“Does it seem like places just don’t don’t have enough people working there anymore?”
"Does it seem like places just don't don't have enough people working there anymore?"
byu/J0E_Blow inKitchenConfidential
by J0E_Blow
“Does it seem like places just don’t don’t have enough people working there anymore?”
"Does it seem like places just don't don't have enough people working there anymore?"
byu/J0E_Blow inKitchenConfidential
by J0E_Blow
29 Comments
I’d upvote for the Grateful Dead T-shirt alone, even if I didn’t agree with the sentiment.
But yeah, the owners of the means of production realized they can go mask off, and there’s not much that the population will do.
RACE TO THE BOTTOM (how low can it go??)
Doge believes that’s a good formula for all.
While I agree about corporations, maximizing profits at employee expense and customer level of service…
just want to point out that he said down payment, meaning acquiring debt…it’s a down payment on a predatory loan from a corporation…At least you own the coffee outright, when you walk out the store, unless bought with credit card…
I’ve noticed this about every single business I give my money to, actually.
It’s honestly disgusting. I’ve run kitchens that were part of larger operations that would put a million dollars a month to their bottom line but if my labor was 12% instead of 11.7% it would be a fucking pearl-clutching conference call. Yo guys we’re busy we’re making money, one of my line cooks has been here a year and I want to pay him more because he fucking rocks it every day and y’all are taking in cash.
This started in large part because of COVID. They realized they could get by with skeleton crews, and we never really got back to where we were previously.
They cheap.
Covid massively changed the restaurant industry and gave employers way more power over their employees. Then the media did their part with the “nobody wants yo work anymore” narrative. In canada we had so many businesses fudging hours using CERB and then saying CERB was just a handout to the workers.
A big factor in smaller towns is rent. Living in Vermont, places are constantly understaffed because young people can’t afford to live here anymore. Apartments are being bought up by rich people, or they are rented out to people who work from home. During COVID our governor offered an incentive for people who work from home to move up here, which I believe was about $10,000. Lots of people took advantage of it and moved up here, and they can afford the steep rent in the area… Neither of these groups are going to go work at the local coffee shop, unfortunately. It’s heartbreaking, what’s happening to our state, and our country
Envy this guy… like, he can spend enough to put down a payment for a dodge charger casually. Imagine being able to buy a coffee from a cafe every day.
Places with counter service agree with you.
But even more so than that. Most places have had online ordering since before Covid, so the corporate overlords say “people will mostly order this way, because it’s easiest” and then they don’t let us staff our restaurants. Then people like OP here recognize the same person taking their unnecessary in person order also has to make it, and they wonder why.
Ordering online before you go is better for you, and it’s better for everybody working at that establishment. Order before you go. If you walk in and there’s a line, pull out your phone and order that way. That would make the person behind the counter immensely grateful and free them up to go make your $10 coffee that you could’ve made at home for $1.
Way too fucking much soap Jesus Christ.
God I do not miss living in a place that didn’t have a dishwasher.
The problem I’ve encountered with keeping optimal staffing levels is retaining them during slowdowns. We always wound up with too many people who quit from not enough hours when we had a random slow month. Then we picked back up and survived despite nobody applying to fill the empty roles. Then the owner decides to not bother and suddenly the whole staff secretly hates them (if they didn’t already).
Yep. Ran a few operations. They also come up with this bs “Market Rate” pay. Meaning if you get a good employee that deserves to be paid more, you can’t. There is a reason most restaurants are going mobile front ends (McDonald’s) or ghost back houses (Subway, chipotle). My whole working life I have seen people get less while having to do more.
YUP and if you complain, they’ll just tell the one poor wretched soul working there to work harder or they’re fired.
there’s no fuckin way the unemployment rate is only like 4%. people are losing their jobs left and right, and people who got to stay just end up quitting because they can’t take the abuse anymore. my job is so understaffed now that we don’t really have the time to train people in new areas, so if a crucial team member gets the flu or something i guess we’ll just die lmao. it’s just absurd and ill never understand the logic.
I worked at Taco Bell in the 80s as my first job.
Lunch rush there were 2 people doing prep. One frying taco shells (me). Three people on the line. One expo, probably a shift manager. One person on drinks. Two on drive through and probably 2 or 3 registers open. GM in the office.
So, about 15.
Now there are 3 or 4.
Its like that everywhere but Chick-fil-A and Culver’s.
I think it’s a blend of a lot of different factors. As previously mentioned, COVID has encouraged owners to cut back on staffing because they know they can get away with it.
I also think there’s a labor shortage.
I know a lot of friends who personally got out of the restaurant/bar business as employees because COVID was a total fucking nightmare. You were forced to police a bunch of moronic fucks who wouldn’t wear a mask and threatened you with violence, you were forced to return to work in unsafe conditions because the owner secured a PPP loan and they HAD to bring you back in and pay you or else they would get in trouble, and if you were FOH, you were making significantly less than you were in 2019.
And this isn’t true everywhere, but in cities where cannabis was legalized, it has become nearly impossible to find good line cooks. The venn diagram of line cooks and cannabis enthusiasts is almost a perfect circle. Who wants to spend 8 or 9 hours in a hot, sweaty kitchen for $17 an hour and come home at 1am smelling like a deep fryer when you can go work in a nice, air-conditioned dispensary for $18 an hour plus you get free/cheap weed and also get out early enough to have a social life? Hell, even if the dispensary pays less (many do), it’s an easier job with better perks.
Yeah, I’m working a station by myself that should have three people on it. But “you’re a rockstar, you can handle it” or “I’ll be there when the rush comes in” *crickets* 🦗🪦
It sucks that Covid taught a lot of businesses how they can get away with bare bones staffing and then start finger pointing with bullshit like “nObOdY wAnTs tO wOrK aNyMorE?!?!?”
My favorite is when CEOs try to pull the “I work 60 hours a week, what’s your excuse!?!” while ignoring that they have a nanny raising their kids, groceries delivered, meals cooked by their chef, all of their cleaning, housework and landscaping done by the “help”, and someone managing everything else in their life that normal people do themselves.
The little gas station convenience store down the street only has one unfortunate lady working every day all by herself. Huge corporation 7/11 and they only have one poor exhausted person helping everyone for 8 hours on her feet.
They last maybe a month or two. Minimum wage too I bet.
Exactly this and exactly why my ass isnt sweating to make someone elses food for trash pay. They wonder why they have such a high burn rate. Employees are investments, use em or lose em sooner or later
This guy is an idiot.
don’t forget tips without actual service and you have to bus your own table.
Watching this without sound I read it in Charlie Day’s voice and it really feels like a Charlie rant
I had to back up the business owners at ALL. But it’s mainly the rent. We have been living under feudalism for some time now where the landed gentry are unstoppably powerful, and we spend our entire lives just making landowners richer. Even your fuckass boss who makes enough money personally to buy 2 luxury cars is a worm when compared to the guy he rents from.
I’ve worked in hospitality for almost 20 years as a chef, licensee, and restaurant manager. It’s a trade that is no longer valued. People open their “dream” coffee shop or restaurant, but don’t want to put in the hard work themselves and want to make their dream work off the back of their employees.
Chefs are terribly underpaid and over-worked in a tough environment day in and day out. No wonder no one can find them anymore. 🤷🏻♂️
The industry is full of people using it for quick money, but no one wants to invest in an industry that doesn’t give back..
It’s greed.
But also for smaller shops, it’s rent.
Landlords are charging extorniate rent, and will base rent off profits also and take a cut.