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?

Indeed is a bit of a generic place to advertise.

Try local online forums/ local college campus/ put up posters where people go?

I would have thought that GCSE and A level students would be jumping a the chance to earn some money during their extended summer.

I wonder if your friend is looking in the wrong places. Send something to local sixth forms and secondary schools.

what hours is your friend offering?

because if it's just weekends then I can see why that would be unappealing - people like students who have classes all week will not want to give up their weekends, and it's not enough hours to be a main job so many people will avoid it because they would then also have to find other weekday work to go with it, again leaving them at a high chance of having no off days

If people aren't applying for the job then she's not paying enough.

Definitely Brexit related too.

Yet my son from the age of 16 - 18 applied for weekend working left right and centre and got nowhere

No parents want to work weekends (that I know).

Very different to my experience where lots of people wanted weekends. When the other parent is home on weekends it is a fantastic opportunity to minimise childcare during the week. Weekend night shift is also highly sought after as some used a 12hr shift pattern Sat/Sun night to replace the equivalent of working 4 days/week standard shifts and even doing those plus another 3 shifts in the week means significant uplift in what you take home. It was especially popular for those with kids who hadn’t started school as not only did it save on childcare but people still had 2 full days at home with kids anyway.

Good for you Iquitit I’m doing some training myself 🤞.

It’s uni exam time at the moment and GCSE and school leavers should finish mid June

Yr 11s have finished exams already in most places and no further schooling until they go back in September for A levels. Same for Yr 13s.

And I'm sure she will find 16 and 17 year olds.
The retail jobs I had at that age just dont exist now. Mark's used to do all day Saturday and one evening. Now the shifts offered are literally scattered throughout the week and are early starts or very late finish giving issues with employing under 18s or problems with transport.

@looptheloopinahulahoop

I would have thought that GCSE and A level students would be jumping a the chance to earn some money during their extended summer.

I wonder if your friend is looking in the wrong places. Send something to local sixth forms and secondary schools.

But she’s hiring now And how they are approaching exams

@SpiderinaWingMirror

And I'm sure she will find 16 and 17 year olds. The retail jobs I had at that age just dont exist now. Mark's used to do all day Saturday and one evening. Now the shifts offered are literally scattered throughout the week and are early starts or very late finish giving issues with employing under 18s or problems with transport.

And seems to be dominated by middle aged women

If your friend just wants weekend work and are looking at maybe getting a Uni student then why is she advertising through Indeed.

Indeed I would have thought was for f/t jobs.
Why not go directly to the uni or stick a notice in her shop window.
Or split the job and hire 2 people who can do a Saturday or a Sunday.

I don’t think this is about people not wanting the job but the type of job it is people won’t look on a job agency website

Definitely worth posting in a local Facebook group too. Someone posted in our local group that a local hotel had vacancies and there were 32 responses.

Mind you, not one had actually gone to the hotel website to look at the vacancies, most said "please pm me details" and this was the parents of teens who might be interested. I found the hotel link and posted it. People slag off teens for having no "get up and go" but is it really that difficult for parents to google the hotel and tell their kids there are vacancies? So your friend will have spopnfeed the applicants, OP!

And no way would I want my uni student child or gcse / a level child going for a job with their exams around the corner

they haven't got exams and most will finish assessments by the end of next week

I have a year 11 tutor group of 16 year olds who are applying for so many jobs and not getting anywhere because they’re being beaten by older people who have lost out through Covid related cuts. They would rip your arm off for a weekend job. Card in the window, local Facebook group would get to them. They don’t really check indeed etc as they see those more for career type jobs.

More Covid related than anything else. The students that have gone back to uni will be on holiday soon so either going back home or looking for temporary holiday work rather than weekend work. Hopefully will pick up again in September if ads are put in the right place.

@LastOrdersMaura

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.)

The minimum wage for an 18 year old is £6.56 an hour. I can certainly expect everyone who works to be paid the living wage regardless of their age. NMW drives salaries down for those under 23

National Living Wage £8.91
21-22 Year Old Rate £8.36
18-20 Year Old Rate £6.56
16-17 Year Old Rate £4.62

As a teenager in the current covid years, I think if given the choice i'd try to find weekend work somewhere like Primark or Tesco that isnt likely to go under the next time the government gets a little bit lockdown happy, and not a small cafe which is probably scraping by to survive right now.

Plus there are so many benefits to working for bigger businesses even for teenagers. Better wages, staff discount, etc.

Would she be happy with 16/17 year olds? Is it a cafe they can get to easily-ie don’t need to drive or walk along country lanes with no pavement?

My DD would do this though she is y12 and in the middle of exams now.

They finish next Friday and have a LONG summer ahead. NCS is full around here so they’re going to be bored.

[quote woskxm293847]@Faultymain5 but Indeed isn't working so she obviously need to find a different audience.

I own a hospitality business. I find Indeed useless for anything other than the more senior roles. We find the methods I suggested (which you may have missed include advertising at colleges etc as well) far more effective. Plus you yourself said the first job your son got was from a window advert that 'old fogies' spotted and told him about. So that advert worked didn't it! QED.

The best method however is to get known as a good employer. We often have people approach us asking for work.[/quote]
@woskxm293847 I think it will be one of the reasons mentioned above by PPs. Location, reputation, wage.

As I mentioned, my DS got that job because an old fogie noticed it. Not because he did. So that advert worked because I knew he was looking for work, not because he was looking for work peering in peoples windows. How it worked it didn't matter to be fair, since he lost his job due to Covid. Not looking to go back to that particular industry though. Which makes sense, given the current climate. I personally think the OP's friend should do as you suggested, but also don't give up on indeed.

I'm not sure what industry you are in, but I'd never look on Indeed for a senior role in mine, as they're known for having companies that are not too reputable. But I suspect it may depend on the industry.

*But she’s hiring now And how they are approaching exams"

Exams were cancelled months ago. Most assessments are finished by the end of next week. So teens will be looking for jobs from half term.

IMHO there are five possible answers -

(1) Offer more money per hour until you find you have good quality applicants.

(2) Don't open weekends

(3) Shut down entirely

(4) Rope in friends and family for free labour at weekends.

(5) Campaign for a less cruel form of capitalism which makes it easier for small businesses to compete, reduces the cost of living for ordinary people so they can afford to live on the rock bottomo wages on offer.

As an aside, when I was a student I worked in the holidays in order to avoid getting into debt. If I was coming out with £50k plus of debt then I'd tend to think "what's the point in making the odd £100 here and there when I'm screwed financially either way?"

Sorry I missed the location.

What is she paying?

A lot of the people who might apply are still doing exams-I would imagine in the next few weeks they’ll want work.

Is the advert clear-weekends ONLY?!

Is she advertising for one person to work both Saturday and Sunday? When I worked in retail it was rare to work both days at the weekend.