The life of a MN certified food manager can be a stressful and time consuming one. This becomes more evident and taxing around holidays like Valentine’s Day when a multitude of happy couples flood their favorite restaurants and food service workers put in long hours making sure every guest has the best experience possible. We’ve often heard it said that restaurant management is a single person’s game, but we feel that you should be able to enjoy your career and have a life beyond the kitchen.
Balancing a Career as a MN Certified Food Manager and a Personal Life
A quick Google search on divorce rates in the food industry will reveal that bartenders, chefs and restaurant managers all rank in the 25 worse professions for relationships according to numerous sources. While we offer food safety training not couples counseling, we do engage in conversations during breaks from classes and after testing sessions. We feel that there should be a chance for both a successful career and a healthy relationship, and we have a few ideas that have been shared by some professionals that we have talked to who have been able to achieve a successful balance.
- Go out of your way to make time for a personal life outside of work
- Trust your staff to get the job done in your absence.
- Choose non-peak dates for special occasions
It may sound impossible, but if you want to keep a healthy balance in your professional and personal life, you must make time for both. Hearing stories of an 80-hour work weeks makes us cringe. If you’re looking for ways to trim your hours so that you can spend more time at home, you may want to rely on your staff to take on some extra responsibilities. If you’ve trained your employees well, you should have no problem trusting them to handle more responsibilities in your absence. Train your sous chef to take on some ordering or inventory duties, count on an assistant manager to help with scheduling or train a trusted employee to receive and stock your weekly supplies.
For our last tip, we’d like to offer an alternative to celebrating events such as Valentine’s Day on the same day as everyone else. Don’t feel tied down to what the calendar says. Many restaurant professionals celebrate Valentine’s Day on a day before or after the holiday and go to their favorite restaurants during the week rather than on hectic weekends.
Maybe you’re one of our readers who is a MN certified food manager that has been able to balance a home and professional life. We’d love for you to leave your tips in the comments section below.
