Welcome to another episode of Turning the Table.

It's me, Adam Lamb once again with our good friend Jim Taylor from Benchmark 60.

Jim, welcome.

Hey, Adam.

How you doing?

I'm doing great

and in our luxurious green room we have our very good friend

Jay Ashton from the Svk Network.

I'll go ahead and bring him in.

Jay.

Morning.

Jay.

How I am.

Very well.

How are you, sir?

Good, good, good.

I just wanted to welcome Jay.

He is a fellow podcaster and the host and producer of the Svk the

Sysco podcast, which is the only food service hospitality podcast that I

know of that actually streams daily.

Is that correct?

Yep.

Fantastic.

And Jim, you and you and Jay have a long time association.

Do you not?

Yeah.

We've done lots of fun stuff together before, so it's good

to have you on turn, no pun intended.

Here, turn the tables a little bit.

Have you on our, I know on our show enjoying this.

I'm

enjoy this.

So we want you to like, follow.

And comment on the show.

Your comments are very often kind of given us the juice as far

as the conversation that goes.

And today we're gonna be talking with Jay about this very, very interesting

effort around and I think this is produced by the brick, is that.

Jay, Actually

it's under my brand.

The Brick.

Is it?

Yeah.

So it's under my brand which is the first time I've kind of went off and

tried something with my brand and what I've done with the industry.

So yeah, it's, the brick is a part of it.

They're going to sponsor and be a part of it.

So yeah, first

time.

And so this is called the Staff Chair project and I

think the tagline is turning.

Turning staff, break rooms into wellness rooms.

And having spent a long time in the back of the house in my career, I can tell

you that , most of the break rooms I've been a party of have been a little more

than, you know, some lockers and a, in a central bench and a bag of stinky clothes.

So not necessarily what I.

Geared towards wellness.

Yeah.

We all laugh.

We all laugh at it because they're all, it, it, they're all the same.

They're broken chairs.

You know, our logo has a milk crate on it.

Their milk crates are upside down.

Oil pales.

There, you know, the furniture that broke out one night, you know, broken chair from

the la or from the, you know, the bar, the, the, the, the old booth, you know,

some old booths in there and all that.

And that's where we, you know, the graveyard of our.

Or good furniture live or lives is in those rooms.

So you know, this is initiative.

I, I can't take credit for the idea.

I'm just going to put it across Canada and we're going to start really looking at it.

Can I start telling you why?

Yeah.

Do the head ok.

Jim knows I can talk and I don't have to do anything this time, which is awesome.

Thank you again.

Yeah, we just wanna hear about it.

So here's the.

Is that I have done about, well, I've done hundreds and hundreds of

interviews over the last few years.

Restauranters all over the globe and mental illness comes up all the time.

Like I have had, I can't even imagine how many shows I've had on the subject.

And, and I'm very grateful that we have now brought it up as a forefront

of a subject within our industry.

We talk about it, it's becoming.

Very easy now to talk about it and address it, but I haven't

seen too many actions applied.

Mm-hmm.

or things done to do or help with it.

It's like we're keep talking and talking and talking, which is good.

I thought, well, let's do something.

So I was going through, I think it was LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever,

social channel and a restaurant down, and I think it was Washington, and I

apologize if I get their location wrong, changed their staff from mental wellness.

And I'm like, this is brilliant.

Like I said, all those horror stories of those years working in

kitchens and those, those staff and Tim knows that we could do this.

So I put out a call to furniture companies across Canada when the brick step,

the brick stepped up to be a partner with me, and to start transforming

restaurants, rooms, into staff rooms, into wellness rooms, and, and just

really give them a new look, a new feel.

And, and, and do something in a sense for mental illnesses, like an action.

You know, we keep talking about it.

We just talk ourselves, keep talking forever about it, and

play an actual physical place or a space that people can go to.

and we all know, and, and Jim, you probably even know this in in your

days in the industry too, is you'll see servers having a bad day and they

put that face on and then they go out and they, then they have their break

and they'll come into the staff room and go back into their horrible world.

Mm-hmm.

