To feel so sorry for the hospitality industry?

[clartymare]

We just got back from a UK hotel break. Previously been and it was lovely. While it was still lovely, the service was nowhere near what it was and the place needs some TLC. Friends have reported the same from various stays they've had.

It was disappointing, but we were chatting to the manager and he was saying how so many staff are off sick or isolating, and have been over the last month or so, that they're operating on a skeleton staff and have had to make adjustments in order to cope. Breakfast is no longer hot for example, continental only. No room service. Things like that.

The staff we came across, while lovely and helpful, were obviously run off their feet. Dinner service was chaotic largely for this reason - not enough staff again.

So many guests complaining, being very rude to staff, saying you wouldn't get these problems abroad etc (I disagree on that!) and although I came away feeling disappointed because it wasn't a patch on the stays we've had there before, I also felt desperately sorry for anyone working in the industry at the moment. It just seems like, despite the opportunity to boost UK breaks, they're spread really thin whatever they do.

Yes they're all fully booked, but they need to be after having being closed for so long. I had a look on trip advisor for reviews on some of the places we stayed and loved before lockdown when I got home, out of curiosity and it seems like many places are the same at the moment.

I wouldn't work for minimum wage in hospitality that's for sure.

It's kind of tied to the fact that customers want everything for a penny...

This

@GCAcademic

I feel sorry for them, but my experience is that prices in restaurants and pubs have gone up a hell of a lot, and the quality of food has declined perceptibly in the places we're used to eating at. As sorry as I am for the industry, I'm afraid I won't be spending that kind of money on poor quality food, and will be sticking to takeaways if I want a break from cooking.

I'm doing the opposite. I'll eat out but never again will I trust a takeaway. We ordered takeaways from two of our favourite local restaurants during lockdown and one was absolutely disgusting pale grey prison slop. Inedible. I chucked it in the bin. The other was swimming in grease and also inedible. The food is always a good standard if we eat in.

@araiwa

they can't find new staff for love nor money,

Offer £20 an hour and they'd fix their staffing problems instantly. Instead they offer minimum wage and awful conditions and don't understand why they can't find staff

This would certainly entice people to come and work in hospitality. But it would mean either:

• running with even more of a skeleton staff and then food standards and service would be even worse, abysmal in fact = customers would stop coming -restaurants would have to put prices up, and not just by a little bit, we are talking doubling prices on all menu items = customers would stop coming.

People want good food, good service and they want it cheap. Staff want a good wage, a sensible amount of hours and to have enough staff on each shift so that they don't always have to run around like a blue arsed fly. What customers want and what staff want are not really compatible 🤷‍♀️

Long hours, no breaks, being overworked etc were an issue well before Covid and Brexit. Companies using tips as part of wages. Some underpaying their staff and sending them below minimum wage due to having to pay for uniforms etc. Couldn't pay me enough to return.

What customers want and what staff want are not really compatible

As another poster it's not sustainable, far too much reliance & expectation of cheap labour.

I read something the other day that said “the whole world is short staffed… be kind to those who showed up”.
We own a hospitality business and at the moment we are surviving on government help (Which is now finished). We are stuck in catch 22 because we can’t afford the extra staff and the better menus unless we have the customers and we don’t have the customers without the better menus and more staff. We need to invest in our business to make more from it but we can’t afford to because we have no idea yet when this is going to end. We are running so close to the line that it’s not even worth us being open but we are also stuck in it because we have a lease and a contract and loans and investment and nowhere else to go and every now again a light at the end of the tunnel but that light keeps getting further and further away.
Our particular business actually depends on the office workers…. Who Boris and the office businesses themselves are keeping at home. We have no idea if our offices will ever be full again and if they are we have no idea when. £40k worth of tea & coffee sales for meetings alone in one office are now non existent thanks to zoom meetings, social distancing means that even offices that are open are down to 1/3 occupancy. We had public access to our building and cafe but now they want to keep the public out so we are completely reliant on the office workers that are at home…. It’s honestly heartbreaking.

@namechanger0989 that sounds incredibly tough. It's very complex because I think a lot of people want to continue with hybrid remote working but the impact on auxiliary business & services that support those workers are going to be impacted which will in turn impact the economy.

@ChunkySloth
I always tip normally a fiver but we went out for a meal on Saturday and the restaurant was really busy and the waitress was working really hard and wearing a face mask
I honestly don’t know how they do it
I tipped her a tenner as I can’t hate wearing a face in Asda for just five mins so no idea how they do it on long shifts in a hot restaurant

I'm a chef and thankfully didn't need to change jobs during lockdown as furlough and My husbands wage kept us going.

We've been trying to hire new chefs for the best part of a year (on and off) and Kitchen Assistants too. We've not been too badly hit for waiting staff as we have a lot of students who are back for the summer. And thankfully we haven't had too many isolation pings with the staff.

. very few EU staff taking on the temporary high season roles that they did in the past.
This must be having an effect. I've just got back from a holiday in a resort area of Italy. Lots of staff from EU countries (as always). No noticeable decline in standards - if anything I would say everything worked better than usual as there was booking at restaurants that normally don't take bookings. In contrast, my parents have just been on a not inexpensive break in Harrogate, were told on arrival that room cleaning had been suspended as they didn't have chambermaids and dinner was basic compared to what had been advertised.

