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?

@BackforGood every single retail and hospitality job I've ever worked in has paid above the minimum wage.

That includes ASDA and a small clothing company. Not all jobs like this pay the bare minimum.

Why would you expect to be paid more than min wage for a job that doesn't need any qualifications or experience, and minimum skill level

this attitude about sums up why there is a shortage of hospitality workers

NMW is crap I wouldn’t encourage my DC to apply for jobs that paid that low level. Jobs where we live pay more and therefore manage to recruit. NMW is basically every tax payer subsidising an employer. Raise your expectations

@LemonRoses

Our youngest got a well paid internship off her own back. We had no connections in that industry. It allowed her to get a graduate training post with one of ‘ big 4’ - again, we have no connections. It was on merit and academic results.

That’s great that your daughters internship allowed her to get a big 4 grad job. 2 of my kids got big 4 grad jobs without any internships but with coffee shop jobs. Not having done any relevant work experience didn’t seem to hinder their applications at all 🤷🏻‍♀️ I think internships are very useful but, generally, they really aren’t essential.

Why would you expect to be paid more than min wage for a job

Because minimum wage is essentially arbitrary, and bears no relation to what you actually need to live off?

every single retail and hospitality job I've ever worked in has paid above the minimum wage

Well, I can't even say what my first thought was - that it must be geographical - as my dc have applied for jobs in their University towns as well as in our home City. Between them they have worked in retail (4 different places between them) and barwork (one) and fast food (one). None of them were able to just walk into the jobs either, they all had to apply to several places with lots of competition.

this attitude about sums up why there is a shortage of hospitality workers

Do you genuinely not think that people should be paid extra to reward years of study, or reward having a specific sought after skill, or for responsibility, or various other aspects of jobs that not many people can fill ?

Just want to say that DD1 started a weekend waitressing job today whilst at uni. NMW.

Do you genuinely not think that people should be paid extra to reward years of study, or reward having a specific sought after skill, or for responsibility, or various other aspects of jobs that not many people can fill ?

Yes . But that doesn’t mean that everyone else should accept NMW. You can’t live off NWM unless the government tops up. Why does the value of one hour of work change depending on age! It’s the same work.

name change as work in the office of a large mall, since the end of lockdown many of our shops and food outlets have returned staff from furlough only to have them leave as they are no longer prepared to put up with the rude, aggressive, covid unsafe customers for the pittance they are paid. I know how they feel - my inbox is full of nonsense complaints from many unreasonable people- eg .there wasn't an unoccupied charging point for their car,

Do you genuinely not think that people should be paid extra to reward years of study, or reward having a specific sought after skill, or for responsibility, or various other aspects of jobs that not many people can fill

Where did I write that?

@EverythingRuined I’m not insisting that it doesn’t, I’m saying that it’s not an attractive way to get the skills they need so it’s not surprising that OP’s friend is struggling to fill the role when there are better alternatives like societies and internships. I’m saying that it’s not that students are lazier than in the past, it’s that working part time isn’t necessary for many of them, and indeed is often discouraged, so jobs need to do more to attract them rather than assuming students are desperate for the work.

Yes . But that doesn’t mean that everyone else should accept NMW. You can’t live off NWM unless the government tops up. Why does the value of one hour of work change depending on age! It’s the same work.

Yes, but the OP was asking why there aren't (m)any applicants.
I agree you would struggle to run a household on a NMW job, but that isn't what we are talking about. We are talking about what - back in the day when my brother worked in Woolworths from when he was 15 - used to be called "a Saturday job". Nowadays, everything is open longer and not restricted to a Saturday, but essentially, it is the sort of job a 6th former or a student would do for their "spending money".

I do agree with you about the differentiation in pay for doing the same work. My (student) dd has recently started working in a bar and gets £6.56 an hour, whereas someone she works with who is doing exactly the same job gets paid £8.36 per hour. That means her colleague walks away with £13.50 more per shift for exactly the same job.

However, that is normal pay, in the experience of her peers and siblings and cousins.

Opposite problem here, never have an issue hiring weekend staff (mostly students), but can struggle to find people to work full-time, available M-F + weekends in rotation.

1. Offer 3 out of 4 weekends, so people can plan for a bit of social life.

1. Increased wage for the weekend.

1. Tips (if it’s that kind of job) to be shared or kept by the worker.

1. Any training, certificates etc covered by the employer.

@putthetopon

Heard of Brexit?

Oh yes, Brexit. Because employers getting used to paying sod all for cheap labour from workers who come to work here from the EU has done so much to help things over the past two decades 🙄 No wonder employers now have no idea what they should be actually paying employees to you know.. live. Yes let's all morn the the oh so cheap labour from the EU ffs..

@Doomsdayisstillcoming no before tax

I think that over the last year, people may have reevaluated their lives and have put things like having weekends off higher up on their work/life balance list.

Also they will have seen how hospitality unfortunately isn’t a secure job (with things as they are they’re probably thinking one rule change from the Government, their work place would close they’d be out on their ear.

I dont understand most of these posts.
People don't want to work weekends as thats family time?
Students don't want these hours as it would interfere with a social life when it starts again?
People won't work for minimum wage?

And the best one of the lot..People want paid more at the weekend???

I mean, what planet are you on?

On what planet? One with economics!

Perhaps many of the students are remote learning or want to be back at their parents' home in the summer, and those who are there already have jobs in places such as supermarkets.

A planet where people can choose if they want to work somewhere based in their lifestyle. If someone was desperate for a job and money they’d probably apply but obviously no one who has stumbled across this job is desperate enough to work weekend retail yet.

I think she needs to advertise for either the Saturday or the Sunday. I had a Saturday job as a sixth former but wouldn’t have wanted to have worked both days. 10-4 are quite nice hours for someone wanting a bit of extra money but lots of other jobs will be 9-5 so picking up more hours for the day.

I wouldn’t encourage a child of mine to work both weekend days if they were studying. They need time to study and decompress. I remember one of my friends having a supermarket job with excessive hours. It cost her her university place as she didn’t get her expected grades due to not having enough time to study. The impact on her future earning potential wasn’t really worth the extra cash at 17.

@SallyCinnabon

A planet where people can choose if they want to work somewhere based in their lifestyle. If someone was desperate for a job and money they’d probably apply but obviously no one who has stumbled across this job is desperate enough to work weekend retail yet.

People choosing whether to work or not must be a mn thing. People i know need the money and dont have the choice.

It’s not choosing to work or not it’s choosing what job you want that fits around your lifestyle. I’d personally never want to work weekends, if it was that or nothing I’d do it, but it never is that or nothing, there’s always another job with hours that suit you better.

Well, I can't even say what my first thought was - that it must be geographical - as my dc have applied for jobs in their University towns as well as in our home City. Between them they have worked in retail (4 different places between them) and barwork (one) and fast food (one). None of them were able to just walk into the jobs either, they all had to apply to several places with lots of competition.

I've "walked into" both of my main retail jobs - one in ASDA which actually paid quite a bit over minimum wage for my age. I stayed their five years total, then I moved into clothing retail. Again, I was paid at least £1.50/hour above minimum wage and I stayed four years and progressed to management before leaving to start my own business.

Both jobs were at opposite ends of the country so I don't think it's geographical.

I mean, I do accept that lots of jobs pay the bare minimum but it's definitely not guaranteed anymore. Both jobs I had also offered employee perks - staff discount (10% and 50% respectively), cheap or free staff meals (ASDA), a free clothing allowance of £600 per year (clothing retail) plus plenty more.

These were both basic sales assistant positions.