Joanne Irizarry is a chef in the industry that knows what it is like to deal with mental health issue, substance abuse and suicide. She spoke with us about what it's like in the restaurant industry and why she started "A Safe Place Inside Your Head" to help people who are looking for an online community for mental health support.
Joanne Irizarry is a chef in the industry that knows what it is like to deal with mental health issue, substance abuse and suicide. She spoke with us about what it's like in the restaurant industry and why she started "A Safe Place Inside Your Head" to help people who are looking for an online community for mental health support.
Welcome to restaurant radio, a podcast that focuses on topics that affect influence and matter to those of us in the hospitality and restaurant industry. I'm your host, Nan Wilkinson. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to restaurant radio. My special guest today is Joanne Irizarry. And Joanne is a 40 plus year industry veteran after finishing a culinary art with an Culinary Arts Degree. Not only is she a restaurant veteran, but she also is a advocate for mental health in our industry and outside of our industry. And she has created an online platform called a safe place inside your head, which is on Instagram, I believe. And also tick tock Is that correct? Join. We're on Instagram, Facebook and tick tock. There you go. So thank you so much for taking time to be on the podcast today. I appreciate it. Sure. Sure. I'm very excited. Well, thank you. I'm excited to so i want to ask a couple of questions. Obviously, you're in the restaurant industry. And that's that's kind of my focus. But I know that what you've got going is not specifically for the restaurant industry. Is that correct? They say place inside your head is it's just encompasses anybody who has mental health issues, you know, specifically locally? I don't I, because we because we're on We're an online access tool, kind of, or community, specifically locally. I have a lot of friends that are in the industry that I will, will speak with and talk to and help locally, but not specific to the restaurant industry. That's correct. Right, right. I've just found you know, I've done a lot of research, and you know, our industry is struggling, all the industries are trying to find help. And I think our industry has struggled more than the other ones. the quit rate, according to the labor Bureau and statistics is double what it is in other industries. And you know, I've been doing this, you know, 40 plus years. And I just feel like our industry is so hard hit with people who are dealing with all sorts of issues, whether it's substance abuse, or some type of mental health, it's an extremely stressful situation that people are in, in this industry. It just feels like this is an issue that is starting to come to light and that people are starting to address and talk about do you feel that's the case?
Joanne Irizarry:Oh, absolutely. I have seen such a major change. So a little bit of background. Also, I'm a recovering alcoholic for for nine years. So it's a lot to do with me, I got out of the industry for a little while because I needed to manage my stress without alcohol. And it was too available to me working in the industry. So I left for a little while. And then I came back like with a vengeance. So because then I realized, oh, you know, if I can do this, I can help other people who are in the same position as me that feel like they can't cope. And I can provide them with tools or be a support system for them. So and yes, we're having a horrible time, not attracting talent, I don't know. So I also traveled back and forth. I'm in Houston every other weekend, I have some a lot of really good friends and a lot of Chef people that I know in Houston. So I'm traveling back and forth there. And so I always ask the question to them. Are y'all experiencing the same thing that we're having in Austin? And for the record? Yes, they are. It's everywhere. It's not just, you know, and I don't know if if money fixes the situation?
