence in case of any issues. This person is decidedly not an HR department whose job it is to cover our backs legally – on the contrary, their sole task is to support employees and to create a safe framework in which problems can be addressed and resolved.
Who created the Guide of Conduct?
The short answer: the entire Nobelhart & Schmutzig team.
The longer answer: First and foremost, our (very online shy + hence anonymous) “resident philosopher” and Billy Wagner. They spent months going head to head over the various topics in the Guide of Conduct and repeatedly solicited different perspectives, including members of the team, the Vielfaltsprojekte, our legal counsel, etc. We presented our first draft to the entire team at the beginning of November 2022, which we then discussed page by page, sentence by sentence. Then it was back to the drawing board. After another round of revisions and additions with the entire staff in February 2023, we have now arrived at our final-for-now version of June 2023 – one document with no less than 20 editors.
Curious about our Guide of Conduct? Download it here:
Guide of Conduct
Click here for the open job applications