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!

Why do you think that is? I noticed an accountant upthread said the same.

i reckon everyone has had enough of too high expectations.

I’m pregnant with twins and any time I go to an appointment I can see how overworked and understaffed they are. Multiple reasons for this. High immigration where I live yet hospitals being shut down. People still pulling sickies with Covid. Poor working conditions and poor pay. It’s getting worse.

I live in a tourist location and have an 18 year old who has worked in hospitality for the past few years. He (and other staff) get told not to come in if it rains, told to go home if it’s quiet and in every job he has been on minimum wage and a 0 hour contract. It’s barely sustainable for an 18 year old who is saving up to go to uni - I can’t see how people can work in these jobs (here anyway) if they have financial responsibilities such as rent/mortgage etc. If there is a lack of enthusiasm among these young workers I can totally see why. I am sure someone will say that’s the way it is for young workers in hospitality - yes, it is - doesn’t make it right though - and if the owner only hires workers on 0 hours/young/low pay etc - that impacts the quality of experience for the diner. The owner even takes a cut of the tips where my son is - and that is not uncommon. My son is lucky - he is off to uni - but there are many here who end up in this precarious work and poverty for their entire careers. Low pay and rights do need to addressed.

They left when the country voted to leave the EU and who can blame them! A lot of vile people were very abusive to ‘foreigners’. It shows how very dependent we were on free movement of workers. This government goes to great lengths to deny that it’s Brexit.

I wish the government would lower university fees as I would love to retrain to work for the NHS but as my degree was in criminology literally can't get a job with it.
Im currently working as a waitress and I have a 10 month old but I've recently had to claim universal credit due to my work closing Monday- Wednesday due to lack of customers and chiefs.
It's a crap situation and I can't see a way out. I live in a little village with very little public transport and due to childcare being so expensive I rely on family to watch her.

Thank you, wilfully ignorant Brexit voters.

we TOLD you the UK survives on immigration.

I work in hospitality and yes we are frazzled.
There are not enough staff and some of us are working split shifts, starting at 6.30 after leaving at 11.30 the night before, trying to manage 30 covers each and serve at the bar and clean and restock etc etc.
I want to cry most days when I finish work because I cannot work any harder or faster and people expect so much.
Also, guests and customers are rude and abusive, much more so now.
Many people I’ve worked with have left to do something else.... and I’m not sure how much more I can take. It’s only going to get worse.

Mostly because I would rather get to the doctor in Poland than here :) Polish medical staff is absolutely amazing (although politeness might not be a strong point), every time I go to Poland i go to dentist, gynaecologist, do full blood work. And I do it privately as there are soooo many private practices in PL. They are fairly affordable too!

There is a shortage of town planners too. I know we are a 'marmite' profession but people are quick to complain if they don't get their planning permission on time or complain about where they live and what does and doesn't get built.

I may be going against the grain a little here, and I don't necessarily disagree with everything that has been said already. But I do wonder if part of this is that we have bloated certain sectors at the expense of others which are actually more important.

Over the past decades there has been a vast increase in certain kinds of positions, management, HR, etc, in many many sectors. These are typically office jobs with good benefits for people with a university degree, but not the most amazing university results. The civil service, teaching, the military, medicine, academia, and even private industry.

Two examples: my husband is a scientist in the civil service. Over the years more and more of these positions, actually getting data and doing science, have been cut. But there are more and more managers and especially, economists being hired in his department. Or at my university, which was quite small, hires of faculty are stagnant or really even reducing, but there are plenty of management positions and professional "student support" positions being added all the time.

So to some extent, I think people are being educated for the wrong positions and to a large extent have been raised to expect jobs that simply don't reflect the real needs of society.

Immigration is only a stop-gap solution. Almost every western country is now looking at it as a solution, and even ignoring the logistical/social issues of absorbing so many new people, and the ethics of importing people to do the lower level jobs that our citizens don't want, it's a bit of a ponzi scheme, and a growing population isn't really a great long term plan either. In some ways it props up what's problematic within the economy rather than pushing people to find solutions or change lifestyle expectaions.

*A local cafe has closed because they can’t find full time staff. £10 an hour and people dont want to work.

they’re either too lazy or better off on the state. There can’t be any other reason.*

Yes, there is - they can earn £10 an hour at Morrisons, with a 10% discount on the shopping for them and two friends/relatives!

Oh, and as for Labour, I don't know that they have a clear sense of what to complain about or what they would do really differently. It's not easy to tell the ruling party they are doing it wrong without some kind of solution or at east possibility of a solution.

One thing I think is an issue in professional jobs is the incredibly long hours. Expected to start at 8/8.30 finish 5.30/6 that makes it incredibly hard on kids in childcare and very difficult to balance family life.