Nan Wilkinson:I think no, I would say absolutely. It needs to be part of it. But it's only the tip of the iceberg, I
Joanne Irizarry:think exactly like it people. And this is not just in, in food service in general. I work with a I'm an accountant for a lot, a client that has a lot of different kinds of business and we're seeing overall people just want to be valued for the work that they do. And they want you know, like we have a lot of different love languages. And you know, like part of it is to hear the the the somebody say to you, you're doing a great job. We love what you're doing. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard, harder. I believe in the restaurant industry. Just being in it because the physical part is so unnerving. Like, you're like, you're constantly on unit. When you get to work. There's no like downtime. You don't get to like look at your phone. You don't really get to do anything like that, like you are on you're on stage from minute one the minute you get there, so you're judged by like pretty much everything that you do, right? People are constantly watching you. So it is it's it's hard, emotionally to like manage that for a long period of time and money doesn't fix it, you know, like better, more time off maybe or like some Yeah, I mean, I don't want to sound like, I'm gonna just gonna say it like more time off for sure, ya know, like a lot shorter work schedules is, is a big thing, like people can't do that. They can't do that for 10 hours, like your body cannot physically handle it. And your brain can't we shut off after I think what I've heard is like, maybe seven hours or so is our body and our brain kind of shuts down. And we're no longer productive. And so people to be no longer productive. Like, what if we hire, it's hard, because we can't hire more people because we can't get them into the fold, right? You hire more people, but we bring in things like, you know, we're gonna, I have a client that does this, and not every restaurant can afford to do this. But there's there there are, some are, there's a way you figure it out, because this restaurant hasn't gone under, because they did it. But they give mental health days off to their employee. So you know, one day, one day a month, but literally, if you're having in crisis mode, and you can't, you know, like, you can even plan this day ahead of time, like, I want the third Thursday of every month, I'm gonna have a mental health day. And it's your it's paid, it's a paid day, you don't have to worry about like, I'm going to miss a day of work and I can't pay my bills or whatever. Right. And those things like we saw, like the the morale of the people turn around. Because first of all, you're you're saying I value you, I value your mental health, that so much that I am willing to pay you to take care of that.
Nan Wilkinson:That's, yeah, absolutely doing and I agree. You know, there are some businesses and some restaurant groups that are actually doing that. And there, there was one that I saw on the news, and I can't remember the name of it, but they actually hired someone to come in and do like some group talks with people and to do some mental health sessions. They actually hired their own person, kind of like an HR person, but they're the mental health person. So I mean, there's definitely I think people are taking a look at that. And it like you said, it's not just it helps, but it shows value. And I I think wholeheartedly that this industry. First of all, the PE part kind of needed to be tweaked a little bit anyway. But I think that people expect to be paid a fair wage period like that shouldn't even try to sort of be up for an argument. Like you should get a fair wage. And finally, that's starting to happen. And I think the restaurant owners are are thinking that oh, yeah, I'm paying people more, I'm gonna get more people. Well, that's not the end all. Again, the pay part, people should get a fair wage, without arguments. And so now we've got to look at really, I think what the main issues are, and again, it's the stress, and it's the lack of respect. And it's like you said that you can't go you know what, I'm just gonna not gonna make these six meals tonight. I'm just I'm beat I'm just gonna wait and do it tomorrow. You got to do it. Like it's it doesn't wait, it doesn't sit on a desk, and wait for tomorrow, everything has to happen. And if somebody doesn't show up to work, somebody else's got to pick up the site, because our industry stuff doesn't. It doesn't wait. It's in the it's in the moment kind of stuff. And like you said, you're always on. One of the things that I wanted to try to do, because I felt like right now more than ever, the mental health, like everybody can use some mental health support, because as you had mentioned earlier, life's been stressful. And I think the mental health and having support is so critical. And I've worked on that for for health through health connects. And so we've figured out a way through TelaDoc for employers to sign their employees up. And for only$9 a month, they can get all the mental health support. They like through Tella doc, as well as some other health care support. And so I think it's critical right now more than ever, people, everybody can use some support.