. And we just think that, you know, why don't we make that a space that isn't

that bad for them just to hang out?

You know, it might be a place we know people come in early sometimes for

chefs or they stay late after that.

It's a place that they can feel that we're doing something for their mental illness.

Yeah, so that's really the gist of it.

It's simple.

It can be done.

We're looking for three locations to start this fall, fallen

winter to get it out there.

We've had some require our inquiries already.

So pretty basis wanting to get on board with this.

And the brick has been outstanding and supporting the idea.

And I know we're going to, I wanna leave a legacy also in the industry

of changing, doing something.

I can't get my name on a menu you know, like the Shirley Temple, but I want to

do something in a sense that I, you know, did something that I left this industry.

Yeah.

You know, many years, hopefully down the road that I leave this world

leaving something in the industry.

I.

And if so, Jay?

So furniture, I mean the association with the brick, obviously

furniture's a part of it, right?

Because I mean, you and I were kind of joking about this last

time we were talking about it, that people have tried to make, you

know, improve those spaces before.

But usually it's like you said, they bring a furniture, piece of

furniture from the dining room or, or the couch from somebody's apartment

that they don't want anymore.

Right?

. And it's just the beat up coach where the fruit flies.

So furniture's part of it, but what else are you guys gonna do?

What else is part of the initial I'm, Is it a contest?

Is it, you know, what are they, How do people

get involved?

Well, I think what here, go ahead.

So can I just, can I just jump in and ask for a little context?

Because some of our non-Canadian viewers slash listeners may not

necessarily be familiar with the brick.

So I think a little context would.

Would help kind of ground the conversation about not only what

you're trying to do, but where this initiative is kind of born from.

And I know, and I know Jay to your point, that you especially wanna

call out a, a couple people from the brick who specifically have

been kind of behind this initiative.

Right,

Exactly.

So the brick is Canada's largest furniture.

Re I guess retailer.

I don't know how you say that, but they, they have the most, they,

they're everywhere in Canada.

They've been a staple for, for Canada forever.

They're located everywhere across the country and they also have, which

is surprise to me until I started working with them, is they have a

commercial side of the business as well.

So they supply restaurants and hospitals and hospitality locations

for furniture, for their dining rooms and for their kitchens and everything.

Great opportunity to get their brand out there into our industry as

well, to make sure that people know that brick is not just for your.

But also for your workplace as well.

So but yeah, it's good.

Good call out Adam.

People probably thought we were talking about a brick , probably.

He's confused a few people already, but yes, it's a furniture company

across Canada and they're brilliant and I thank them hugely for stepping

up and, and being a part of this.

So, and I think for the US market we can start there as well and start transforming

these spaces into wellness rooms.

Yeah, so cool.

So, so Jay.

So give us a little bit more information about it.

Is this like a competition or is it a contest?

Does someone have to send photos of how, you know, is it, is it

one of those renovation shows?

Like how, how's the whole thing going

out?

Yeah.

It's, it's the Jim Taylor renovation show.

. No, it, it is really, We want people.

Yeah, exactly.

We want people to send photos in to us so they can, they can

go LinkedIn, send it to me.

They can email it to me.

But on LinkedIn's play easiest.

Mm-hmm.

send us photos of what their staff rooms look.

Who they are, where they're located.

Like say it could be anywhere in the US as well.

I'm sure we'll figure out how to do that down there, but we'll definitely look at

them, see what we can do to help them.

And then we want to pick three, kinda like the three winners to start with this year.

And then we'll go from there and see what we can create and help.

So is this kind of like you're looking for three particular operations

who are willing to take this challenge on?

Are there any parameters by which you want to, like like what do you, what do

you see to be kind of central elements behind changing what used to be kind of.

Crappy smelly space into a, into a place where someone can

actually take a deep breath.

And whether that's 10 minutes of meditation or just some quiet time.

And, and before you jump into that, Jay, I just wanted to kind of highlight this

comment that we just got in the chat, which is, I have to say, my time at

Apple changed my view of break rooms, which are really well thought out.

