From 'McJob' to Employer of Choice
Industry Makes Strides to Lose Image as Workplace of Dead-end Jobs
by Dina Berta

One day at work in a Portland, Ore.-area restaurant, a new busser rushed to the side station, looking very distressed. When waiter Paul Paz asked her what was wrong, she said she couldn't go back out into the dining room because some of her friends from school had come in and she didn't want them to know she was a busser.

"She was mortified," Paz recalls, adding that he had similar feelings of embarrassment when he left the insurance industry to become a server. To this day he has relatives who still question his career decision, even though he has been a waiter for 23 years, earning enough to raise three children as a single parent and later launching a consulting business for servers, Waiters' World.

"It's that stigma of the burger flipper," Paz says. "It's very difficult for the public to perceive of anyone having a realistic career choice in this industry. There's a stigma. We get more bad press than good press. We get socked all the time." The attitude that restaurant careers are undesirable still prevails.

The industry even has come to symbolize low-paying, dead-end jobs in a new word that has been included in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: McJob. And in a new study of the industry's image, hospitality majors at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., gave low rankings to some restaurant job titles.

Despite less-than-flattering portrayals in the media, such as in the reality-based television show "The Restaurant" and lawsuits that allege workers were harassed, discriminated against, underpaid and overworked, the restaurant industry has struggled to maintain a positive image in the public's eye. Yet many industry leaders, some of whom can recall that same flush of embarrassment when they first announced their career decisions, staunchly defend the foodservice business for its unparalleled opportunity for advancement, financial rewards and satisfying careers open to anyone willing to work hard.

While the industry may have done some things that help perpetuate the negative stereotype, it also has made great gains in recent years to improve the workplace, observers say. The greatest challenge is changing the public perception.

"I'm convinced in a large way that a vast majority of the American public doesn't think our industry is worth a dime," says Gerry Fernandez, founder and president of the MultiCultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance, a nonprofit, educational resource to the industry based in Providence, R.I.

That sentiment is reflected in a current university study on the industry's image. Richard Ghiselli and Joseph La Lopa, associate professors in the Hospitality and Tourism Management Department at Purdue, are surprised at how low students rated some restaurant job titles in a research project they are completing this month.

A portion of the study asked 320 students to rank 20 titles of jobs in hospitality and foodservice as well as other industries. The owner of a fast-food restaurant was ranked 20th, below loan officer, travel agent, social worker and teacher. In the top-five industry-related rankings, an area supervisor was ranked highest, followed by a corporate officer for a hospitality company, the owner of a catering business, a chef and, last, a general manager for a Red Lobster restaurant.

"Fast food was at the bottom of the list, the absolute bottom," Ghiselli says. "Even to the point it included their perception of an owner — which I think is a pretty noble undertaking, to own a fast-food restaurant. But because it was fast food, they tend to devaluate it. They don't consider it prestigious or a status field."

The restaurant industry's image is poor in minority communities because often service jobs are viewed as one step above servitude, says Fernandez, who has worked in foodservice for the past 28 years.

MFHA launched its Showcase to the Stars program two years ago as a way to educate minority high-school students, their parents and their teachers about the career potential the industry offers. He says teaching young people about the opportunities the industry holds for them through Showcase and such school-to-career programs as the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation ProStart curriculum is one tactic the industry can take to build a positive image.

"It's the magic in the bottle," Fernandez says. "Young people in the inner city, in urban markets, get to see someone like a Regynald Washington, who started out washing dishes, and look at where he is now."

Washington, chairman of the National Restaurant Association, is vice president and general manager of Disney Regional Entertainment and its ESPN Zone restaurants. A native of the Florida Keys, he got a job bussing tables at a resort to supplement his allowance while he was growing up.

Washington became enthralled with the people, the excitement and the bustling atmosphere of the hospitality industry, but when he told family and friends he was going to school to major in hospitality management, they were less than thrilled, he recalls. "They did not see careers for minorities in this industry," says Washington, who is black. "They didn't see it as a professional career. This is the service industry. Waiting tables and preparing food was viewed as parallel to slavery time. We're in a different period now, and it's now time to move beyond that." Washington, who works in Disney's Burbank, Calif., offices, has been telling his personal story as part of the NRA's ongoing Cornerstone Initiative, a public-relations effort to teach the general public about the industry.

"I found my place in the sun when I found the restaurant industry," Washington says. "I would not trade one day of my life for any other career opportunity. I'm 48 years old. I graduated from college with a four-year degree, and I've been working every year since I was 19. I've never worked outside of this industry, and I've never had a day of unemployment."

The NRA's campaign consists of a series of three advertisements as well as strategies and tactics to convey the industry's message of opportunity to opinion leaders, government officials, industry employers and employees.