Joanne Irizarry:And like we said earlier, it's not about the money, but having the money finally become an important talking point that people I see. There's, I'm not going to name them because I don't want to. Well, I mean, I guess I could, could I name it a restaurant in town? Okay, so there's birdies in town. I am a big proponent of those chefs. In general. They're great, wonderful people, their food is amazing. And when I sat down to talk to them, because I always will, you know, be in a chef myself, I always say, Hey, I'm a chef, or you know, like, or they might already know me, they might already follow me on social media. It's just a lot. And they are they'll know who I am or though, whatever. So the conversation comes up. And when I had that first conversation birdies had just opened in, and I was talking to the chef owner, who's he's a sommelier. So he got a lot of time to spend with me. And we were talking about like, I was like, your people look so happy. Like this is a bit of a nice business model. It's it doesn't it's not like there's no servers there. So that's kind of cool. And you just, you don't they don't take reservations. So you have to wait, you know, like you just they open it for For 30, you just go stand in line and they have somebody that comes out and brings you drinks and you know, they have like a covered patio place for you to stand and you can look at the menu. And, and they only have like 10, or maybe 10 things on their menu. And and and so you go up and you ordered right there, you order as much as you want little as much. But then you also get this little thing that you take to your table. And if you want to order more food, there is somebody who comes and brings you out your food, that you're welcome to order more food with them, right. So it's a little different from the like a normal experience where you know, you're sitting down, you're waiting for the server blahdy blah, it just doesn't work like that. There seems like ridiculously happy and I was watching the line, because I sat at that. I sat at the like close to the past. And I was watching the line. And I was like even the line is like, I'm used to seeing chaos on the line. Like, their head down. And they're like moving fast. And you can tell like the energy is really high and hot. People were not these people were like the most chill ever line that I've ever seen. And but they were putting out beautiful things like beautiful things. And so I asked them, like, how does this work? And they're like, Well, you notice we have some empty tables in the restaurant? Yeah, well, it's because we don't overburden our staff. So we only let people in that we can handle at one time, you know, we only have seven people on staff right now today. So we'll only let in? And does that does it make our sales suffer? Yeah, probably. But what's more important is the people are taking care of like the customer, right? Getting a good experience, this the person who works there is getting a good experience. And the restaurant might not be making buku millions of dollars, because we were not stuffing this place full of people. And you know, like running over ourselves trying to feed them, we're managing it so that it's comfortable for everybody involved.
Nan Wilkinson:That's, that's amazing. And, you know, I think that that is, in my opinion, what these restaurant owners need to do that. I feel like, you know, they look at the menus, and they look at the cost, and they look at the decor and they look at all these other things. And it's important, and how they're figuring out their business, but the employee piece of it is neglected. And I think if they start looking at it, from the employee perspective, they will have a more successful business and everybody will be less stressed. Maybe I've maybe they'll make a little less money. But I don't know, I just think in the end, they'll have done it better off period. Exactly. I mean, if you just say, Okay, that's a prime example of how to how to go about looking at how you can do it. So I don't overburden my staff. So I bring lesson or what about looking at your menu and finding, finding ways to either cut back the menu, so it's less stressful on those in the kitchen or finding some ways to find some products or put out some food that's easier to put out. You know what I mean? So like, everything's not so stressful, stressful, and some things are easier. I mean, just looking at it from the perspective of the employee, and how you can have happier employees, have your guests have your owners. I mean, in the end, I think it's just going to make it better for everybody. But it's, it takes work.
Joanne Irizarry:The other thing they did parties also is they have 100% Share on everything. So everybody makes the same wage, if you want. Yes, it and they they're they're doing it and they're doing it fine. It doesn't matter who if you're the dishwasher, the line cook, if you're the runner, it doesn't matter. And they're averaging. And can I say this out loud there? And because I'll say it because she told me, they've also done interviews about this. They're averaging anywhere from 25 to $35 an hour for their employees.
Nan Wilkinson:Okay, so I'm gonna have to reach out to them, but that is amazing.
Joanne Irizarry:I would I would reach out to them and then they also they also do I think it could be for an app so I'm not gonna I'm not gonna 100% quote on this, but they do. Like I'd only an eight hour workday period, and then you get vacation time, and then you get sick time. And then they also they also I think they only have a 40 hour workweek you don't work more than 40 hours. If that's crazy.
Nan Wilkinson:Well, I'm definitely gonna reach out to them. But I'm glad you brought that to my attention. I think that I think these all these things are so important. And I think that's how we're going to keep from losing some of the people that we have. And again, like have people turn around and go Yeah, that's an industry I want to go work. And I think we also need to look at being better mentors of those of us in the industry and mentoring one another. I feel like that's kind of gotten lost in of course, when I started four years ago, there weren't anywhere near the number of restaurants there are now and and we just need exponentially more, more people. But let me ask you this back to the alcohol thing for a second because this is not the first conversation I've had with people who are recovering. And in the industry. It's tough because most restaurants serve alcohol. How? What would you say to somebody who's in the industry are concerned and about being in the industry and having issues with alcohol and recovering, and how would you recommend they handle that.