My view of what's possible and necessary has not been the same since.

So clearly this is a timely conversation for.

Yeah.

No kidding.

That's awesome.

You know what, I think we have to go one by, like, we'll have to

go basis by basis, Adam on that.

Mm-hmm.

and look at, we have to make sure that, that, that location understands

we're doing this, not just so they get a, you know, a fresh new staff

room, but it's applying that it's a fixing, or not fixing, but helping

with the mental illness that's, Abruptly across our industry immensely.

So we wanna make sure that they're on board with that, that they want to help

their staff out and their folks that work at their locations with tackling

this, this craziness we have within mental illness within our industry.

So we wanna make sure that they're on board with that.

And then we also wanna make sure that they're gonna support it.

They're gonna take care of it as well.

It's not gonna turn into what it.

So six months later and then they're out there advocating for the mental

illness that's, you know, like I said, everywhere within our industry.

So those are kind of really that simple as we wanna look at.

We don't want to say it's for this kind or this kind.

I saw this will blow your mind.

I saw a restaurant two weeks ago.

I was in in a city here in Canada, different part, and he took me down to

a staff room and brand new restaurant.

You know what a staff room was his.

And I looked at the table and it was like an old dining room, kitchen table, you

know, like probably from a house back in the eighties that just beat up kitchen.

I'm like, cause I asked him, he said, Where'd you stop from?

He's like, Oh, I got this straight here.

Like, it's a table dude.

And he is like, Yeah, it's a table.

So I thought there for a second and, and Jim knows how creative I am.

I'm like, I could even make this table better . Right?

So it doesn't have to be a big, huge staff room or.

It could be a bloody table as well, right?

So we could do anything like make the table, maybe we put candles on

it, maybe put 'em a random table, we put a picture up behind it.

Maybe we could put some reading material on it you know, channels

to a podcast, whatever it is.

I don't think we can dis, you know, like we can say it has to be this or that.

We could, I think, work with every location and your user creativity to

make sure that we're addressing what we're trying to address by doing.

So it's not just about furniture,

right?

No, that's just exactly it, Jim.

It's not about that.

Right?

It's not.

Well, you know, it's, I think it, it helps, but when you see action being

applied to something that is you know, mental illness or whatever you want

to have within this space, someone applying an activity or an action

to something to address it, I think speaks more than just us always talking

about it, but not doing something.

Yeah.

You know, Adam and I talk a lot about, and our, our whole sort of purpose

in, in this, you know, discussion every week is, is about people

centric type discussions, right?

And, and some solutions for operators that can help to improve the,

this sort of employee experience.

Right.

And so Jay, when you and I were talking about this last week, I mean that's

why we wanted to have you here to have sort of this discussion cause it's

such a people-centric piece and so many restaurants, you know, in my experience,

It's not a revenue generating center.

So it becomes this tiny tucked away in the corner.

What's the least amount of space we can give in order to make sure

we check the box of a staff area, but don't lose revenue space?

Right.

I mean, I've worked in some restaurants that had a hundred

staff working at the same time mean, and their staff areas 10 by 10.

I mean, it just doesn't, you know, it just doesn't work.

So I think Where're doing just very cool.

Well, you

know, it's interesting you say that, Jim, because I always say

in the kitchen, in a restaurant, The front house is where you spend most of

your time thinking about when you're designing it, the kitchen maybe gets

a little attention, then your office for your kitchen gets less, right?

If you even get an office.

And then your staff room is the last you think about, right?

Like it's, it's the last thing.

So it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily get the love and, and, and it, and it can't

be at 10 by 10 for a hundred people.

And, and then I've seen them, I, I've seen them over my, I've

been 32 years in the industry.

I have seen some horrific places and just need to apply something to

change those, change it, and use it as a place to discuss these objects.

Imagine if you have this and we, we do one of your, your staff rooms into a wellness

room and your staff is having a hard time and they sit down with the management

or your ownership or your ship mm-hmm.

you have that place to have that discussion that feels

comfortable and safe, right?

Mm-hmm.

