A few weeks ago the Mermaid Inn popped up on the TV as I was preparing dinner. As you know, if you’ve read any of my previous columns, hospitality is my thing, so I stopped to listen.
Martin Blincow was talking about the problems the industry is having recruiting staff. This is not a new problem; businesses have often struggled. Just think of the time you went to that restaurant and waited; there was no one at reception to greet you, or to take your order, get your drinks or bring your bill. The service was terrible and you didn’t go back. Or were they just short staffed; too few people trying to cope with too many customers, in a sector with notoriously tight margins.
Those now look like halcyon days. The shortage of hospitality workers is acute and is estimated to be around 170,000 by the ONS. In 2016 hospitality was the third largest industry in the UK.
Why should you read on, you’re not a waiter or a chef, how could it possibly affect you? Well, it does and particularly in a small town like Rye that thrives off tourism. So, let’s start at the beginning, what is the hospitality industry?
It’s an amazing field with a list of jobs that is almost endless. Broadly speaking it’s anyone and everyone who works in pubs, bars, cafes, coffee shops, tea rooms, chip shops, restaurants, comedy clubs, nightclubs, guesthouses, Airbnbs, holiday lets, hotels, caravan and camping sites, holiday villages, conference centres, wedding venues…you’re starting to get the picture and I haven’t even started naming all those businesses who are dependent on them. From the person who grows and delivers the produce, to the one that prints menus or the town map, arranges the flowers or takes the photos for your special event. Relate all of this to Rye and you can see how the collapse of this industry would absolutely affect you.
Many people’s first experience of work is in hospitality. How many of you had a Saturday job waitressing or worked in a pub as a student? So why did so many move out of the industry? Well, that’s easy: it’s not viewed as a career with prospects; it’s not a profession. Added to which the hours are onerous and the pay atrocious. In the words of our previous prime minister (for the avoidance of doubt, that’s Liz Truss at the time of writing): “Wrong, wrong, wrong.”
The starting salary for a police officer is £22k, a teacher is £26k, a waiter averages £26k, a nurse £27k, a firefighter £29k, a junior pastry chef £30k. Also overlooked is the fact that you don’t need to pay or incur debt to train, unlike nurses or teachers.
Moving to career advancement, or a job with prospects as they used to say. In how many other professions can you progress from being a waiter and end up as managing director of a five star hotel group? As an aside, which capital city has the most five star hotels in the world? If you’ve got the gist of this article by now, you’ll be shouting London, and you’ll be right.
Finally, the hours. In my day, yes you worked long hours and split shifts. Split shifts mean you come in to clean and set up for lunch, work the service, have a couple of hours off in the afternoon and then come back and start all over again for dinner. Those days thankfully are gone. Today, the working time directive says that you shouldn’t work over 48 hours per week. But obviously within that, the nature of the industry means early mornings and late nights are par for the course.
So here ends your introduction to hospitality and why it matters to this town and therefore to you. Next week, I’ll talk to you in greater depth about our local businesses. I’ll explain the causes that have created, in Martin Blincow’s words “a perfect storm for our industry”, who the heroes are and how we can change things as a community and a nation.
Remember when I said that this is an amazing and varied career choice? In the last four days I’ve been treated to the warmth and hospitality of the Rye Foodbank, a gala presentation dinner at Claridge’s, the soft opening of the Rye Waterworks Microbrewery and Wild Flame Pizza’s pop-up truck at Camber. Now you know why my favourite hashtag is #hospitalityrocks.
Image Credits: Natasha Robinson .