Kimberly Flear on Healing Hospitality: Recovery, Resilience & Rebuilding the Culture
In this powerful episode of the Post Shift Podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Kimberly Flear, the founder of Last Call Coaching. Kimberly brings an unflinching honesty and a wealth of lived experience to the conversation-challenging how we think about mental health, recovery, and what it means to build a workplace that cares beyond profits.
The Industry’s Hidden Toll
Kimberly doesn’t pull punches: hospitality has long business hours, high stress, irregular routines, and a culture that often prizes endurance over rest. She shares how many people in the industry feel trapped in cycles of burnout, anxiety, and isolation-but too often there’s stigma, shame, or assumptions that mental health struggles are a personal weakness rather than systemic issues.
From Personal Struggle to Purpose
Her own journey through addiction and recovery informs everything she does. Kimberly’s story is one of transparency: what recovery really means, how it doesn’t follow a linear path, and how vulnerable moments can be the genesis of something bigger. She says that recovery isn’t just personal-it’s collective when workplaces, leaders, and teammates hold space for it.
What a Recovery-Friendly Workplace Actually Looks Like
This episode really digs into what hospitality spaces can practically do to create environments that support mental health. Some of Kimberly’s key actionable ideas:
Post-Shift Debriefs: Giving staff time after service to gather, vent, process what happened-without judgement.
Breathwork & Body Movement: Simple, accessible practices to let people reconnect with their bodies, release tension, and reset.
Creating Safe Channels for Support: Not just HR policy, but peer networks, recovery coaching, and leadership who listen without fear of repercussion.
Meet People Where They Are: Recognizing that everyone’s experience is different-support needs to be flexible and culturally sensitive.
Burnout, Shame, & the Cost of Doing Nothing
Kimberly is clear: the cost of ignoring mental health isn’t just personal suffering-it’s turnover, inconsistency in service, poor morale, lost talent, and even higher operating costs. She pushes back against the idea that pushing harder is the only path-arguing that sustainable teams come from environments that balance high standards with compassion, that allow rest, recovery, and human mistakes.
Culture Change: Leadership, Accountability, & Empathy
Leaders have a pivotal role. Kimberly stresses that change starts at the top. Management and owners need to model vulnerability, create policy around mental health, and be intentional about how teams talk about well-being. Accountability isn't about punishment-it’s about follow-through: ensuring that staff aren’t just told to “take care of themselves,” but are given the tools, space, and support to do so.
Vision for the Future
What Kimberly wants to see is nothing short of a shift in what “hospitality culture” means. She imagines an industry where:
Recovery is normalized, not hidden
Mental health is part of training and onboarding, not an afterthought
Workplaces proactively build routines for emotional check-in, peer support, and resilience
Long-term well-being is baked into business models