. And we need to create safe places where these people, and we have these rooms or

whatever it is, we can make it happen.

And I, and I really think it's, And it, and here's the thing too,

it doesn't cost of fortune, right?

So you always gotta look at that.

Cause you know, you look at these.

Anything you implement in the in the, in anything.

If it's, if it's too expensive, ain't gonna go.

We know that.

Yeah.

So you need to know.

It doesn't cost a lot.

I'm in a, I'm in a, I'm in a, a, a green room they call it here in Toronto.

And it's full of bricks and stuff, but it's pretty cool and nice in here.

Right.

So, and it's probably was a closet once.

So

you know, maybe to illustrate your point Jay I spent the last two years

of my career working in senior living.

And so there's already kind of an overarching.

Focus on health and wellness within that environment.

But like you say, very often it feels like, you know, for the staff, it's

kind of whatever crumbs are left over.

And we were blessed with it was Episcopalian, so there's a little chapel

on premise and we had a couple Couple folks who ministered to the flock and one

of them took it upon herself during Covid to actually take over the bar space and

turn it into kind of like this real cool kind of zen space where it was kind of.

Non-denominational.

There was it was, the lighting was dimmed.

There were a couple different areas where people could sit depending

on what they were drawn to.

There were some books to pick up, but generally it was a space specifically

for the staff to, especially during that time when you have 650 folks

under your care that are all at a hundred percent risk, not including

them, but also, you know, a hundred.

You know, 1200 staff members, you know, they recognized pretty

quickly on that they needed a space where staff members could just

kind of check out for 10 minutes.

And I think it's interesting to point out that, you know, there was no,

there was no timer on the door, right?

Or, or a clock in that space.

So when someone says, Hey, I need to take five.

You know, that might be 30 or 20, but nobody's gonna go in there

and, you know, hey, Oh, okay.

Click, click, click, click, click time's up, we gotta get going because

it kind of defeats the whole purpose.

And to your point, it doesn't take a whole lot of space.

But certainly the ambiance is absolutely critical.

And to make it non-denominational where folks can, you know,

feel good dropping in.

And even if it's just sitting quietly or to pick up a book of wisdom or

whatever it was, it was pretty cool.

I used it a couple times but I was already preaching about self-care

during that time with me and my staff, so they knew that, you know,

they could go walk on the grounds.

And maybe that wellness space.

Uses the outside environment to be part of that.

And I know that a lot of restaurants in the, especially in Canada, are in

kind, not industrial complexes, but certainly retail spaces and if there's a

lot of concrete and not a lot of grass.

But certainly if there's the opportunity to, you know, step outside and walk for

15 minutes in another environment, that that also could count, could it not?

No, I

think so.

I think you, you nailed it, Adam, that that environment outside.

In getting the fresh share and getting out there, Absolutely a hundred percent.

. Adam Lamb: Yeah.

Yeah.

And

that's an interesting one, Adam, because you know, you, I don't

think most people and myself included, didn't think immediately about outside

when you talk about staff space.

But you know, how many times have you either seen or been a part of

the sitting outside having your break on a milk crate in Pacific grease?

I was gonna say dump, right?

I mean it's, that's not any more pleasant than sitting on the same third

generation couch full of fruit flies.

So, I mean, the

head's, the keg in the back, you're seen on the keg where,

The greasy spill by the grease trap.

Oh, the aroma brings back memories.

Go their card.

It's right.

Yeah.

Right.

And you know what, it's interesting by you say that is that they're

probably doing that because the staff room probably is not, It's

worse place, it's probably worse.

Right.

So, you know, if we can you know, I think the thing is, is also

I think it sends a message to.

The old industry is that we're listening, we're hearing you,

we're gonna do something.

And I think that needs to be.

And when you look as an owner and you have chefs in here and you have your,

your staff and they see them doing something for that subject makes it like

we're listening, you're hearing you.

We wanna do something, we're applying something here.

And I think be really good for retention.

I dunno if it was you, Jim, or someone else who's mentioned

that to me the other day.

This will help with retention and we know that's important in our industry today.

