Hello! Are there any former or even current hospitality or alcohol industry workers?
I’m a qualified winemaker and distiller. I also worked for a total of 10 years in the hospitality industry. Mostly fine dining. I’m planning on resigning from my current job because its too much of a mind fuck to get sober while being expected to create new products for the brand. Im around booze all day every day and I’m not coping well.
My drinking is out of control. I have got myself where I can stay dry for stints but as soon as I’m tasting or drinking again I just can’t control myself. I’m really ready to give it up. For me.
Has anyone gotten sober while working in these spaces? If so how did you cope? Does anyone have advice for leaving based on their experiences?
I worked in restaurants from age 14 to 35. I’ve been a problem drinker with no off switch since my first sip of alcohol but my heavy drinking really ramped up when I started my last restaurant job at 25ish and continued up to (and after) I quit the industry at 35. I knew bartenders who were sober while working in the industry but they were rare as unicorns, not to say that it can’t be done.
That said, I love and miss restaurant work. Bartending and serving taught me invaluable lessons and people skills and I met some of my greatest friends doing so. I don’t know that I could do that job again sober. I still have friends in the industry but the longer they stay the more I see their casual/fun drinking starting to look more and more like problem drinking.
My hardest transition from restaurant to another job sector was honestly learning to budget. Moving from cash in hand to a paycheck took a lot of getting used to and I had a year or two of panic if an unexpected bill came my way and I couldn’t pick up a shift to cover it. No one tells you that before you leave. When I left the industry I was definitely an alcoholic and kept that up for a few years.
I wish you the best, whatever you decide. Not drinking has so far been the best change I have made in my adult life. I’m rooting for you friend.
Thanks for the wonderful response! I really hope this time I can stay sober. I’ve been on a salary with my current job for a while. Monthly pay though, I hope wherever I land the pay checks are more frequent.
I work at a liquor store and I’m in the process of trying to get sober from drinking, so we’re in a similar boat. Being around it honestly doesn’t make me want to drink. I only think about it when I’m at home since selling it I just think of as my job.
I know what you mean. If I just need to do the day to day tasks I’m ok with the alcohol (meaning I don’t start secretly drinking at work). But when I need to do a new product… oh boy!
When I turned 19 I began working in restaurants as a cook, and to this day at 38 I am still in the industry. I have become desensitized to being around alcohol and drugs. It gets to point where it becomes strange if someone doesn’t drink, be that a customer or co-worker. I have lost countless jobs because my drinking gets to the point where I can not control my behavior. I know how much I want to quit and more importantly how much I need to quit. But after years and years of developing the habit of coping with basically any emotion with drinking I find it near impossible to ignore those urges when alcohol is so previlent and so socially accepted. The bond you feel having a drink with a co worker after 10 hours in 100+ heat is real, the pressure of working around booze all day is real but so are the consequences of those binges. I look forward to checking in on this thread as I am seeking the se answers.
My partner is a chef so I know all about how drinking, drugs and 80+ hour weeks go together. The thing is there is so much confirmation bias that hard drinking is normal because no one wants to confront it unless you really become physically dependent. It sucks because that’s how bad you need to get before people around us in the industry will admit that you have a problem.
Of course by then you can seriously fuck up your life. I’m definitely not physically dependent but I have zero control once I start and have had many phases in my life where I was drinking everyday, hungover everyday. It’s no way to live but unless your either shit faced on the job or too fucked up to regularly come in, then it’s all good.
Good luck with your journey! I’ve started mine so many times now.