Joanne Irizarry:So if they're already in recovery, they probably have some good tools, because they probably have been to some kind of recovery through some kind of recovery process for people because I counsel a lot of people, that's what part of this being an alcohol is the disease is that you help other people. And, you know, like, we're not professionals, medical professionals, I don't think you have to be to, to help a friend who's struggling with an addiction, just like you like you, right? You can be another person. And and I'm very, I'm not the typical, like a person. My path was different. It took me a while I was in grief over my son suicide. So there's that part of it. And then the biggest part that I would say to anybody is, if you're not ready, don't even try, right. Like, if you haven't woken up that day, and said that said, I am over this, I want to, you know, I want to be this to end I want this to stop. Because there is if you're if you're a true, I believe this, if you're a true addict, there's no middle ground on what you can do what you can't do, like you just, you just can't like I've understood that. And, and for me, it's fine. Like, because I did wake up that day. And after, you know, 30 years of alcohol abuse, I did wake up and a family history of, of alcohol in general, I woke up and said, This is it, I can't do this anymore. And and I stayed away from it for a while. Because I just needed I needed some space between me and seeing alcohol on a daily basis. Then I opened a restaurant and I had to taste alcohol for my for my menu, because we had it on the menu and I just spit it and I was fine. Like it didn't it did nothing. I didn't get triggered or anything. Like I'm very interested in that. Because it doesn't happen to everybody else. But I would say that what I'm seeing a trend in because I have a lot of people who reach out to me that say, Hey, I'm ready, I'm ready to stop. And they're like, but I don't wanna go to meetings. And I'm like, but you don't have to go to meetings like you want hang out with me, like find yourself some people who are like you who don't want to drink because there's there's people, there's plenty, right? I'm even hearing people who are interested when I say, hey, I want to open up a sober bar, would you be like, would you go? I hear like 100% people say, I would absolutely do that. So sobriety is becoming, it's becoming more popular, per se. And people are really embracing it and trying it and, and are being successful in the restaurant industry or service industry in general. So it can be done. Done, but it's in you like it does. Like there's, there's 100% The only person who can stop you from your addiction or manage your addiction is you nobody else no amount of meetings, no amount of anything else. It's it's an it's a new, right. But part of that is like surrounding yourself with people that, like you admire that you that you say Hey, I like what you have. Because that's what people say to me. I really like what you have, like had that happen. Yeah, then tell my story. And then I say you can have a two you know, like you want, I can help you I can you can watch me just watch me or, you know, if you need me, I'm here. 100%. But we have to find more mentors, more people who are willing to to be those people to help those people. Yeah, you just said something sparked my interest really, like when you said, instead of an HR person, they actually have like a mental health. Professional addiction that's just sparked this is like offline, but it sparked my interest because I'm, I'm getting certified to be a life coach. And I was trying to figure out like, what could be my like, what can be my groove? And you just you just inspired me to speak that I could reach out once this is done to restaurant owners. Oh, yeah. And, and service, Pete, but like people that are in the service industry groups, say hey, I'm willing to come out and talk to your people, I'm willing to help them like, at Marty been doing this for a long time. And I can be a mentor. I can be the liaison between your staff and you to get things where people are or are happy when they come to work every single day. And it didn't require for them to, you know, like be on drugs or alcohol.
Nan Wilkinson:Right. I mean, that's, yeah, that I mean, that's definitely I think a nice thing for sure. So thanks for inviting me. Yeah, there you go. You're onto something there. So tell me just a little bit more about a safe place inside your head.