And that leads to.

Right, and that leads to better business.

So I was kind of trying to pick your brain a little bit about this

the other day when we were chatting.

And maybe we could get into it a little bit here too, but, so

what are, what's the criteria?

Is it, you know, you're gonna have, I know for sure you're gonna have hundreds

if not thousands of inquiries about this.

I mean as soon as that's only Canada.

Wait until this gets to the US too.

But is it, you know, like, is the restaurant that gets the

opportunity to work on this with you?

Is it, you know, they have the worst looking staff area is.

They're the certain type of business.

Is it just their attitude that, the right attitude you're

looking for around collaboration?

I'm really curious about, you know, what's the vetting process for?

Well, I think who's gonna have the opportunity?

Yeah.

And I think we'll have to go through that, Jim one by one.

Mm-hmm.

. Because we also wanna make sure, like, I really wanna make sure that

they're understand that this is about helping, supporting mental illness.

Like I said, it's not just a, or the Jim Reno.

Or Jay Reno show, right?

Is that where Jay Reno show?

Yeah, exactly.

Which could it be?

But we wanna make sure that it's applying to, you know, that they're on board with

what the per overall purpose is of this.

Mm-hmm.

. And I think we have to go one by one because like I said, from a

table that I think we can help that location out just by redoing a day.

To doing these big, you know, bigger, you know, our retail, you know,

bigger restaurant style, location.

So I think we have to go one by one on that.

We have to, you know, meet with them, talk with them, they're on board mm-hmm.

, and then get our brick people over there to help and see what

we can do to help them out.

And, and it's gonna be, You know, and even to a point I was thinking about

this too, is that maybe some of their stuff wants to be a part of the re when

we do the re for these staff rooms where we're painting the brick walls like they

see behind me or we're just, you know, maybe they wanna be a part of that too.

And sometimes that, that becomes therapeutic in a way as well, that

we're doing something to apply to what people are struggling with and talk

about making it forefront is when you go in there and say, Look what we.

To help tackle mental illness or support it or help with it.

Look at, we did see like you can see it and you can sit

in it and you can enjoy it.

So we gotta do it.

I think we gotta do stuff like this more and more.

So I just wanted to kind of pivot back to a comment that we got

on our LinkedIn chat by a good friend.

And partner Chris Boucher where he is talking about Apple and his view of

break rooms which are really thought out.

And Chris, if you're still watching I'd love you to chime back in and maybe give

us one or two pointers of what that space impact like, how, how it impacted you

and what were those elements that really spoke to you, because that may give you

know, folks who are considering doing.

You know, a place to start, right?

I mean, yes, we know we need to clean things up and we need

to make things kind of pretty.

But aside from that, you know, we can learn from other industries.

I mean, that's the great thing about the hospitality industry is

we seem to be really, really good at co-opting great ideas, no matter

no matter what industry they are.

Vis Avi, you know, the Benchmark 60 Productivity metric,

which for most industrial.

Organizations have been used for years, but for some reason never caught on

in the restaurant industry until Jim started banging the gong about that.

So yeah.

I'm, I'm interested by anybody.

Let me see here.

If I got this.

And we're gonna just kind of.

Put up one more comment was, anywhere I've been a leader, I have a rule.

If my people ever get overwhelming feelings, they have an autonomy to tell

their supervisor, colleague they're taking 10, and to let them take a 10 minute

walk outside on the clock to reset them.

It's worked wonders.

And I think that's great.

And I would ask, you know, what do you do in those crunch time moments

when you can't really afford.

Let somebody off to take 10 minutes, you know, because we're in this cycle

of, you know, the restaurant gets full and now it's time to jump to action, and

then there's a little bit of lag time.

So how does, how does a manager actually, or an operator actually

manage the expectations of the customer as well as the associate?

So, and that's from our good friend, Doug.

Doug Newkirk.

So Adam, I

love that I, I gotta jump in on that because I love that.

Like we could even set a standard that maybe, cuz the staff room

used to be always that place where you, you I shovel your food in.

Oh yeah.

