Burnout is common in hospitality, but it doesn’t have to be inevitable. Here’s how operators are building restaurants and lives that last.
Running a restaurant is often described as a calling, but it can also be a grind that leaves operators exhausted, isolated, and questioning their future. Post-pandemic studies show that nearly half of U.S. restaurant managers report experiencing burnout, and close to 70 percent say their team members have voiced it too, according to a study conducted by Axonify in 2024. When owners and leaders are running on empty, turnover spikes, culture breaks down, and profitability takes a hit.
These takeaways come from more than one hundred podcast interviews with chefs, operators, and industry leaders, paired with Matt Jennings’ own lived experience as an operator.
Jennings knows the cost firsthand, “You can’t pay bills with the ‘fun’ parts of the job… The cost of hospitality burnout is not just human. It’s economic, cultural, and systemic.”
Redefine Success So It Includes You
For decades, restaurant culture equated success with survival, outlasting brutal hours and pushing through pain. That mindset might fuel short-term growth, but it is not sustainable. True success means creating a business and a life you can actually sustain.
Chef Ben Shewry of Attica realized this when he cut his hours and found his leadership actually improved. Jennings frames it bluntly, “As an industry, we have to stop romanticizing the grind.”
Takeaway: Measure success by what lasts: your health, your family, and your team’s stability, not just nightly covers.
Build Systems That Carry the Weight
Too many restaurants run on muscle memory and the operator’s brain. That may work for a while, but it eventually breaks down. Without written systems, every problem defaults back to you. With them, the restaurant can run even when you step away.
Chef Karen Akunowicz shared how she made the leap, “We are bringing somebody on… who is going to be our HR partner and is rolling [out] our handbook, our onboarding, everything that we do and standardizing it through both restaurants.”
Chef Kenny Gilbert reinforces the power of documentation, “We’ve implemented SafetyCulture into our infrastructure for training. Gilbert uses the app to turn daily procedures into clear, documented standards.
Takeaway: Write down the work, teach it, and let the system carry the stress instead of you.
Share the Load and the Credit
Many operators burn out because they try to do everything themselves, managing service, mentoring staff, handling books, even playing therapist. Longevity comes from building other leaders who can carry the load.
Jennings explains, “Freedom starts with trust. The only way to step back is to grow people who can step forward.”
Chef Chris Shepherd of Southern Smoke Foundation underscores this, “Ask how it’s going. Listen. Then improve. Culture isn’t set once, it’s recalibrated regularly.”
Takeaway: Develop leaders, not just employees. Delegation is an investment, not a risk.
Set Boundaries That Stick
Hospitality often celebrates being always on, but no one can sustain that. Boundaries, time away from the line, tech-free hours, clear expectations, are not indulgent. They are survival strategies.
Chef Norman Van Aken reflected on the lesson it took him years to learn, “If you’re always on, you have nothing left to give.”
Chef Maria Mazon makes boundaries real through scheduling, “I don’t schedule just based on the restaurant’s needs. I schedule based on my team’s lives. That’s what keeps them with me.”
Takeaway: Boundaries protect your ability to lead. Start with one shift or one rule and keep it.
Get Real About Labor and Finances
Burnout isn’t only emotional, it is financial. Nothing drains energy like flying blind on labor costs or waking up to month-end surprises. Daily visibility into sales and labor turns chaos into control.
Chef Gerard Craft described the shift that saved his group, “To get daily labor reports, daily sales, and everything for each restaurant became what we lived off of… watching that like a hawk really kind of changed the game for us.”
Takeaway: Don’t wait until the end of the month to discover a problem. Daily numbers prevent daily panic.
Use Tech and Transparency to Reduce Friction
Technology can overwhelm or it can simplify. The operators who use it best don’t chase shiny tools, they choose systems that eliminate friction and make clarity the norm.
Chef Will Gilson shared how iPads transformed communication in his kitchens, “My team can find everything they need, from recipes to schedules, in one place. There’s no out-of-date info anymore. Everyone knows where to look.”
Takeaway: If tech doesn’t make your team’s day easier, it’s not worth it.
Make Culture Operational, Not Aspirational
Culture isn’t what you put on a poster. It’s how you schedule, recognize, and care for people every day. Burnout happens when culture is lip service. Sustainability happens when culture is a practice.
Chef Andrew Zimmern calls it directly, “If we want better retention, we have to stop burning people out. The solution is culture, one that values rest, family, and growth.”
Chef Manu Buffara ties sustainability directly to staff well-being, “We cannot be working 24 hours, 16 hours in the kitchen. We need to have our social life… When you have happy staff, you have a happy team. People will give their life for your business.”
Takeaway: Values must be lived daily, not just spoken.
Recognize Sustainability as the Real Badge of Honor
Restaurants don’t need perfect systems or endless hustle. They need clarity, boundaries, and cultures that protect people. Jennings sums it up, “When I was 15 years old, I’d ask my chef, ‘How you doing?’ and he’d say, ‘Grinding, baby!’ As an industry, we have to stop romanticizing the grind. Because it isn’t a badge of honor. It’s a red flag.”
Burnout is common. But it is not inevitable. Start with one system, one boundary, one better conversation, and build from there.
FAQs:
How can operators reduce burnout immediately? Start by documenting one system, setting one personal boundary, and giving one leadership responsibility to someone else.
What role does technology play in preventing burnout? Tech should centralize information and reduce friction, not add complexity. The best tools eliminate repetitive stressors.
The best way to beat burnout is together. Join MAJC’s community of hospitality leaders and access conversations, resources, and expert sessions that make the job lighter.
At MAJC, AI helps us organize thoughts and speed up workflows, but every article is shaped, refined, and approved by real people who live and breathe this industry. We think honesty (like hospitality) works best when it’s real.