Joanne Irizarry:So it's a mental health community that was started four years ago and honored my son who did pass away from suicide. He was and he was in the service industry. He was in the food service industry his whole life. And he was an alcoholic and he was unfortunately, he was on some pretty serious drugs, including oxycontin because he He had been hit by a car. Oh my goodness. And so he had a lot of nerve damage. And he was on a lot of medications, which he absolutely hated that life. And he had been, he had been in recovery for a year from alcohol before he died, but in his honor, on his birthday, we created a safe place inside your head as a private group on Facebook to give people a place to actually, you know, commiserate about it, like mental health issues, because my other son who has bipolar disorder, and he has a mild case of schizophrenia, he would get on line and he would say, Mom, I just, I can't find like, My friends make fun of me when I say I'm having a bad day, or I'm depressed or whatever. And he's like, I just feel like there's no safe place. And he's in places inside my head. And I said, Well, why don't we
Nan Wilkinson:create a group? That's, that's incredible. And
Joanne Irizarry:that's what we did, we created. And then it went gangbusters. And during COVID, especially, it was really tough. Right now we're on Instagram, we're at about the 770,000 mark, for followers, and then on, say, on, maybe on our private group, online, I think we have like 10,000 followers, but that one is a little bit more. Because there's a lot of people who, there's a lot of banter on there, because people are actually sharing stories, and they're helping each other like, like really helping each other out, right, it's a little different. To get people to be part of that than it is to our Instagram page. You know, like, if you're in look up mental health, you're gonna find us as one of the probably one of the top things, although our, our thing has kind of gone down a little bit. But but so we we created an honor of him just to have a place where we could talk about mental health issues, and be transparent and be vulnerable, as a family to help other people understand that they're not the only ones that are going through that at all. Like there's the mice, mice, we lost one. But as a family, we came together to help other people so that we don't lose more.
Nan Wilkinson:Yeah, that's amazing. I mean, you, you, you'll have been through so much. And for you to do this and be a mentor and to help so many people join and I'm impressed. Good for you. That's, you know, it's very, it's very inspiring. And so I'm impressed. You know, it does seem like mental health is becoming a more important focus in everybody's life. And I don't know, if you're aware, there's a there's a bunch of groups, and they're not a lot of Mart here in the United States. But specifically for the restaurant industry, there's a I think it's called on what's called mental health for the restaurant industry or hospitality can remember, there's one called the burnt chef project, I don't know if you've come across that. But there's there are beginning to be lots of support out there. And I think this is fantastic. I'm trying to put the stuff on my website on help connect so that people can find it easier. There's a couple other things, you know, we were we were talking earlier about, you know, how to how to help one another. And I believe this is out of Australia, there's a website called, are you okay? And it's actually gives you ways to go on and ask other people, it helps kind of mentor you a little bit and helping to ask other people that you might be concerned about if they're okay. It's really cool website. And there's just becoming more and more ways to support one another. And I don't know, I'm just I'm really happy to see these changes coming because it's, it's a long time coming and it's definitely a need. So
Joanne Irizarry:and and I really appreciate that you are spotlighting it because it's really important in, in any industry but in in the service industry. It is it is just like the things that we discussed earlier. You know, like, man, it's burned and turn on these people. And they're, you know, they're the people who are who stay and are hard on it. Love it. We love it. That's
Nan Wilkinson:why we do it. That's right. I
Joanne Irizarry:love seeing people's faces. We love creating food, we love community. You know, we love food in general, we love each other. We love the idea of crafting this stuff, you know, like we're very passionate about what we do. And yeah, it can be really overwhelming, especially long hours of it. And I hate to see people burnt out because we you know, like we we need great restaurants, we need good chefs, we need happy servers, you know, we need great places for people to eat. Like it's that's you know, that's like the
Nan Wilkinson:the primal it's like primal. I mean, it's like the food and feeding and eating is in sharing food is just a it's like a primal thing. I mean, it's everybody's gotta eat and so