You know, back in the day when you could smoke in restaurants,

it was where the smoke room was.

All these different things was where we thought you had to stay there.

And so maybe some locations can't let their staff leave premise.

That's okay.

But I love the fact that people mention that, you know, they

take a 10 minute wellness.

Or get out there and get some fresh air and it probably in a sense that

10 minutes just going for a quick walk, maybe you suggest, hey, walk

to so and so's, you know, park or whatever's by your restaurant.

But I'm gonna say that 10 minute wellness walk, let's say, or in a

wellness room, will probably increase your sales from that server or whoever

it is, or productivity from the chefs or the, the culinary team in.

immensely because like you said, you get that fresh, it's like you breathe

and you're resetting opposed to sitting in that, you know, that environment

that you're, you know, there's still, still kind of, you know, not happy

at that moment in those places.

Not gonna say they're congee, but you know, you, you're usually here and then

they're probably, you know what happens is you have four servers sitting there.

Let's say they're taking their 10 minutes altogether.

Typically they're not talking about rainbows and roses.

Right.

So they're, they're doing the opposite.

Right.

So I think the more that we can encourage, you know, either sitting in

a wellness room or going for a wellness walk for breaks will actually increase

productivity, playing increased sales.

Mm-hmm.

, Jim's always looking at how to do that and, and that will, I, I, I

can almost guarantee I can see it.

Yeah.

You reset, Here you go for your second half of your.

or you know, here you go back into the, the craziness of the restaurant.

I bet you does.

I bet you increase the sales for

sure.

I think that so much of this stuff, Jay, is, is attitude driven too, right?

I mean, yeah, whether it's, let's look at what the staff area, how that's set up.

Let's look at the 10 minute wellness walk.

Let's look at any of those things.

You know, there's going to, I think, naturally be people who go,

I don't know if that's possible.

I don't know if we can afford it.

I don't know how you're gonna cover a section off or a station.

You know, it's things like, you know, other industries have implemented these,

you know, unlimited vacation, for example.

I mean, at some point yeah.

Someone was like, That's not possible.

You know, we can't run the business that way.

And so people figured it out.

So I think this, there's just an attitude around taking better care of and

protecting people and employee experience that you're, you're onto something here.

Okay.

Well, we'll see where it.

Love it.

Yeah, and I think I'm compelled to throw my hat in the ring, Jay.

So maybe this is a conversation for offline, but if you're looking at somebody

to kind of anchor the process in the United States, I would love to I'd love

to have a conversation about that because, you know, we're all in it together.

So the more we get into it and you know, Jim and I have had

these long ranging conversations about kind of non-traditional.

Employee benefits as as a tool for not only retention, but also as a, as

a point of differentiation in making a particular operation, you know,

The preferred employer of, because everybody knows, hey, they get taking

really good care of that there.

So i

b ideas on

those.

We've been talking . Exactly.

But I, you know, I really wanted to applaud you for, you know, putting

your foot in it and stepping in the circle and taking on this challenge.

I have no doubt that gonna be that, you know, you might be in, you might be in

for it a little bit because, you know, you asked for three, you could have 30.

So you

could have 300.

Yeah.

Here's, here's hope and here's, because, you know, if that's, you know, 50

to 60 associates per unit, that's a whole lot of people who are getting

who are getting regular doses of a positive environment to be able to not

only mitigate the stress, but also to hopefully alleviate those momentary.

Pressures which could lead to a more cyclical emotional output.

So thank you very much.

And for all our viewers and listeners, Jay, can you kind of just give us

kind of a thumbnail on how they can actually get in touch with you?

Maybe there's someone listening to this podcast right now in Canada

to say, Dammit, I want in on this.

How do I get a hold ej?

So

just go, just do Jay Ashton on LinkedIn and you'll find.

Connect with me, message me there, and then we good to, We're good to go there.

That's the fastest we're in.

Facebook probably as well, if there's a few people still on Facebook.

, no.

Shout out there.

Good.

They're, they're good supporter.

Exactly, Definitely look at LinkedIn and send me a message.

