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?

But who really has to? When you can have an Etsy shop or be an eBayer or get an after school babysitting job or do some tutoring or coach kids sport, who “really has to” make this job work.
Can everyone do those things? (genuine question; I don't know).

In the mid 1990s which I appreciate is now a quarter of a century ago now I worked weekends in WH Smith for £3.21 an hour, age 16! Long days and lovely brown ill fitting uniform.

It's good training for teenagers to work in part time jobs they'd rather not do! Makes you appreciate when you get a decent one!

Working in a cafe adds nothing to your cv as a student. The work experience you need as a student is a summer internship or placement in your desired industry. The only reason to get that kind of job as a student is for the money - so clearly the money isn’t good enough to make it worthwhile for them.
Fwiw you actually aren’t allowed to get a part time job at some universities and many sixth forms have limits on how many hours their students should work - often no more than 8 hours a week.

Surely covid is an issue too? These jobs are right in the firing line for that and young people aren't protected like us oldies.

Case in point, DS15 and I currently have covid. I have had a dose of the vaccine and my symptoms so far are mild and manageable but he's been really quite poorly and is nowhere near recovered. I wouldn't advise my teens to work in hospitality at the moment if they could avoid it.

Hopefully the OP can feed back to her friend that she needs to make it two separate jobs to make it realistic for a 6th form student.

I know someone who would want this type of job pm me if the position is still open

My 14 year old would jump at the chance. She's desperate for a job.

Anyone wonder if this might be partly due to Europeans leaving? Where I am in the country it was all foreigners filling those roles, now they have all left partly because of brexit but also covid.

If the wage is right people will work anywhere. The wage is obviously not good enough to attract applicants.

What's the hourly rate being offered op?

@Erikrie

My 14 year old would jump at the chance. She's desperate for a job.

It would be illegal for her to work those hours Erikrie. She can do 5 hours on a Saturday and 2 hours on a Sunday. councils have bylaws children of that age can't work with food in a commercial kitchen which includes coffee shops and takeaways.

I did mean as a Saturday job.

Brexit and Covid have been the catalysts to a massive amount of foreign workers returning to their home countries - a huge number of whom will have previously been employed in the leisure and hospitality industries. There was a piece on this very subject on the Radio 4 business programme the other day.

Totally agree with this. I worked throughout A Levels and uni, term times as well as most holidays, for shite money. I still managed to go out clubbing and see my friends etc. If you really have to, you make it work

I did too but I got paid more than they offer now & that was 15 plus yrs ago when I only needed £10 for a night out.

Working in a cafe adds nothing to your cv as a student. The work experience you need as a student is a summer internship or placement in your desired industry.

I remember getting specific feedback from the manager who recruited me to my graduate training position that they’d really liked my answers to questions about e.g. teamwork where I’d used examples from my part time jobs in bar work and retail.

Internships and summer placements are ideal, but not everyone knows exactly what they want to do during the early stages of their degree and there is a lot of merit in experience of part time jobs that give you evidence that you can turn up on time, muck in, take instruction and use your initiative.

there is a lot of merit in experience of part time jobs that give you evidence that you can turn up on time, muck in, take instruction and use your initiative.

Totally.

We’ll probably working weekends at chain companies/supermarkets who will pay above minimum wage. Plus is she advertising shifts for Friday/Saturday/Sunday? No ones wants to give up a whole weekend alongside uni/school/another job.

@Erikrie

My 14 year old would jump at the chance. She's desperate for a job.

First weekend down and she’s be less enthusiastic!

More to the point, would you really want your 14 year old working every Saturday and Sunday this summer holiday?

Also internships are often unpaid, and so I wouldn't have been able to do this as I needed to work to support myself whilst at university.

It might not be the weekend work, specifically. We've just been advertising for a role that 2 years ago we had in excess of 120 applicants for. This time around (exact same spec, pay, everything) we had 10 and at least 9 of them didn't seem to have actually read the job description/person spec.

My 17 year old currently works in McDonald's, and has done from 16. She gets paid £7.50 ish I think, has a 12-16 hour week normally, which is split between evenings and 1 weekend shift. She would not be impressed at bring scheduled in for 2 middle of the day weekend shifts- she's already at college, studying on a night, and would like to see her boyfriend and friends too.

If you factor in travel time and money, by paying at minimum wage for that shift, she would get paid £4.20 an hour, so £50.40. she would probably need to be on the bus for about 9am, wouldn't get back til 5ish, which would cost about £6 per day. So, for losing 9-5 every weekend day, she would be about £38 a week better off, and no free time.

what are they selling on Etsy and EBay? These are mostly rich kids who are able to buy materials and have artistic hobbies

We’re on our arses right now and dd1 sells on Etsy. She’s not a “rich kid”. She’s a talented kid who saw a way to turn a profit. Her “hobby” is a core subject until KS3 and materials are cheap as chips at the works and the range etc. (she also has a “proper” job, but for DH so she’s doing him a favour rather than the other way around as aforementioned being in our arses). I know a kids does computer type stuff for people that he sells online (disclaimer - I have no idea what this is). I know a couple of kids who are literally buying shit from home bargains and Poundland and Wilco and putting it on eBay for small profits. One does dog stuff (treats balls etc.) , not sure what the other one does but I know she buys up books, clothes and jigsaws from charity shops too but that took a hammering during lockdown obviously. She’s sold Halloween and Christmas stuff that’s she’s bought in the sale the previous year on eBay too. Yes, I know you need the money to buy before you can sell but realistically most teenagers can muster £20 for some dog toys or packets of wallpaper paste or whatever. I know 2 brothers who put together IKEA furniture (advertised through eBay as well as Facebook) but the older boy drives and that’s very much an unreliable gig.

But who really has to? When you can have an Etsy shop or be an eBayer or get an after school babysitting job or do some tutoring or coach kids sport, who “really has to” make this job work
Can everyone do those things? (genuine question; I don't know).)

No, but loads of people can and absolutely everybody who is capable of working this job could also work in a supermarket of fast food chain where they wouldn’t have to work “middle shift” on both weekend days. Pitching your job to only applicants who are utterly incapable of making any money by any other means is ridiculous but not as ridiculous in claiming that anyone who would rather make money by some other means is a lazy-arse.

My dc who is a student works both days at the weekend for NMW. By the time I drop him and pick him up (no point him driving himself as a days car parking charges equal over half a days wage) and then go to the effort of washing his ‘uniform’ that he had to buy himself I do wonder whether it is worth it. I would be better off paying him the wage myself and getting him to do jobs around the house but he is adamant that he needs to have a job for his CV for when he finishes studying.

To be honest op if your friend can’t get staff then she isn’t paying enough!

hmm I don't know but I am pretty sure that it has never been only students who used to work in cafe etc...

Why is everyone just concentrating on that?

What about all the oher people who could do thoise MW job that don;t have a job right now etc...?
Could it be too that it's because those jobs are all part time and not full time etc..?

Working in a cafe adds nothing to your cv as a student. The work experience you need as a student is a summer internship or placement in your desired industry.

DH works in univeristy the recuriters he's talked to make a point they like the students to have any kind of job.

I suspect it's students not being on campus - and it being exam season and then summer - not advertising in right places and possibly pay on offer - though I also agree a Saturday or Sunday would make it more attractive to a 6th former - even back in 90s in my 6th form term time most anyone did was one day at weekend and one evening mid week.