Want to Retain Staff? Try This One Weird Trick
Want to Retain Staff? Try This One Weird Trick
How solving the childcare problem can solve a lot of other things too. Plus MAD Academy alum Laura Cabrera on striking out on her own
LONG READ
The Childcare Conundrum
Choosing to work in hospitality shouldn’t necessarily mean choosing not to have kids. A few people have come up with some solutions
When McGee’s Scot Irish Pub in Anderson, South Carolina re-opened after the pandemic lockdown, chef and co-owner Dixie Benca found herself facing a new twist on an old problem. Her restaurant, which serves creative pub food, had been in business for more than 25 years, and during that time, she had seen her employees struggle to balance childcare with the late hours and unpredictable schedules of restaurant work—as had she and her husband, who works in the restaurant with her. But in those first months after lockdown, things had gotten much worse. While McGee’s might be open, daycare centers were not. And like every other restaurant in the world at the time, it was running perilously low on staff. When one of her employees got solo custody of his child and was suddenly faced with the prospect of no longer being able to work nights, Benca decided she had to do something. “People shouldn’t have to choose,” she says, “Between their family and having a job.”
And yet many feel like they do. Irregular schedules and working hours that stretch far outside 9 to 5 or Monday through Friday; low wages that make hiring caregivers an impossible extravagance; a lack of government support for the industry: all of these factors combine to make it inordinately difficult for chefs, servers, and bartenders to have a family. But at a time when the restaurant business as a whole is facing unprecedented labor shortages, addressing the childcare issue also presents a tremendous opportunity. Because as Dixie Benca found out when she came up with a creative solution, fixing that problem fixes a lot of other things as well.
ACADEMY ALUMNI
5 Questions with Laura Cabrera
At just 21, Laura Cabrera found herself as head chef at Nectar, one of Mexico’s top restaurants. “I was almost crying every night,” she recalls. “I was suddenly put in this huge position, and I didn’t know what to do.” Now, more than 10 years later, Laura is running her own successful restaurant, Bredo, in Copenhagen—and she knows exactly what she’s doing. This month, the MAD Academy alum shares her views on what it means to lead and collaborate well, and why we need to ditch old-school mentalities so the next generation of chefs can thrive.
Like many other talented chefs in Copenhagen, you started with a stint at noma, followed by eight years at Hija de Sanchez. What finally made you take the leap and open your own restaurant?
I’ve had the privilege to work at a lot of great places but always wanted to open my own. It only happened when I met the right people—the right Danes—that had the same vision. We’re four partners, myself, Kris [Porner], Nina and Esben [Pagh]. We all met through Sanchez and I actually met my partner in the kitchen, Sean [Dante Hagerty], at MAD Academy. After cooking Mexican food for so long, I thought, I don’t want to cook that anymore! But we combine all the flavors of Latin food with Danish seasonality. We also have brunsviger on the menu–if you know, you know!
NEWS & EVENTS
MAD Academy 2024: Now in Session!
Our first course of the year got underway this morning with 30 students, from 20 different countries, our first resident faculty member, Monica Berg, and a lot of stimulating ideas and good coffee.
VILD MAD On the Air
MAD’s Mikkel-Lau Mikkelsen spoke with Rick Evans of the podcast Ecosystem Member about why foraging matters, including by making the forager fall in love with nature. Listen here.
