No one wants weekend work

[LastOrdersMaura]

My friend has a cafe. It's in a central location with a good bus route, cycle route and ten mins walk from a huge university campus.
Despite the jobs being on Indeed and advertised on a local job site, no one is applying. Or they apply but say 'is there any negotiation on the days?' Why doesn't anyone want weekend work anymore? I would have thought there would have been college students, Uni students, mums/ dads who can only work when partners are home, retired people who are bored. Why is it so difficult to recruit?

Recruitment in hospitality is awful at the moment. So many have taken furlough, costing the employer financially, and resigned as soon as the businesses started opening back up.

Is she paying more for weekends?

@palavah would you want to pay more at weekends in hospitality venues? These are businesses that have suffered hugely financially through covid.

By that I mean pay more as a customer? Costs have to be passed in

Has she specifically advertised at the university? Some have internal careers resources to match students with jobs, and some have informal notice board systems. If they’ve got a well-organised job system then the students may not look elsewhere.

The job is not attractive enough for the pay being offered.

Many people have left the hospitality industry and looked for work in an area that has remained open. People that have stayed in hospitality are generally not looking at the moment in case there is another lockdown and they won’t be eligible for furlough.

• Campuses are closed and many students stayed with their parents to save on rent. Because everywhere is closed, students aren't spending any money on their social life so they're financially a bit better off than they otherwise would be.
• People don't tend to have children unless they're financially secure anymore - I assume a job in a cafe isn't paying enough for someone to give up their family time.
• Retired people don't want to work a minimum wage job on their feet all day serving other people. If they're bored then they'll get a hobby or they'll volunteer but most just enjoy retirement.

When students are back on campus then advertise directly to them instead of on sites like Indeed (which students won't be using for part-time work that's not a career). It's always been hard to get people to work in hospitality and staff turnover is high.

[quote HotelCaliforniaOnRepeat]@palavah would you want to pay more at weekends in hospitality venues? These are businesses that have suffered hugely financially through covid.[/quote]
Many places in the hospitality industry charge more at the weekend. Plenty of places have a cheaper set menu that's available on weekdays or have more expensive dishes at the weekend. Sunday lunch menus tend to be pricier. Guess you haven't tried booking a wedding venue and noticed the increase in price?

Most parents don’t want to work weekends as it’s family time.
Students aren’t on campus at the moment I don’t think?
Many have left the hospitality industry for more “secure” work.

That’s Brexit for you....

A lot of university courses are online now so students are staying at home as a result. This will probably change in September, the academic year is over until then anyway so she may have more luck in a few months.

I suspect lots of people are reluctant to take jobs in the hospitality or retail industry right now anyway, too scared they’ll be ineligible for furlough if they all close again.

I'd never want to work weekends again, anyone with a family or any kind of social life just don't want to be getting up early at the weekends and missing time with their family and friends.

[quote HotelCaliforniaOnRepeat]@palavah would you want to pay more at weekends in hospitality venues? These are businesses that have suffered hugely financially through covid.[/quote]
This is pretty standard in most restaurants tbh, offers differ on weekends etc, the meal base rate might not increase but the availability of offers changes which ensures you pay more.

[quote HotelCaliforniaOnRepeat]@palavah would you want to pay more at weekends in hospitality venues? These are businesses that have suffered hugely financially through covid.[/quote]
You don't pay more for your shopping if you go to the supermarket at weekends.

Paying more for 'antisocial' hours is standard.

Without knowing the business and the area none of us can say, but if it's been well advertised then people don't want that job for the money offered.

If it's weekends only then people may not want to commit to something that could damage their chances of more hours elsewhere.

This is the end of cheap labour op, which is actually a very good thing in the long run for all of us. Your friend will need to pay more for weekend work, and that is entirely to be expected and is standard. She is obviously expecting to get away with paying less.

I'd suggest asking if a local sixth form would be willing to tell their students about the vacancy. A lot of 6t form students I know are looking for weekend jobs- for a bit of pocket money and also as something to put on their CVs. Schools advise pupils not to work too many hours, so she may have to employ a few of them to cover a weekend but round here there are loads of youngsters looking.

As a retired, occasionally bored, person - I’d suspect she’s not paying enough. Many of us are taxpayers. When I retired I committed not to work for less than the real Living Wage, currently £9.50 per hour.

@Palavah have you ever worked in hospitality or retail? Paying more for antisocial hours is absolutely not standard.

She's not paying enough.

So many think others will actually want their shitty job they don't realise no one is an invested in their business as they are.

But she's not asking for experience. What are all the teenagers doing for jobs these days? I'm sorry but you cannot be an eighteen year old with no experience and expect to get more than MW. I'm on 50p more than that and I am responsible for peoples lives (care work.)

People don't tend to have children unless they're financially secure anymore

On what planet is this?

This is the sort of job my DD will be applying for as soon as she's 16. Although anecdotally I have heard that she may struggle as many people want flexibility - core hours Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon or whatever, but also flexibility to cover holidays or sickness on other days of the week. And she doesn't have that, as she's at school.

Everyone I used to know (lot of grads and mid twenty workers) who used to pick up this kind of work don’t/won’t anymore.

A) Most used lockdown as motivation to get WFH call centre/office admin type jobs.
B) They’ve not been able to socialise in over a year so who wants to now give up their Friday nights/ Saturday/Sunday in exchange for minimum wage? NO ONE
C) Customer facing roles on minimum wage like hospitality/retail are a big covid risk and generally aimed at young people who haven’t been vaccinated yet. Why would you want to deal with joe public and a potential virus exposure when you can take customer calls from your bedroom and earn more?

Think a lot of hospitality venues are gonna really struggle for staff in coming months