Staff shortages are now a national crisis

[Confusedofbritain]

Staff shortages across many sectors is now a national crisis surely? I’ve given up expecting anything of this government, but why isn’t Labour beating them with a stick over this?

Some examples which affect me personally….

• Can’t go on holiday due to cancelled flight, cause by lack of ground staff.
• I work for NHS trust and we have closed a ward due to c 50% vacancies. We have plenty of money but can’t spend it. Now competing with other trusts paying increasingly high golden handshakes.
• Tried to book restaurant for Tuesday birthday. Not possible as all places shut Monday and Tuesday due to short staff (esp chefs).
• Poor service when we do go out. Staff look frazzled.
• Can’t get a builder to do an extension. Often not bothering to quote. Builder friend can’t keep labourers and brickies. Paying increasingly high wages but getting poached.
• Window fitter quoted me 2x higher than 2019 (for a much smaller window!) probably because they’re so busy and can’t increase capacity due to lack of staff. So prices have gone up by 100%.
• Long delay in discharge for father from hospital, due to long waits for care package (caused by staff shortages). He was in hospital a lot longer than necessary and declined hugely as result.

It’s largely caused by Brexit, partly people retiring or changing livelihood during Covid…:.but why wasn’t this anticipated and what are we doing about it?

I want to see posters EVERYWHERE encouraging people to consider NHS careers. It’s a rewarding career, but impossible to cope and keep going with so few staff. We are escalating to NHS England constantly, saying we need a national solution. It’s beyond critical, but I’m not confident that there is a national drive to sort this out.

The economic and social consequences of ignoring this massive structural issue will be disastrous!

Job seekers are allocated work unless they can find something they are happy to do within three months of signing on that is mandatory

How would this allocation work? Do employers get a say? Or do you plan on completely changing our economic system to one where the government is in charge of all businesses and can force them to recruit unsuitable candidates.

I can see that working really well: the lack of radiologists would probably be filled quickly if hospitals weren't allowed to reject candidates. Of course, it might mean that your radiotherapy is carried out by someone who doesn't have GCSE Science, let alone a medical degree. Or maybe they'll be carrying out the CT scan you need after you got hit by a visually-impaired HGV driver who'd never driven so much as a push-bike before.

They (and several of their friends) have all been applying for retail, hospitality and supermarket jobs (anything really!) in a very big city. Their friends aren't getting anything either.
They have done both. Applied on-line and taken their CV in to places that have advertised. They will still be in the same city in September when University starts up again so not just looking for a summer job. Although, a summer job would be fine too...

Confusedofbritain

The aging NHS workforce has been a ticking time bomb for years. Record numbers of staff have retired since COVID. There will an additional crisis in GP provision by the end of this year due to the numbers retiring.

The recruitment process within the NHS is painfully time consuming and inefficient. I signed up to the temporary register at the beginning of the pandemic and after two zoom interviews with people not even responsible for appointing people and completing and emailing the same information three times to different people I gave up. I do not have the patience for that wasteful bullshit. I loved my work in the NHS but the bureaucracy makes every work day feel like you're wading through treacle. Clinical staff do not have the luxury of pissing about but it seems that the managers have all the time in the world to make pointless work for other people.

I should also point out that Switzerland benefits from a really stable parliamentary system and doesn't constantly change the law or introduce new, expensive measures which create niche public sector jobs but which make the cost of living higher. People, and companies can plan their careers and businesses in advance, knowing that the regulatory regime isn't going to change dynamically every few years whenever a new political leader gets in.

They also have a lot of referendums.

But yes, its well known that Swiss employers are quite happy to employ foreign workers somewhat more cheaply. That said, the jobs are still so well paid that many are happy to live there for a while (or remain) being paid better than they would be at home and living in rather a nice country.

@FOJN thats not my experience of Trac NHS jobs. It’s very efficient- I can put a job on and have someone appointed in 3 weeks. From the other side, I’ve found it works well too. Managers have targets for responding to trac, we’re measured on it. So I find it much more efficient than when I worked for private company and relied on slow HR team

Yes, my job is badly paid and stressful and I'm seriously thinking about retiring.

I admit I am a bit surprised to see someone advocating communist labour strategies on Mumsnet.

Yet people were directed into jobs during the War. There was also decent child care provision. It can be done when the will is there.

Otherwise, market forces will lead to people voting with their feet and finding better paid jobs with better conditions.

Have you taught in a classroom recently?
Whilst I concede it's not bare knuckle fighting, it's no walk in the park either. Last week alone I: was swore at so many times I lost count; had a group of children who were truanting from other lessons run round my classroom; had vape smoke blown in my face (as they refused to hand it over) and had a wooden door stop thrown at me - it didn't hit me because I moved out of the way, so I was told that a detention would suffice as a consequence for said child.

That's before you get to the combative stance of most parents when you ring home to discuss issues - I've even had a parent moan that I rang when I was saying how well their child was doing!

Add in the frankly ridiculous workload and hours worked for relatively poor pay and it's just not an attractive career prospect (before anyone jumps on me, I'm not saying my wage is low, I'm saying it doesn't reflect the level of work/conditions - like most public sector jobs).