The campaign initially was launched in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the tag line "Join Us. Help America Turn the Tables." The campaign also underscores the restaurant industry's essential role in the nation's economy.

"When you look at the 11.7 million workers in this industry, the $426 billion we generate in revenue, the $1.2 trillion impact we have on this nation, the industry speaks for itself," Washington says.

The NRA's efforts are welcomed, but the positive message is not getting across to the public, says Diana Wynne, senior vice president, treasurer and chief diversity officer for Plano, Texas-based Metromedia Restaurant Group. She also serves as chairwoman of the Women's Foodservice Forum, a professional organization of women foodservice executives.

"We can celebrate that McDonald's [Corp.] deservingly has been ranked No. 1 for diversity of employees by Fortune magazine," Wynne says. "It's a true win for the industry. Yet, we have a word now, 'McJob,' that clearly flies in the face of all we've tried to do. It clearly demonstrates we have a lot of work to do."

The NRA reported earlier this year that the restaurant industry hires more minorities than most other industries do. Of the workforce, 18 percent are Hispanic, 13 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian. Whites account for 64 percent of all employees in eating-and-drinking establishments, compared with making up 74 percent of the national workforce.

When it comes to management, women account for 69 percent of supervisors, and 16 percent of supervisors are African Americans. Almost one out of every four restaurant cooks is Hispanic.

Dozens of foodservice companies have created English-as-a-second-language programs to help their Spanish-speaking employees learn English, which improves their ability to get promoted.

Some companies have made great strides in increasing the racial and gender diversity of their management ranks, reports Joni Thomas Doolin, chief executive of People Report.

People Report is a Dallas-based research firm that provides data on human-resources practices for its members, a group of more than 70 foodservice companies, employing about 650,000 people. People Report tracks a composite diversity index, a percentage of managers who are women or racial minorities, among the member companies. The index has climbed steadily in the past six years, rising from a low of 36 percent to 49 percent in the first quarter of this year, Doolin notes.

"We see a wide range of performance in the companies that we study in how they approach the whole issue of diversity and what their success is in developing a diverse culture at the management and executive level," she says. "I personally believe that within the next 10 years, having a truly diverse workforce that reflects our communities and our markets will become a standard hallmark of high-performing organizations."

Yet as the industry makes strides in becoming an employer of choice for minorities and women, regional directors for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are noticing an increase in the number of racial-discrimination and sexual-harassment cases involving restaurants.

Also, a recent study by Batrus Hollweg International, a Dallas-based human-resources consulting firm, found that of 600 hourly restaurant workers polled, 18 percent admitted to making fun of a co-worker or customer based on their race. Thirty-seven percent made fun of a co-worker's or a customer's accent, and 26 percent said they had touched a co-worker in a sexually inappropriate way.

"The industry attracts mostly younger individuals, who lack the training and knowledge to know these sorts of things are violative of the law," says Jacqueline McNair, regional attorney for the EEOC in Philadelphia.

The restaurant industry also has trouble shaking off its image of being made up of low-paying jobs, says Paz, the waiter in Oregon. Public perception is hard to change when every time there is a movement to increase the minimum-wage issue, the restaurant industry marshals its forces against it.

"Our history has been one of always fighting the minimum wage," he continues. "There are arguments in all directions, but we don't talk about how we give people good wages and raises."

But industry cheerleaders remind that the restaurant business can offer well-paying careers and make entrepreneurs rich.

When Jennifer Purdy took a job as a restaurant manager for Cracker Barrel right out of college, her sorority sisters were surprised. However, Purdy moved quickly into a corporate career in the family-dining restaurant chain and later went on to work with Long John Silver's. She now travels the globe as senior project director for human resources for Louisville, Ky.-based Yum! Brands Inc., parent of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell as well as Long John Silver's and others.

Purdy has enjoyed her career, but she remembers feeling embarrassed when she told her old college friends about her career choice — until she starting earning bonuses and getting promoted.

"When I compared their experience with mine, my promotional level was far faster than where they were," Purdy recalls. "I was beating them out with my career progress and pay. They couldn't believe the amount of money I was making at my career level. I made more money than starting-out lawyers do. Six figures in the restaurant business is a possible achievement, versus a pie-in-the-sky dream."

Compensation for restaurant managers compared with the U.S. workforce remains highly competitive, says Doolin of People Report. The average total compensation for assistant managers is $41,885, and for general managers, it's $68,077, she says. Meanwhile, the U.S. mean annual earnings of workers with a high-school diploma and some work-related training was $25,993, and even those with four-year degrees earn $56,553, according to the U.S. Monthly Labor Review.

"Coupled with a competitive benefit package and a realistic workweek, the job of a manager can be viewed as a very attractive opportunity," Doolin says