You'll see my logo, my brand up there as well.

And and then yeah, you can watch my shows too over there as well.

But yeah, I definitely, well,

yeah, I definitely wanted to do that because for those of you

who are interested in following Jay's show I put in the Spotify link in

the chat and I've also added the.

Your LinkedIn connection and one more comment before we leave it.

Which is nailed it.

The fact that they know that they have the autonomy, that they use it

wisely and timely, and everyone has each other's back battle through the

world when, and reset when needed.

And of course that's Doug new hook who always makes it

sound like we're going to war

My wife said to me once, like, you, you talk about the industry

like you guys are going to war.

I'm like, Yeah, well, sometimes it's what it feels like too far off

and un unfortunately not having.

An employer who could provide an asset like a wellness room

made it feel even more so.

Right.

And you know, my particular practice and focuses towards culinary professionals

and chefs who want to enjoy their careers without sacrificing their lives.

And I think this particular initiative fits right in that scope.

And I know Jim, who speaks endlessly and eloquently about, you know, this idea

about productivity versus efficiency.

Yeah, it might not necessarily be very efficient to have somebody sit

down in a wellness room for 10 to 20 minutes, but it's probably gonna make

'em a hell a lot more productive.

And I think we're gonna have to fucking figure that out in a metric.

, do it.

Put it on

your PNLs.

Let's do

it.

Right?

Wellness remain the.

Hundred percent.

Let's

figure that out.

There's a way to find it through that data.

5%.

Well, it, you know that.

Yeah,

that's do.

And if it's, and if it's, if it's if you can quantify it, you can certainly

put up a really good argument for why anybody silly not to move forward

on it.

How did I sort of leave on this as well?

Is that this more official, This is that you hear so many stories of people

that were about to commit suicide.

This one thing changed their decision on, you know, the horrific

decision to end their life.

If this creates one thing to save one of our chefs in our restaurant

people, then it's all worth it.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Jim, any last words for Jay or our

listeners?

Well, I'm, I'm looking forward to following along here, Jay.

I mean, you and I chat fairly regularly anyway, but I'm gonna keep asking

you what you know, what's the latest, where can I look at some examples?

What's happen?

You know, how can we help?

So, just appreciate you being on today.

It's good to have a chat with you again.

Thank you so.

Excellent.

I wanna appreciate all the comments that we received during the show.

And even in replay, if you're catching this as a livestream replay on

LinkedIn, Facebook, or YouTube, please leave comments because we answer

and check every single one of them.

And if you're already doing something like this, let us know.

Take pictures.

Mm-hmm.

, tag us on Facebook.

Some of us do really, really well when we have something to go by.

You know, it's hard to create in a vacuum, so to see other people

doing similar things, I think really provides a lot of juice.

And even if you don't have a separate room that you can convert, maybe

it's a table in the back of the room.

And Jay, to your point, you know, this whole idea about Like being more

staff centric also kind of probably leads into other conversations

about what does it look like to have everybody sit down at the same table

and have a meal at the same time.

Not, not to create a sense of family, because I think family is the wrong

connotation within this particular industry, but certainly a cohesive team.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

. Exactly.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So thank you very much for watching and listening.

My name is Adam Lamb.

Jim Taylor, Benchmark 60 j Ashton of the Svk Network.

Check out his podcast, support his work and get behind this particular

initiative, the staff chair project.

So thanks very much everybody, and we'll see you soon.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Turning the Table with

me, Adam Lamb and Jim Taylor.

This episode was sponsored by Benchmark 60.

We're on a mission to change the food and beverage industry by

focusing on staff mental health and wellbeing, by forecasting and actively

managing workload productivity.

Over 200 restaurants and food and beverage operat.

Have discovered for themselves how to increase staff retention and become

a preferred employer in their market by using our proprietary system.

If you'd like to have an operational culture that everybody wants to work

for, then check out Benchmark 60 on the web@www.benchmarksixty.com.

Thanks for taking the time to be with us and the courage to try new things for the

restaurant profession's oldest problem.

Turning the table is a production of realignment media.