I am leaving this summer without having looked for another post, (possibly leaving teaching for good - not 100% decided yet). This is coming from someone who's been teaching for 14 years and 2-3 years ago would never have contemplated not being a teacher!

Has @Swayingpalmtrees said what job they do?

Loads of cafes or restaurants near me have closed or are on reduced hours as they can’t get staff. It isn’t because people are lazy; it’s because there literally aren’t any people to take the roles.

so many second homes locally - tourists don’t want jobs
too few teenagers locally (see above, causing shortage of homes for local people)
terrible public transport systems (no way to ‘bus in’ staff)
crazily expensive parking (unaffordable on minimum wage job)

You are teaching not bare knuckle fighting. Is this what they mean about the snowflake generation? You would last five minutes! Jeez - this is the mindset that is causing the biggest problems for our country
The 'I can't do' generation lameasahorse the epitome of negative incompetence.
If you can't manage teaching do something else ffs

Says someone who has never taught.
Its very stressful with huge amounts of unpaid overtime, plus violence, disruptive pupils, moronic parents & if you mess up, get hauled over hot coals.

@Peregrina you need to brush up on what actually happened during the war. There wasn’t adequate childcare - children were sent away to the countryside, to be looked after by people who were complete
strangers, for months and years at a time. Often not wanted. if you were lucky family took them in. Or they became latch key kids at very very young ages.
people had to take any jobs to provide. There wasn’t the state support there is now. Men went to war unless either in a protected job, a medical reason or threatened with jail if a pacifist. Young women had a choice - work (anything) nursing or wrvs, the latter you could be sent anywhere to any profession.

I haven’t read the whole thread, but it’s a mistake to assume that all minimum wage jobs are easy. Some require a high level of physical stamina, or dexterity, or an ability to concentrate on mind-numbing detail for hours on end, or a lack of squeamishness…

Have you ever seen Undercover Boss? Many of the bosses really struggle when they try their hand at factory work, frontline sales, cleaning or catering. Some are “sacked” because they can’t work fast enough or just don’t have any aptitude for the work.

Hmm, well, no one seems to want my husband who is in his early 60s. Perhaps employers should be more open-minded about employing older people. He's applied for numerous hospitality and cleaning jobs (has experience in both sectors) and not even had the courtesy of a reply.

I'm not in the UK, but can relate to this, also being in my early 60s. As for supermarket work, as suggested by another poster - I have applied to a local supermarket five times, and only had one response, and yet they are continually looking for staff. That's it as far as I am concerned!

Probably plenty of jobs if you are available all week to do the 16 hrs that they will want you for.

There wasn’t adequate childcare - children were sent away to the countryside, to be looked after by people who were complete strangers, for months and years at a time.

According to my mother, who was alive during the war, there were state nurseries. She was quite annoyed when post war they closed down. Now it may be that her particular city provided well in that aspect.

This does not deny the horrors of the evacuation programmes.

I can also relay parental information about what it was like to be a CO having a father who was one.

So perhaps cut out telling me what I need to brush up on when I am relaying the knowledge of people who actually knew.

I run a business from home but now it's mature I can basically put in a few hours a day and everything ticks along nicely.

A couple of months ago I thought about getting a job, just to get me out the house and talking to people more than anything else.

Was offered and accepted a position as a carer one day a week, £10 an hour. Perfect!

Then they added me to their whatsapp group.

I shit you not in the space of a weekend - before I'd even done a single shift - I received 110 messages!!!! Where the keys are being left, who is doing what day, what needs to be done a week on Tuesday etc.

Decided they can actually fucking BOLT 😂 seriously who do employers think they are? In my old job I'd get the occasional call / text / email at 10pm or a Sunday morning if shit hit the fan and they needed me, absolutely fine because they were paying me £60k a year with flexitime and a gym membership.

Do these people really think they get to own my attention 24/7 for £80 a week?

I think after covid more people are waking up to this nonsense. Most people would rather simplify their lives than play the game.

Noticed the same with servers too but I hardly blame them. Minimum wage = minimum effort. I cringe when I think how much effort, how much sheer DEDICATION I put into my first job in McDonalds 12-14 years ago for £3.64 rising to a whopping £4.92 an hour 😂 employers back then didn't know they were alive and I'm glad they're finally having to wake up and smell the coffee.

Yes I think my dm was in a nursery whilst her dm worked and dgf was in the army

Agree
congrats on the business

but what is BOLT please?

@Peregrina I am talking from personal immediate family experience. So yes, I do know you need to brush up on your knowledge. Child care wasn’t what it is today nor was it a nursery on every corner east to access. It was truly heartbreaking and not something to return to ever again.

By and large, the general drift of this thread, is that the UK doesn't have people willing to work where they are needed, mostly because they can't afford to live there and especially because they can't afford housing. It's a big problem here, in open market, the free equity off a cheap property owned for five years buys something nicer than anyone local can buy. My house has earned a lot more than me simply because we've lived in it for 25 years.