Joanne Irizarry:and what this is the thing also is once you're in the industry, it's really hard because if you're if you're passionate about it and you love it like you say you do, then it's really hard for you to get away from it because you're it's become so ingrained it becomes your lifestyle like you know, like I'm I I don't actively I have a food truck and a food truck right now that runs. And I have a chef that runs the food truck. And I'm an investor. And I also have a barbecue concept that's going to open at the end of the year, that I'm not going to be active, I'll be active in recipe creation. And that's about it. So I don't actively, like work in the my restaurants. But I'm like, It's all I think about, you know, I'm a mental health advocate. But in the in the end, at the end of the day, I'm a chef. Yeah. That's really like when people say, what do you do? I say, that's the word that comes out of my mouth. First is
Nan Wilkinson:I love it. I love it. I totally agree it is kind of that joke in the industry is like, Oh, well, once you're in you never, you never get out. But I do think that now's the time for restaurant owners to look at their staff and see how they can be more supportive and find what those needs are. And I feel like so often, in the restaurant industry, it's so different from working in a bank or wherever else, and a lot of aspects. But one of the ones is it feels like that culture that we've created, that sort of kitchen culture of being tough, and, you know, getting it done. And that thrill of being on the line when the tickets are coming in, has weighed us down. And we we haven't treated one another like, like other people do when they're working in jobs, like, you know, whether it's the way we talk to one another, or the pressures and just feels like that culture can be that kitchen culture can be kind of restaurant culture can be kind of toxic from time to time. And I really feel like that's changing. And I do think that that will also help the mental health, people's mental health if we just, you know, like, like you're saying with birdies, just figuring out how to make it. So it's not so stressful for anyone because it can be fun, but can also be extremely stressful.
Joanne Irizarry:Yes, I so totally agree, if we just keep this in mind is to be human. And I say humankind, like human karma kind, just, like how do you want to be treated? That says that? It's the freakin golden rule, like, you know, and, and now more than ever, we really need to do that with each other.
Nan Wilkinson:No, I agree wholeheartedly. And I think to myself, I want to say to some of these restaurant owners, or even managers or whatever, it's like, would you want to work for you? Would you want to work at your business? I mean, seriously, like that? I think you need to look at it like that. I mean, when I had a restaurant, I used to tell my employees walk go out front walk, like you're coming in? How does it look? Are the windows clean as a floor clean? Is it is it looks spiffy, it's just a place that you would want to come and eat? And, you know, again, like the food and how it's presented, like, you've got to think about it from your perspective of what if you're coming in as a customer, and I think that the business owners need to look out and go, Is this a place that I would want to work? You know, whether whether you're a chef, or just a business owner means that a place that you would be happy to work? And I think that that's, I think they should look at that like that. But anyway, all right. What do you think our industry can do better to keep and attract new talent?
Joanne Irizarry:The do better part is going to be? First it's going to be paying a fair wage, it's going to absolutely have to be that the 215 an hour just doesn't work anymore. In any scenario. You know, I mean, look at gas prices today. So yeah, that's gonna have to be a priority. Anybody who's still operating under that kind of business model is probably going to continue to not have success, regardless of like, how many tips or people make or whatever. The other part is, if we don't, if we don't take care of people mentally, figuring out a way, how does that work? We've talked about a few things on this call already that that have that could start in the right direction. And then, first of all, it comes from the top. So in this as owners, chef's restaurant owners, whatever it is, we have to set the example. And if we're not there ourselves, we cannot expect our people to be. So that's one of the most important things is for you to be a good, a good leader, a good role model, a good mentor to the people who work with you.
Nan Wilkinson:I couldn't agree more. I think that we do need to be better mentors. And I think that even if you're a restaurant owner, and maybe you're not there all the time, that you define what that culture is going to be in your restaurant and not just for the customers but for the employees and to make sure your managers know what that is. And carry that out. And hopefully it's a culture of support Written camaraderie and making great experiences for everybody. Exactly. Joanne, I'm, again I'm so inspired by you and continued success with all the different things that you're doing and I just appreciate you being on the podcast so much today.
Joanne Irizarry:I appreciate you reaching out to me anything anytime, anything you need me to do to help you just let me know.
Nan Wilkinson:You bet I appreciate you. Okay. Thanks everyone for listening and stay tuned for the next episode.