in the industry is almost 75 percent, means that employers stand to save a huge chunk of cash if they can prevent that churn and hold onto employees.
But a year and a half after having her third child, Collins’s parents were semi-retiring and their restaurant, out of which she operated her catering business, would close if she didn’t try to make a go of it. She changed the name to Alcove Dining Room, and tried to allay her fears of neglecting her children by focusing on ticketed events that gave her control over her hours.
Eventually McRoberts took a job cooking at an upscale retirement community because it had standard hours. But, still struggling to afford care and basic necessities and knowing she wasn’t making progress in the restaurant industry, she moved back to Ketchikan, where she spent years floating around other types of jobs before she found the teaching position.
Tipping Point’s research and development team, led by director Stephanie Lewis, found that the primary way parents were able to continue working in the restaurant industry was by relying on informal networks of family and friends to provide care; for the parent to maintain a job, another community member often sacrificed their own work-life balance. Tipping Point theorized it could help level the playing field for working mothers by tapping into the informal care economy.