That's definitely a factor. I used to be at my desk for 8am and was often still there at 6.30pm. Add in the toxicity in the work place, that they wanted you to constantly volunteer for extra duties and that half your colleagues were off with stress at any one time (with no replacements) and given a choice, I think most would quit. I'm married to a workaholic who regularly does 70 to 80 hour weeks which doesn't help either. It was fine before kids when we both worked stupidly long hours but not now.

I had intended to retrain as a social worker pre pandemic having worked along them for years (and still doing relevant voluntary work) but covid made me reconsider.

They’re either too lazy or better off on the state. There can’t be any other reason

The amount of parents who don’t want their little poppet to work whilst studying is huge! You read it on hear all the time.

I personally think teens learn an awful lot being part of a team - some independence, finance, savings, hard graft.

Theu should be the target audience with exams just finishing.

The "European" system of medical care is certainly better in France , Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries. This is because their health systems are regulated with good care that what parts are privatised are not cherry-picked profitable parts of a national system. In the UK their has been a steady erosion and dismantling of the Health service for profit.
I recommend Privaet Eye to see how businessmen working for health companies are being inserted into positions in the NHS. Also 200 MP's have lobby connections with "health" companies.
Many come from the US where medicine is the most expensive in the world and yet it ranks 16th for medical outcomes. Any connection with US companies therefore should be viewed with concern.
The idiot govt. which decided to charge nurses for tuition and decreased the supply is without a doubt one of the finest examples of Tory incompetence. A Govt that believes private enterprise solves everything - laugnable.

Yeah, it is also affecting the US, Canada, and I suspect other places.

So I'm somewhat inclined to think Brexit isn't a huge factor and it's more to do with internationally relevent causes.

Brexit doesn’t help, but tight Labour markets are happening in all developed countries.

I am also leaving the classroom due to crazy expectations from government and pupils spending their time and energy trying to catch me out and wind me up and get me to react to their behaviour instead of getting on with their learning. Also every mixed ability classroom has a child who cannot access the learning because of their poor literacy and numeracy skills. These issues have been around for a while but the pandemic has made them worst.

MangyInseam Or at my university, which was quite small, hires of faculty are stagnant or really even reducing, but there are plenty of management positions and professional "student support" positions being added all the time.

Yes, I stopped doing a half day a week teaching at my local university (in my professional field), because I was only being paid £26 per hour. That might sound quite good but my field takes 5 years of university training plus another 2 years of professional training to qualify plus I have 18 years PQE. And when I did the same ad hoc teaching when I'd just graduated, I was paid £18 an hour. That was over 20 years ago. I put that into the Bank of England's inflation calculator and it means that to earn the same as when I'd just graduated, I'd have to be earning £35 per hour now and not £26.

And to be honest that isn't really enough now because my hourly professional rate has gone up much more.

And of course it isn't really £26 per hour because you really need to put in about 2 hours unpaid preparation for whatever it is you teach.

They don't even offer free parking.

I think the larger question is, should we be trying to economically pressure parents of small kids into working two FT positions? I would say, no. If parents want to take care of pre-school age kids themselves it should be a priority for the economy to accommodate that in its structure.

Even once kids are in school, my observation/experience has been, if there is more than one child, a family can usually manage about 1.5 jobs. One person may have regular hours and the other some PT position, or one job with really long hours and the other person works minimally or not at all, that kind of thing. That's assuming no special needs or other domestic issues.

Many of these PT positions with fairly flexible hours tend to be lower pay jobs though, so it is not always possible for families to justify the expense of a car, or any training needed to qualify. And really long shifts like healthcare are not going to be a great fit. So there may be something of an untapped workforce there, but probably not as many as the raw numbers might suggest.

As opposed to sneakily doing it behind our backs.

Mangyinseam I think the larger question is, should we be trying to economically pressure parents of small kids into working two FT positions? I would say, no. If parents want to take care of pre-school age kids themselves it should be a priority for the economy to accommodate that in its structure.

When I was growing up, I struggle to think of any kids in my class who didn't have 2 parents working full time. Maybe later on they might have taken it easier, but not working full time was a luxury most couldn't afford at that stage in their lives.

Then again, the roads were less busy, it didn't cost so much to park or commute, there wern't so many in work appraisals and reviews and there certainly wasn't road or congestion charging!

I think the larger question is, should we be trying to economically pressure parents of small kids into working two FT positions? I would say, no. If parents want to take care of pre-school age kids themselves it should be a priority for the economy to accommodate that in its structure.

Yeah, I think employers and society really need to accommodate more flexibility for families with this.

This is not true. People are flooding in to the UK from the EU still. I am an ESOL teacher and we have many people arriving still. The issue is the time it takes to get the EUSS code required to seek employment. There is such a backlog that people are able to get benefits quicker than they can take a job.
There wasnt the mass exodus of people after Brexit but COVID, low wages and cost of living has made many people choose to leave the UK.
People also don't want to work in zero hour contracts now so many won't return to hospitality trades.

The government have stopped the loans for people who didn't pass maths and English first time so you might be out of luck anyway