While traveling for business or pleasure this summer, you may catch the newest season of the TV show The Bear, featuring executive chef Carmy Berzatto running a fictional restaurant in Chicago called The Bear. The Emmy award-winning series highlights serious workplace issues, including a fire, mental illness, and toxic leadership.
Quick Hits
The Bear has many examples of good leadership and bad decision-making in a high-stress workplace.
Many of the characters have opportunities to grow professionally and personally.
Workplace safety is one area where the restaurant could improve.
Here are six lessons employers can learn from the series:
Professional development is worth the investment. The restaurant greatly benefits from multiple employees receiving mentoring and training. Pastry chef Marcus does a stage, i.e., an unpaid internship, at a restaurant in Copenhagen and returns full of creative ideas. He meets Luca, a Copenhagen chef who later does a stage at The Bear. Richie, the maître d’, demonstrates a renewed work ethic and heightened, customer service-oriented professionalism after his stage at another fine dining restaurant in Chicago. Meanwhile, Ebrahim, a line cook, hires a business consultant to mentor him. Empowering all employees to grow and bring forward ideas for the betterment of all will help businesses be successful.
Overlooking workplace safety issues can lead to danger. In the first season, chef de cuisine Sydney accidentally stabs Ritchie in the midst of a chaotic cooking environment. In the second season, Carmy accidentally gets locked inside the walk-in refrigerator for several hours when the handle breaks. In addition, a fire caused by a discarded cigarette burns the kitchen while the fire suppression system is dismantled. Partially to blame is Carmy’s stressed and exhausted state of mind. Most of these incidents could have been prevented by properly complying with workplace safety protocols and correcting any hazards quickly.
Having a supportive and calm work environment matters. In general, the employees at The Bear are loyal and dedicated to their work and to supporting each other through work struggles and personal problems like family emergencies and Carmy’s ongoing issues related to his brother’s death. However, the restaurant is often very chaotic, loud, and intense in the kitchen and staff areas, which add to overall stress. When a competitor tries to recruit Sydney, the chaos and stress are key reasons why she is tempted to leave The Bear. Carmy eventually makes a concerted effort to improve communication and reduce the yelling and chaos in the kitchen. Might the restaurant have thrived sooner and more fully if Carmy had focused on the work environment earlier?
Work can be a detriment or a boon to employees’ mental health. Carmy grapples with perfectionism, grief, and family trauma and dysfunction. He dives full throttle into work after his brother dies. It seems to be the only way he knows how to cope, but it does not resolve his problems. Likewise, work-related pressure contributes to Sydney’s anxiety and panic attacks. We see how humor, forgiveness, friendship, and Al-Anon meetings help the characters deal with their trauma. Employers can offer employees various benefits, including employee assistance programs and telemedicine benefits, to help them handle the pressures of everyday life.
Leaders should build people up. On several occasions, Carmy has flashbacks to a verbally abusive supervisor who quashed much of his confidence. In contrast, though not always a transparent communicator, Carmy tries to be a respectful, thoughtful, and considerate leader. For example, he provides his team members opportunities for individual growth and team development, cares about his employees’ wellbeing, and apologizes when he makes mistakes. This type of leadership can boost employee engagement, retention, and collaboration.
Leaders should communicate clearly. Despite good intentions and genuine care for his team, Carmy could be a much better boss if he improved his communication skills. He is open to team members’ creative ideas, but ignores their business input until it is probably too late. He also fails to communicate his reasoning behind decisions and keeps key business plans to himself, which almost results in him losing a star colleague. Members of our Workplace Investigations and Organizational Assessments Practice Group sometimes investigate perceived discrimination that has led to turnover and widespread discontent only to determine that, if leaders had listened better to team members’ input or simply communicated better about the reasons for their business decisions, employees would have understood and supported the decisions, rather than perceiving discrimination and feeling threatened. Poor communication can lead to bad morale and talent loss, while transparent, collaborative communication can improve morale, build a positive workplace culture, and enhance overall performance.
Not all workplaces have the same time pressure and stress level as The Bear, but most workplaces can take a few lessons from the mistakes and successes of Carmy’s restaurant.
Leah J. Shepherd contributed to this article