Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Ramsay’s kitchen – well done or overcooked?

by Personnel Today 15 Jun 2004
by Personnel Today 15 Jun 2004

Gordon Ramsay’s caustic treatment of his staff is legendary, but is the
world-famous chef being held back by his management style? Michael Millar asked
experts if there was still a place for Ramsay’s leadership style in the modern
workplace

Yes

Owen Warnock, employment law partner at Eversheds

"Some aspects of Gordon Ramsay’s management style are legally pretty risky.
Swearing at staff and reducing them to tears would definitely put him on the
wrong side of employment law.

"However, his management style is not all bad. He has a very clear and
direct approach which is certainly honest and open. The other area in which
Gordon Ramsay scores highly is in the praise he gives people when staff do
well. As a result he has a highly motivated workforce – something that many
managers struggle to achieve."

Peter Hooker, managing director of recruitment website jobsstore.co.uk

A survey of 167 sous chefs from across the country by jobsstore.co.uk showed
72 per cent of respondents would be happy to put up with Gordon Ramsay’s famous
fiery temper in order to learn from the cookery guru. Less than one in five
said the treatment was tantamount to bullying.

More than two-thirds of those questioned said they had experienced similar
treatment from their head chef.

"His demand for turning out work to a perfect standard or not sending
it out at all; his ability to accept when he is wrong and that he has let the
customer down, plus his words of praise and encouragement when needed are all
marks of a good manager," said Hooker.

Joanna Wood, chef editor, Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine

"This kind of behaviour is not unusual, particularly at the high end.
You don’t get it to the same degree as a few years ago, but Gordon is by no
means unique.

"In the kitchen you need to have very good discipline and clear
demarcation of roles, otherwise you don’t get the job done. This structure has been
refined over the past 100 years and it is the best way to get the food out.

"The morale boosting comes after the service – then he talks with his
staff."

No

Ruth Rogers, chef and owner of the River Café, London

"The standard of the River Café is tough, demanding and the standard is
high, but we run on hope not fear and it is an open kitchen so people have to
be polite. We find people learn best if they are given time and
understanding."

Imogen Haslan, adviser on bullying, Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development

"Autocratic management makes good TV, but it is a dinosaur style. Even
in a situation like a busy kitchen where the team needs to be tight and clear
about their roles, a democratic approach would be more successful.

The staff should be a well-oiled machine – a reliance on bullying,
harassment and picking on individual staff members will only undermine the
whole team.

"I would be very interested in being Gordon Ramsay’s HR adviser and
doing a 360-degree appraisal on him!"

Alyson Hodgson, UK and Ireland resourcing manager, Sodexho

Sodexho catering has worked with Ramsay on a variety of projects. "His
management style is not commonplace in catering. There are 60,000 vacancies in
the hospitality sector and discerning employees can just walk away.

"We neither support or tolerate this kind of behaviour – professional
management culture condemns it.

The programme [Hell’s Kitchen] really hasn’t helped us – it has reinforced a
stereotype of long hours, blood, sweat and tears and petulance. I think it will
affect recruitment into our graduate programme in the autumn."

Matt Witheridge, operations manager, Andrea Adams Trust, the UK charity
dedicated to workplace bullying.

On the morning Personnel Today spoke to Witheridge, he had already received
three calls on the charity’s helpline from kitchen staff.

"Treating people like that is not the way to get results. It is a
management style that reaps a lot more negatives than positives in the long
run. You need to support, train and nurture staff to reach autonomy – if you
scream at them they will never reach their full potential. This kind of
behaviour has been handed down; it is not one that has been worked out."

Beverley Shears, HR director, South West trains

"Almost every piece of research will show that yelling at people won’t
get results. Being cruel is just grand-standing – nothing more, and nothing
less.

"It won’t get the best results out of the best people."

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
UKIP to obstruct European employment laws
next post
New panel aims to boost UK productivity

You may also like

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022

Consultation on new NHS cancer standards, as waits...

11 Mar 2022

Pandemic pivot to home working fuelled mental ill...

11 Mar 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+