It can be quite the shark tank, from what I understand. The pressure in many restaurants can be sky high to perform fast and efficiently for long stretches, all in typically cramped, hot kitchens with all kinds of hot, sharp and dangerous objects around you. Not to mention people jostling you here and there, inevitably creating accidents from time to time.

Not all positions and stations have all those issues, but the point is that kitchen-work is often a hard, precision and/or boring type of job performed in too-small areas with not enough considerations for safety and sanity. It’s incredibly common from what I understand for workers to self-medicate on the job, which can also be a toxic workspace, with hierarchies, miserable bosses and constant swearing going on, not to mention inevitable tension between workers. Oh, and all whilst typically being underpaid and under-respected.

What I hear a lot is that getting yourself a job as a chef or worker at retirement / community homes can greatly improve almost everything mentioned above.

All of that just describes what I’ve seen, experienced and read about, of course. I’m sure there are also situations and worldwide areas where these things aren’t such an issue.