The portfolio careers revolution: Why hospitality’s future workforce won’t choose one employer

Hospitality demanded: choose bartending full-time, work 50 hours, give us everything.
He refused. Today, Marcus works bar shifts at three venues, runs cocktail masterclasses, and consults on drinks menus. He earns more per hour than his old salary while working less hours per week. Three restaurants compete to book him for their busiest nights.
Marcus built a portfolio career and he’s not alone.

The industry narrative: “People left hospitality.”
The truth: They left the employment model.

With 69,000 jobs lost¹ and 65% of hotels reporting shortages², particularly in F&B roles³ – maybe the crisis isn’t that workers left. It’s that we haven’t built infrastructure for how they want to work now.

The data tells a different story than the exodus narrative:

• 48% of UK gig workers ALSO have full-time jobs⁴
• 40% of professionals globally maintain multiple income streams⁵
• UK gig economy contributes £20bn annually⁶

Rewrite the story:

That single parent who left? Would work 20 hours tomorrow.
The burnt-out manager? Would consult 3 days weekly.
The retiree? Misses the industry but doesn’t need 40 hours.

What if hospitality’s ‘69,000 lost workers’ are still here, just unavailable to traditional employment?

A portfolio career means income through multiple engagements, not one employer. In
hospitality, this looks like bartenders working three venues, former GMs advising four
properties monthly, or parents working event shifts around school hours.

Why? Income resilience. Work-life integration. Autonomy. No ceiling dependent on one employer’s ladder.

All-or-nothing structure: 40-hour contract, 60-hour reality, zero overtime pay. We lose them to the dishonesty

Rigid scheduling: Demands total availability. People need boundaries. Parents, carers,
students excluded.

Single-income risk: One employer means one income stream. Hours reduced? Venue closes? Zero safety net

The economics and the philosophy:

62% of overtime goes unpaid in hospitality⁸. A Bar Manager earning £39,200 for 60 hour
weeks takes home £9.81/hour, below minimum wage.

But here’s what changes with a portfolio career: you monetize your expertise in multiple
ways.

That same Bar Manager becomes:

• Beverage consultant (3 venues, drinks programs): £30/hour, 12 hours/week
• Cocktail masterclasses (training & events): £35/hour, 4 hours/week
• Premium bar shifts (high-end venue): £18/hour, 15 hours/week

Same expertise. Three income streams. 31 hours weekly. Complete control.

Average take-home: £16.77/hour; 71% more than the management salary, working half the hours.

The portfolio model isn’t just about working for multiple clients. It’s about monetising what you know in different ways: consulting, training, doing, advising. Your expertise becomes scalable beyond a single employer’s 60-hour-per-week extraction of it.

This isn’t a labour shortage. It’s experienced professionals choosing to monetise their skills on their terms.

Portfolio professionals are already working in hospitality—but through WhatsApp groups,
informal networks, and ‘do you know someone?’ referrals. They’re operating in the shadows because the industry hasn’t built proper infrastructure. We still act like only two models exist: employment or agencies.

There’s a third.

What’s needed:

Professional platforms building reputations across clients. Flexible reliability where
professionals set availability and venues book trusted specialists. Professional status, not
temps. Administrative support removing self-employment friction.

Forward-thinking operators:

• Build ecosystems: core team plus portfolio professionals for peaks and events
• Cultivate specialist pools instead of desperate agency calls
• Treat portfolio pros as partners with training and long-term relationships
• Offer flexibility as competitive advantage

Example: Weekend event needs three experienced bartenders.

Old way: Call agency Friday, get strangers Saturday, pay £480, they earn £288
New way: Book your trusted three Thursday, pay £432, they earn £389

Better service, lower cost, everyone wins.

This isn’t replacing full-time staff. It’s expanding the available workforce to include
thousands excluded by rigid models.

What changes:

• Parents balance career and family
• Experienced managers return as consultants
• Retirees stay engaged without burnout
• Industry expertise stays in hospitality
• New generation sees hospitality as flexible and autonomous

Operators embracing this access talent competitors can’t reach while building resilient models for economic uncertainty.

The alternative? Keep competing for a shrinking pool of traditional workers while portfolio professionals work in industries that figured this out first. Healthcare, tech, legal, and creative sectors already did.

The portfolio careers revolution is already here.

Portfolio careers are reshaping every industry. Hospitality is the outlier, not because
professionals don’t want this, but because we haven’t built infrastructure for it.

Marcus never left hospitality. He’s here. Skilled. Available.

He just won’t sacrifice his entire life for a single employer.

Neither will thousands like him.

The question: Will you build the infrastructure to access them, or keep lamenting a labourshortage while skilled professionals sit on the sidelines?

The workforce is ready. Is hospitality?