Restaurant S.O.S.

 

At Chez Carlino, Saturday is errand day. And this past Saturday was no different. From 10 am until 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I visited no less than five stores as well as my go-to car wash. Of course, true to form, it poured just hours later but my historically bad luck with weather and a fresh simonize is fodder for a future column.

To reward completion of my honey-do agenda I stopped at Burger King and ordered their newest signature item – the Impossible Whopper. And truth be told, for a plant-based item, it’s actually pretty good. But what caught my eye were the count-em’ three signs advertising for help. At $15 an hour and partial medical benefits, I thought it would be easy to entice high school students to don an apron and paper hat. By contrast, my first restaurant job paid $2.05 an hour with no benefits except a free meal.

The BK manager on duty bemoaned to me that he often must work the grill because he can’t hire enough people and put in overtime (unpaid) to complete his required daily paperwork. The truth is that COVID-19 has affected labor in a variety of sectors, but perhaps not one was hit harder than the restaurant industry.

A number of CPA firms who have a sizeable roster of clients in restaurants have revealed that many have not recovered from the pandemic. And when many have reopened, they cannot fill the required “pars” for employee headcounts. As a result, many firms lost thousands in annual billings.

According to Moody’s the number of current job openings in the foodservice sector across the country stands at a record 1.25 million. And that comes at a particularly bad time considering the country’s gradual emergence from COVID-19 and the subsequent reopening of many dining establishments.

The pandemic as changed perhaps permanently the traditional on-premises workflow of the office as employees have for the most, part functioned remotely.

But restaurant employees do not have that luxury. You cannot serve customers or prepare meals via Zoom or Microsoft Teams and many current and former foodservice employees might decide to leave the industry and explore other options.

True, you could always pay more, as evidenced by the local Burger King or at some McDonald’s units which are advertising sign on bonuses as high as $1,000. And some of the bigger restaurant companies are making quantum leaps with automation. But still, foodservice demands of its employees, long hours, holidays, and weekends.

You work when most others are not. I expect those signs signaling a need for help will be hanging for a while.