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?

As others have said, the amount of pay for a given job is determined by whatever rate people are willing to accept for that role. If a job advert is not getting suitable applicants it means that the job advertised is not being offered at the appropriate pay.

It's irrelevant that there "should" be lots of 18 year olds happy to write off their whole weekend for £80 a time, the fact that they're not applying means it's not enough. Either increase the hours or increase the pay.

It's like valuing a house that's for sale. The price is not set by trends or opinions, and definitely not material value. It's set by whatever people are willing and able to pay for a house of that size, in that condition, in that area, at that time.

I am mum at home and work in shop on a Saturday if it was open Sunday I would probably work then 2 4 extra money 4 myself it suits me partner has kids on a sat and we don’t have to pay childcare must be others around like me.

I don’t understand why she’s struggling, plenty of people are working in hospitality for min wage, pubs, cafes retail- it’s the done thing for people who lack experience or education or just like working in jobs with little responsibility. Maybe it’s the location?

I agree with you, I would of thought that people would be happy to just have a job and regular income.

My twin girls have just finished their degrees and have just returned to their jobs in hospitality and are happy to be back working after being on furlough since Christmas. They work at a lovely 5 * hotel, family owned, they have regular shifts, tips, food while at work and great work colleagues.

This situation is great for a while until they get better jobs.

@NannySEN

I don’t understand why she’s struggling, plenty of people are working in hospitality for min wage, pubs, cafes retail- it’s the done thing for people who lack experience or education or just like working in jobs with little responsibility. Maybe it’s the location?

I can think of plenty of reasons:

• 6 hours is not long enough for over-18's to be entitled to a break. So they could be asked to work 10-4 with no lunch break.
• the hours are poor and take over the whole weekend. She'd be better off recruiting for two positions (one on each day) or trying to do an early shift and a late shift.
• there's no mention of any in-work benefits - does she offer free lunches, for example? Free food-hygiene training or anything else?
• For a young person, they're being paid £80 to give up their weekend - but they have to pay for 2 days worth of transport (not everywhere has transport on Sundays). That could take up a fair chunk of their pay whereas a longer shift one day a week would give them more money overall.
• Lots of jobs now offer above NMW even if it is hospitality or retail. As has been said upthread, I worked retail for 10 years and was never paid minimum wage - I always got at least £1-1.50 above the NMW at the time, plus other in-work benefits.

@NewMatress

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

that's the bottom line surely, the rewards are not worth the costs

I used to work Sunday every week and got no extra pay for it. But I worked 4 days during the week.
I have at times worked part-time and have tried to get hours that have as little impact on spending time with my family as possible. So I did not work weekends.
If I was looking for 12 hours work that this cafe is offering, I would try and get a few shifts in McDonalds instead or even a 12 hour shift in a care home.

The year 13s (so upper sixth), have finished now and if looking for work, will want week day shifts, not weekend only

Ideally yes but if it's all that's available they'll take weekend.

However, I'd share out the hours and have a Saturday shift and a Sunday shift - they can cover for each other but get a weekend day off too.

When I worked in retail I got paid more on Sundays but I think that has long gone.

Simple economics.

She's not offering enough pay for the work she wants doing.

That's not rocket science.

She has to remember, that no one is ever going to be as interested or invested in her cafe as she is.

I spent years working weekends around my dh's regular hours to avoid childcare costs but my job was reasonably paid. However I did miss so much in family time.
These days people can get most of their childcare costs paid if on benefits, so are probably choosing to to work in the week and feeling it's not worth sacrificing family time.

Brexit has had an effect as well. The kind of mouthbreather who "doesn't want to be served by forriners [sic] in Starbucks" is not actually keen themselves to replace them.

To be fair, I didn't expect anything different from the kind of moron who kicks off in Spain if the wait staff "don't speak Engerlish"

@Summercocktailsinthesnow

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.

Totally agree. During the last 20 years or so, this constant race to the bottom with pay and conditions in certain jobs has really reduced some peoples' living standards and done long term damage to the economy in the process. The result is less tax and NI being paid which damages us all. Part of 'building back better' should be paying a proper wage for a proper job and get money circulating around the economy again - fairly.

@NewMatress

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

^ Clearly this

I thought after Brexit, people would be queuing up to take the jobs which had previously been filled by EU workers? I've never seen SO many hospitality jobs advertised recently and whilst many would have found other work during the pandemic, I do wonder how many foreign hospitality workers have decided to go back home!

these are probably the jobs europeans would love bt went back to their own country due to covid. british ppl dont wnt to work weekends or unsocial hours in general. without the east europeans children wont be sat, dogs wont be walked, cafes wont have staff ....

As a student I worked every weekend and week day nights after classes. Maybe it's just because of covid people are holding back from hospitality jobs? Or advertising to the wrong crowd? Post on the halls of residence notice boards maybe?

Isn't weekend work a student staple?

I tried for cafe work but can only do week days and was told I had to also do weekends no exceptions which I can't do because of kids. Once I mentioned I had kids I was told no way would they hire someone with kids. They only want flexible single student types.

@hert2020

I thought after Brexit, people would be queuing up to take the jobs which had previously been filled by EU workers? I've never seen SO many hospitality jobs advertised recently and whilst many would have found other work during the pandemic, I do wonder how many foreign hospitality workers have decided to go back home!

Yup. So much for "coming over here, taking our jobs". Who knew we never wanted them in the first place?

Wasn't it the same after the Black Death, the peasants no longer wanted to work or had to be enticed with higher wages?

Yes funnily enough I was reading about the Black Death recently and apparently the reduced London population size (esp amongst the poor) meant they had to increase wages as there was not enough supply of cheap labour

Isn't weekend work a student staple?

But weekend work doesn't have to mean giving up every single weekend to work shitty hours earning minimum wage.

Don't ask me to link evidence as it was in a secondary school text book where I read the information!

According to a recent British Hospitality Association report, approximately 3 million people work in the sector in the UK, and as many as a quarter of these are EU nationals. In London, this figure rises to 38%. Overall, 43% of low level, non-managerial jobs in hotels and restaurants are filled by overseas workers. As a result of tougher rules on the migration of EU workers post-Brexit, the industry will experience a shortfall of 60,000 workers per annum over the next few years.

That’s a lot of coffee not being made and a lot of restaurants shutting.

The loss of EU workers is a major problem. Seasonal businesses in rural areas relied totally on EU students from places like Romania coming over to make some money in their summer break. There just aren’t people locally who can take a job for only a few months of the year.

Tell her she can advertise it with her local job centre plus.

A friend of mine, with years of experience, was recently offered a job in hospitality management. Every weekend, evenings etc for £12.00 an hour, an absolute joke.
Hospitality pay has been gradually driven down due to excess labour. Covid and Brexit mean businesses now have to pay a proper wage. About time too.