A two-part survey
Founded in 2015 by Anne-Sophie Chéron, an engineer and clinical psychologist, Reversens is a consultancy specialising in ethics investigations and harassment-related inquiries. Its study, conducted online from 9 to 16 September 2026, is based on two populations analysed separately.
The first part surveyed 3,100 employees on their perception of exposure, the behaviours they have encountered and their attitude towards reporting. The second covered 2,700 professionals responsible for receiving or handling alerts: HR directors, HR managers, employment lawyers, harassment officers, occupational physicians and elected members of works councils (CSE). The aim is to compare employees’ lived experience with the reality of internal alerts.
Anne-Sophie Chéron stresses that the figure deserving attention is not only the level of exposure, but the gap between what is experienced and what is reported. As long as fear of the consequences outweighs confidence in the system, she adds, a large share of situations remains invisible.
Hospitality at the top over twelve months
Asked to name the most exposed professional environments, employees ranked the hotel and restaurant sector second (38%), just behind health and hospitals (39%), and ahead of social care (34%) and education (31%). Within the sector, 66% of employees even consider their own environment more exposed than others, the highest proportion recorded in the survey.
Lived experience confirms this perception. Over the past twelve months, 69% of hotel and restaurant employees report having experienced or witnessed at least one instance of hostile behaviour in their current job, level with social care and ahead of health (67%). The all-sector average stands at 58%, with IT (43%) and banking and insurance (45%) bringing up the rear.
Reversens points out that its scope is deliberately broad, ranging from incivility to sexist or sexual behaviour, and including excessive pressure and exclusion. The levels measured are indicators of reported behaviour, not rates of harassment as legally defined.
Denigration, incivility and discrimination
Among reporting professionals, the hotel and restaurant sector stands out with the highest level of reports of denigration, humiliation and insults (55%, compared with 47% across all sectors). Excessive pressure (45%) and incivility (41%) follow, while discrimination (30%) and sexist or sexual behaviour (27%) also reach their highest levels in the sector.
Employees’ own accounts paint a consistent picture. The sector records the highest rates of incivility (39%), denigration (33%), discrimination (21%), intimidation (16%) and sexist or sexual behaviour (11%). Only construction exceeds it for a sexualised atmosphere (14%).
Exclusion, cited by 29% of reporting units across all sectors, is of particular concern to the founder. Anne-Sophie Chéron observes that the absence of expected behaviour is just as damaging as the presence of unexpected behaviour, citing a lack of thanks, of positive feedback or of prior communication about management decisions. Taken in isolation, such behaviours are not misconduct, but their repetition may amount to managerial negligence.
Analysis – This reading is in line with recent developments in case law, France’s Court of Cassation having ruled in July that an employee can be the victim of moral harassment solely as a result of the management methods imposed on their team, without having been personally targeted.
Alerts rising sharply
Across all sectors, 82% of professionals have seen an increase in reports compared with three years ago, including 34% who describe a sharp increase. The hotel and restaurant sector comes first: 88% of the sector’s professionals report an increase, including 42% a sharp rise.
For Reversens, this trend does not automatically reflect a worsening of situations, but also a greater willingness to speak out and the growing strength of internal reporting systems. Paradoxically, Anne-Sophie Chéron believes, the rise in reports is good news. Further down the line, however, each situation must be handled with rigour and method, she says, as a poorly conducted investigation can do as much damage as silence.
Professionals remain clear-eyed about the limits of the exercise: 46% of them believe that fewer than one in four problematic situations gives rise to a formal or informal report.
The sector where people stay silent the most
Faced with a serious and repeated situation of which they were the victim, 31% of employees say they probably or definitely would not dare report it. The proportion rises to 38% in the hotel and restaurant sector, the highest level in the survey, ahead of social care (37%).
The obstacles take on a particular character in the sector. While fear of the consequences for one’s career remains the main reason (44%), fear of reprisals (42%) and of losing one’s job (34%, compared with an average of 24%) weigh more heavily than elsewhere. More than one in four hesitant employees (26%) also say they do not know whom to turn to, compared with 20% across all sectors.
Anne-Sophie Chéron also highlights the issue of cliques within teams. When conflicts are entrenched, each side often has its defenders, and the challenge, even when the person accused has been removed, is to enable the victim to return to a calm environment without suffering reprisals from that person’s supporters.
An HR governance issue
Analysis – For hotel operators, these findings place the quality of reporting channels and the rigour of internal investigations at the heart of social risk management. The legal context reinforces this imperative: the Court of Cassation recently accepted covert recordings as evidence and confirmed the protection of employees who report harassment, in a sector where a culture of gathering evidence is already well established.
Upstream, Anne-Sophie Chéron concludes, there must be clearly identified, protective listening channels in which employees do not feel they are taking a risk. This recommendation echoes the accounts gathered over several years on sexism and bullying in kitchens.
At a glance by The Hospitality Tribune
Reversens survey: hospitality among France’s most exposed sectors to workplace hostility
Survey of 5,800 workers in France: 3,100 employees and 2,700 reporting professionals (September 9-16, 2026)
69% of hospitality employees experienced or witnessed hostile behaviour in the past 12 months (58% overall)
Hospitality ranks highest for reported denigration (55%), discrimination (30%) and sexist behaviour (27%)
88% of hospitality reporting professionals see rising alerts over three years
38% of hospitality employees would not report a serious situation, the highest rate of all sectors
