This place, area, it's a staffing nightmare. Kitchen staff, they're all imported, places in BC, Saskatchewan, Alberta, as far away as Ontario. We've only a single "local" couple, they've lived here almost a year, that's about as "local" as it gets.
The population - apart from the very few that have jobs - get by - Medical EI, Workman's Comp, EI, Welfare, Disability, Welfare, Alimony, Grow Ops, WTF, it seems everyone here has a alternative or government income of some sort...everyone but me.
We hire a local girl, she has a job, she only wants part time. She's on the schedule - once a week - can't work long weekends (the busiest weekends) - over the period of a month she calls in sick for 3 out of 4 shifts, the fifth shift she just gives up, she quits...
It's ridiculous, this, everyone is underemployed, unemployed, not working, and I'm overemployed...
We get another waiter, he's nice, calls everybody "brother", older, a proper old-school hippy, but he doesn't want to work as well, this gig, it's a lot of running around, side duties, he's got another gig lined up, bus-driver, this is his big ambition, he's forever pleading to leave early, wants to get out of the side-work, get out of here, is exact in his minutes clocking in and out, you come to loathe him, he's the classic union-guy, who wants to be a bus-driver anyways?
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Every restaurant is hiring, the long weekend, busiest of the year, check the local paper, the restaurants up in Kaslo, all of a poor reputation, they're all hiring, can't get or keep staff, some (the Hotel) end up just offering partial service, limited or no menu....I'm getting calls from resume's I dropped off 6 months ago...
There are the people you spot on the street, weed tattoo on their forehead, and you think, "Goddamn", this is a lifetime commitment to unemployment, and you think again, we're paying for this, we pay his EI, Unemployment, Disability, just because he never wants to work again, and I'm thinking (yet again) that the system is completely fucked, that these people should be allowed to slip through the cracks, go hungry, starve to death, because, because, really, why?
Music Festivals, Crawford Bay, Shambhala, they're the death of a lot of restaurants, they hire staff on the commitment they're not going to go, then muddle through with the surviving staff the fact that they have clearly "gone", if you owned a restaurant here, - if - you'd be far better off closing the restaurant during music festivals - buying the staff tickets - then you wouldn't be firing them all after the event. It would be cheaper. Priorities here are different. It highlights my point - out here - it's impossible to get staff.