Imagine the gall it takes to deride people for wanting to make a decent living.
That’s what one business owner did recently with post to a Facebook group of restaurant owners.
You can see the post in the screenshot above, but this person is asking others if they are having trouble hiring staff right now. The restaurant owner then criticizes some job applicants as “pay chasers” for wanting to be paid more than minimum wage. They also have some critical comments about the job applicants not being flexible about the shifts they are willing to work.
It’s just so laughable.
First, there is mocking someone for wanting better pay in Metro Vancouver, one of the most expensive regions in North America. How dare they!
Then there’s being upset because a worker isn’t willing to get jerked around with shifts that are all over the place. Hospitality staff often cite that as a big reason why they are leaving the industry.
The overall tone is that workers are finally saying no when it comes to this pay and working conditions and this owner doesn’t like it. They’ve been able to let diners and drinkers supplement the wages since the beginning of time and they don’t like this uppity attitude.
"It's like they know we need help," the post says.
No wonder they can’t find staff.
A report released recently provides additional evidence of the situation, with more than 60 per cent of Canadian businesses saying that widespread “labour shortages” are limiting their growth.
The report, produced by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), combines the findings of two surveys — one that polled 1,251 Canadian entrepreneurs in May 2021 and a survey of 3,000 Canadian employees conducted in June 2021. Its findings suggest 49 per cent of business owners have had to delay or have been unable to deliver orders to clients due to a lack of labour.
It also says many small- and medium-sized business owners report job vacancies sitting empty for three or four months at a time, with 61 per cent saying they've had to increase their own hours or their employees' work hours as a result.
“It’s very serious, because it’s slowing down the growth of many businesses in Canada, and as a result is going to slow down the growth of the economy,” said Pierre Cléroux, BDC’s chief economist.
OK, that is obviously true, but should it really be called a “labour shortage” or should it be called a “surplus of crappy jobs that people don’t want”?
Right now we’re seeing a reckoning with many service industry jobs that are known for poor pay, long hours, unreliable shifts and, perhaps most importantly, terrible working conditions. Trying to blame the situation on government pandemic benefits it too simplistic. For many servers that I have spoken with, the pandemic was just the last straw that had them reassessing what they wanted to do with their lives.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
