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Sebastian Pasinetti

Mental Health Support in Workplaces Is Essential. Why Is Hospitality Falling Behind?

Article author Sebastian Pasinetti
Sebastian Pasinetti is the co-founder of Minds en Place and a mental health first aid trainer.
Design by Ben Siero

Design by Ben Siero ·

A lack of training and employee assistance programs isn’t just hurting employees – it’s hurting our industry’s bottom line.

It was my ninth consecutive day working on the floor of a bustling restaurant when my boss pulled me aside for a chat. “We need you to work on the floor again tomorrow,” he said. “A manager has called in sick, and we can’t leave the family short-staffed.”

With more than 100 hours already logged, I agreed to work, unaware that I was trapped in a constant state of fight or flight. At this point in my 10-year career, I was absorbed in “hustle culture” and “grind mentality” – the idea that pushing myself to the limit was the key to success.

I found myself caught in the relentless rhythm of the industry: long hours, high expectations and constant pressure to perform. I wore my dedication like a badge of honour, believing that this was simply the price of success in an environment where every shift felt like going to war.

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But something darker was lurking beneath the surface: what I know now to be burnout and the deterioration of my mental health. At first, the signs were subtle: lingering fatigue, lack of motivation, detachment from friends and family. My passion for the industry was overshadowed by an increasingly unhealthy relationship with alcohol and drugs. I brushed it all aside, convinced it was all just “part of the grind”.

As I navigated this exhausting cycle, I found myself grappling with a crucial question: what does it truly mean to thrive in an industry that often prioritises business over wellbeing?

To help answer that, I co-founded Minds en Place with Rushani Epa in 2023, a hospitality education hub dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion with a mission to foster positive social and cultural change. We organise workshops led by experts in their fields, and invite participants to learn from lived experiences and acquire practical tools to support themselves and each other in (and out of) the workplace.

The subject of mental health and the need for better support has come up in almost every one of our consultations, which isn’t surprising when you look at some of the alarming statistics around mental health in Australia:

• One in five people experience some form of diagnosable mental illness every year

• One in five people take time off work every year due to stress, anxiety, depression or other mental health challenges.

• On average, Australian workplaces lose roughly $10.9 billion every year due to untreated mental health conditions. This includes $4.7 billion in absenteeism, $6.1 billion in presenteeism and $146 million in compensation claims.

Through our own research, we also know that only one in 10 small-to-medium hospitality businesses have an active human resources or employee assistance program (EAP) in place. In any other industry, this stat would be unacceptable – so why aren’t we doing more about it? The numbers are in. Australia’s mental health crisis isn’t getting any better.

Increase mental health literacy in the workplace

Late nights, unsociable hours, unmitigated access to alcohol, not eating properly, overworking in fear of losing work and unmanageable stress are all ingrained aspects of hospo culture.

And yet Minds en Place has worked with so many individuals who were unable to tell the difference between aspects of their work that were “part of the grind” and those that were negatively impacting their mental health and how they show up in the community.

Our industry needs to establish a baseline for mental health literacy through proper education so that workers know how to identify signs and symptoms of deterioration in themselves and their peers. Because three knock-off drinks, affected sleep and loss of appetite after a bad shift is one thing. If that’s happening nightly, for months, then there’s a bigger issue in play.

How we communicate during heightened moments of poor mental health is the key to recovery. And yet finding common ground for humans to discuss their mental health is one of the biggest challenges we’ve seen in our work with Minds en Place.

Better support for individual needs

Everyone experiences poor mental health in different ways, and yet we constantly hear businesses using the excuse that they don't have capacity to offer individual support. As a business owner, I can empathise with this – if it’s true that there’s no one way to experience poor mental health, it’s also true that there’s no one way to combat it. You shouldn’t be expected to know it all.

But turning a blind eye to the struggles of your staff doesn’t save lives or offer a road to recovery, either. Here’s what does: giving your team access to an EAP or HR person whose sole purpose is to create space for workers to express their issues.

If that’s not possible, providing resources and training is better than nothing. RUOK and Not9to5 both offer free resources to hospitality businesses looking to improve on this front. Aussie organisations such as Minds en Place and The Wanderlust Age offer tailored online workshops covering a range of mental health-related topics.

Our industry glorifies unhealthy ways of working

Many of my peers in the industry have viewed overwork as a rite of passage – a sign of commitment and resilience. It’s a symptom of an industry that conditions workers to feel like their value is directly tied to their willingness to sacrifice personal time, sleep and even basic self-care for the sake of the job. In reality, this mentality just perpetuates high rates of turnover as workers leave the industry in order to preserve their health.

Our industry has traditionally lacked the infrastructure to support workers’ wellbeing, and today there’s still little room for vulnerability, which makes it difficult for employees to ask for help when they need it. We need to usher in a new era of open-door policies, training and education in order to make them psychologically safe. In other words, creating spaces in which staff feel comfortable to acknowledge, express and validate difficult or negative emotions without judgment or fear of consequences.

Finding smarter, healthier ways of working will not only have a positive impact on the mental health of our teams and the culture of our industry. Let’s call it out – it’ll have a positive impact on the bottom line as well. While there’s no one-size-fits all approach to addressing poor mental health in our industry, I believe the solution lies in a collective community approach that leans on trained mental health professionals.

If you or someone you know is experiencing depression or anxiety, call Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.

Broadsheet publishes a range of opinion stories from independent contributors. The ideas and views expressed in these pieces don’t reflect those of Broadsheet or its staff.

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