@araiwa

they can't find new staff for love nor money,

Offer £20 an hour and they'd fix their staffing problems instantly. Instead they offer minimum wage and awful conditions and don't understand why they can't find staff

Exactly what I said whilst on holiday. There was a pub with a lovely beer garden in a popular seaside location turning people away because they didn't have the staff. They'd soon recoup the wages with 50+ people drinking in the garden.

Pound isn't exactly what it used to be as well... Prople won't jump through hoops for that noe really. Especially since from what I've seen on community chats, it's not even clear to everyone what the hoops are.

Exactly what I said whilst on holiday. There was a pub with a lovely beer garden in a popular seaside location turning people away because they didn't have the staff. They'd soon recoup the wages with 50+ people drinking in the garden.

They really wouldn't "soon recoup" 20 quid an hour wage unless they would up the prices consideably...

Exactly what I said whilst on holiday. There was a pub with a lovely beer garden in a popular seaside location turning people away because they didn't have the staff. They'd soon recoup the wages with 50+ people drinking in the garden.

If you want to pay front of house staff £20 an hour, you'd need to pay qualified chefs and management even more - and you'd need to cover all the other costs on top.

Fifty people drinking maybe two pints of beer in the garden wouldn't come close to covering it - you'd need to increase costs considerably.

We own a restaurant - have had to stick to limited capacity and close 2 days a week so not to exhaust our staff.

@araiwa

they can't find new staff for love nor money,

Offer £20 an hour and they'd fix their staffing problems instantly. Instead they offer minimum wage and awful conditions and don't understand why they can't find staff

£20 an hour!? You have no idea.

Margins are tiny in the restaurant industry (unless you're one of the biggies) as the overheads are crippling and people have a meltdown if and when you increase prices, at £20 we would literally be paying to stay open.

And please don't tar us all with the same brush, there are some shitty employers out there - but there are plenty of decent ones who actually care about their employees - and, from a selfish perspective, they are valuable to us ... our restaurant is only as good as the people who work there!

I will never forget the prople who wrnt ballistic when we upped prices like 20p iirc to keep staff on living wage and keep up with rising prices, yars ago😂
I WaNt EvErYoNe To Be PaId £15 aN HoUR durrdurr
As long as it doesn't mean I have to pay more...

uktrippin

Bythemillpond a non driver got a job as a driver? confused

She had applied for a shelf stacking type roll.

She had to explain she didn’t have a licence and the guy told her they were short of delivery people.

@namechanger0989

I read something the other day that said “the whole world is short staffed… be kind to those who showed up”. We own a hospitality business and at the moment we are surviving on government help (Which is now finished). We are stuck in catch 22 because we can’t afford the extra staff and the better menus unless we have the customers and we don’t have the customers without the better menus and more staff. We need to invest in our business to make more from it but we can’t afford to because we have no idea yet when this is going to end. We are running so close to the line that it’s not even worth us being open but we are also stuck in it because we have a lease and a contract and loans and investment and nowhere else to go and every now again a light at the end of the tunnel but that light keeps getting further and further away. Our particular business actually depends on the office workers…. Who Boris and the office businesses themselves are keeping at home. We have no idea if our offices will ever be full again and if they are we have no idea when. £40k worth of tea & coffee sales for meetings alone in one office are now non existent thanks to zoom meetings, social distancing means that even offices that are open are down to 1/3 occupancy. We had public access to our building and cafe but now they want to keep the public out so we are completely reliant on the office workers that are at home…. It’s honestly heartbreaking.

Where I am, a coffee shop started marketing their own blend roast or beans or something, I dont know anything about coffee, during lockdown. They've now got them in the local shops and a delivering nationwide. They are doing very very well, that could be something to try maybe.

It is not just the hospitality industry.
Retail is the same. The wages are crap, abuse if there queues at the tills which there always is as not enough staff as
1 stores are struggling so the first thing to cut is the wages bill
2 what staff we have going off with COVID, having to isolate as a household member has COVID or they have been pinged.

1. Plus it is summer so staff want their own holidays and have children home from school

Now we add into the mix lack of lorry drivers so short deliveries and some how it is the staffs fault that they can’t buy their favourite toothpaste and they can’t possibly cope with having to buy one of the other 20 ones we do have in stock.

I only left the hospo industry about 3 years ago and I am so thankful I did.
I was a manager and on £25k which approximately was £9 something an hour before tax (standard week was 50 hours).
So if FOH staff are getting £20 an hour, surely my wage and the wages of all other managers would need to increase to around £60k. I mean, I'd definitely go back for that sort of wage, but that's more than the GM used to get (£40k) so he's be on £100+k and suddenly the business has gone bust.

Also, a restaurant/bar/hotel etc already often are understaffed.
Your salaried managers would be covering all the extra hours as we never got paid overtime and the majority of staff didnt get proper breaks or time off between shifts. Yes it's illegal but that's how the industry runs. I had to strip my staffing back to the absolute bones most of the time so even if I had 1 person isolating it would push us too far, which in turns pushes the good staff to think "fuck this" and leave.

A lot of people travel for summer jobs from abroad so that’s why a lot of positions aren’t filled . Some don’t want to return to hospitality after so long too or that were worried they may not have a job and moved onto something else . You can’t close business down for such a long time for it not to impact .

Biancadelrioisback

Dd manages events but more on a choose what, where and which days you do.
I don’t think she would turn up for £9 per hour. The lowest she works for is £15 per hour and can get £23 (and her own parking space) at one venue.
But she is self employed so doesn’t have things like holiday or sick pay etc.
Returning to one large event that she had worked before, they were scrabbling for staff as 15 people had been pinged and were isolating