places closed or things cancelled so often due to staff shortages

[nextwed14]

Last weekend we had a lunch booked for my aunties's 80th - at 10am the restaurant called to say that they had to cancel our booking as they were short staffed and unable to open - yesterday I took the kids to Asda to choose fresh pizzas for dinner to find the pizza station closed sue to staff shortages so thought would just get normal pizzas instead but there was not one pizza left in the whole store as lots of people had gone to buy the fresh pizzas which were not available so all the ready boxed pizzas were gone. Today took the kids swimming and thought would have a hot chocolate after only to find the cafe closed due to staff shortages. Everywhere you go these days or plan everything seems to be cancelled or changed due to no staff. This never happened 20/30 years ago and people would not stand for it if it did - it just seems to be part and parcel of life nowadays. Do more people take time off when they are ill nowadays? I would of thought as not all companies pay sick pay now people are more likely to work when they are ill as they don't get paid. Just so annoying when you plan to do things.

Because businesses run with the absolute least number of people they can as standard.

I think covid is going around and it's a nasty one this year. Virtually everyone I know has been or is ill with a nasty virus - probably COVID, I think it's too early for flu.

More like less people can afford to live on minimum wage so retail/hospitality struggle to hire reliable people who see this jobs as careers. Now these jobs are often seen as for students/between other jobs and the turnover is higher.

Also, restaurants and stores are running on the absolute minimum staff to keep overhead low. So whereas before 1 or 2 people off sick could be easily covered, now often the numbers are so low they're unable to cover the basics with people off sick.

So many organisations are trying to get by on minimum staff so it only needs one person on leave and and then someone phones in sick and they are buggered.
There is also a reluctance to have part time staff who can sometimes be called on to come in at short notice by mutual agreement.

What do mean people wouldn't stand for it? Short of customers rolling up their sleeves and starting to serve themselves, how do you think you can force a shop to find non-existent staff?

From what I've seen work ethics are not what they used to be and for the ones still living at home it's not such a big deal to call in "sick"
Plus the fact that many places used to be over staffed to give the best customer experience but nowadays they tend to run on minimum staff so places cannot open when just one calls in sick.

Business owners have less or stretched staff as wages have increased. Also people are increasingly looked down on and less content to commit long term to service jobs. And less staff from the EU.

The people running the Asda pizza counter are the same ones doing the hot food and often 20 other jobs too.

One person being sick means they can't open every counter

Places run on bare minimal staff a lot of the time. And with the horrible viruses going around at the moment, it also doesn't help. Plus people value the power of "No" now and won't come in last minute where they might once have

Most of these jobs today are sh*t. Nobody wants them. They weren't 25 years ago.

Combination of factors, minimal staffing, struggling to recruit and wafer thin margins

Do you live in an expensive area where it would be difficult for low paid staff to find housing?

A lot of service jobs were carried by young Europeans who went home after Brexit and were never replaced. It was masked by COVID but it’s painfully apparent now. The same thing is happening in hospitals.

I think these kinds of businesses have realised it costs them less to close for the odd day than to run with staff levels that allow for contingency.

Agree with all the previous- I work in a catering environment and in recent years the management have ran at such low staff levels that we are barely managing on ‘full’ staff. All it takes is one person to go off sick and the system collapses, then you have already overworked people being asked to do even more shifts to cover them! It’s a vicious circle…

Nowadays places have the minimum staff the need, and staff goodwill is lower.

Years ago if some one was ill they either had enough staff they could still open or a part-timer would often come in and cover on the promise of time in lieu. That doesn’t happen any more.

I’m a teacher and last Christmas the last few days of term we had 4 out of the 8 teaching staff off ill, one having been taken out of the classroom by a member of SLT who told her she was too ill to be at work. We run on the bare minimum of staff and so the last couple of days of term became everybody in the hall watch a number of films because we couldn’t safely supervise them in separate rooms.
I can well imagine why a business that isn’t legally obliged to be open might think fuck that we are shut in that situation.

Oh your poor Aunt! And with only a few hours notice...I hope she managed to sort something out to still enjoy her 80th.

"I think covid is going around and it's a nasty one this year."

Surely most people have been infected multiple times by now. Shouldn't it have mild effects by now....?

Not many people working in those jobs fulltime because they can't live off the money these days.

High overheads so can't afford to pay excess staff if it's a quiet day. Restaurants near me don't stay open long. They find it really hard to gauge how many staff are needed for a shift as they need to have the absolute minimum in case there aren't many people pre-booking and it's a quiet day for walk-ins. They have the opposite issue if they have a lot of unexpected walk-ins, there may not be enough staff and complaints about slow service etc are forthcoming.

It's sad, isn't it? While I'm typing this I'm reading about the decline of live music venues too. It's all the stuff which makes life fun that seems to be going. Restaurants, going to regular gigs. People hardly ever go to cinemas anymore because it's so expensive and they've got streaming at home. When I was a kid, I could go to the cinema on a Saturday afternoon for a few quid's pocket money. It wasn't the expensive trip that it is now, the queues used to be round the block.

Not in my experience. All my infections have been different.

Most people have had flu several times there can still be a particularly nasty one and that’s after 100s of years not less than 5.

Businesses have to run on the bare minimum of staff these days. So when there's holidays and sickness, there is no cover. Recruitment (certainly in retail) can also be very difficult. Lots of people are applying for roles but on the condition they get to pick and choose their shifts when it suits them and they expect to be paid £15 an hour (true story from the application of a 16 year old with no previous work experience!)

Round here it’s mostly thanks to Brexit so many shortage did staff add to that people whom left hospitality after covid it’s a shit. Then throw in the rising cost of wages and energy it’s often better just to close.

By work ethics not being what they used to be...

Do you mean people now respect themselves and their time and won't work when sick?

Brexit has caused a huge reduction in staff in the service industries.

• massive amount of people off long term sick
• impact of shite SEN provisions at school and rates of EBSA rising meaning that lots of mums are out of the workplace
• Brexit
• people preferring WFH jobs
• retail treating people awfully over COVID
• cost of living being higher
• people aren't looking after themselves so get sick more/ burnt out etc