Long Workdays And Extra Duties The Result Of Labour Shortage In Hotel Industry
HALIFAX – At the height of the pandemic, with no one allowed to travel, hotels were bleeding money. Now, in a twist of cruel irony, many Halifax hotels are forced to turn away customers (and money) this summer, due to lack of staff.
Huddle spoke to a Halifax-area hotel manager about the staff shortages he has faced over the summer. He asked us not to reveal his name, or where he works, worried that it would have a negative effect on potential customers and job applicants.
He told us his hotel, and many others in the city, are leaving rooms vacant because there’s not enough staff to clean and have them properly prepared for patrons.
“We are very heavily occupied on weekends,” said the general manager. “We suffer throughout the week to get to the weekend so we can have rooms ready.”
“(Turning away customers) is absolutely what a lot of hotels in this area is doing right now.”
The manager said his hotel needs around 65 employees to properly function during this tourism season. Right now, he has 35 – barely more than half that’s required.
This has forced the manager to work obscenely long hours to keep the hotel running. He has stopped counting how many hours per week he works. One day he worked 8 am to 10 pm. He also has been forced to do duties not normal for a general manager.
“I personally have cleaned rooms. I have cleaned up breakfast…I do whatever I have to do,” he said.
The issues surrounding staff shortages are varied and complex. But it, obviously, began in March of 2020, when the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic forced hotels everywhere to perform mass layoffs.
Many of those laid-off employees, even those who have worked at one hotel for more than 10 years, were scooped up by other sectors.
“I had to lay off day-one employees from my hotel, which is shocking if you think about it,” said the general manager.
“Immediately, I started losing housekeeping staff and cooking staff to hospitals and long-term care homes where, at the very least, they were stable… March of 2020 was one of the worst months I’ve ever worked in my career.”
The hotel industry is far from the only sector facing massive staff shortages. It is clear, for a variety of reasons, people who worked front-line jobs before the pandemic chose not to return.
Many have blamed CERB for providing unemployed people with $2,000 a month which, they argue, dissuaded people from returning to work.
Others say the pandemic was a reckoning for low-wage workers, and people now expect a more livable wage.
The general manager we spoke with said the job vacancies he’s advertising pay between $13.50-$16 per hour. He believes wages are just one factor in this complex problem. An even bigger problem, in his mind, is the lack of new immigrants – a labour pool that the hotel industry has heavily relied on.
“(Higher wages) is only part of the solution,” he said. “Part of the reason there is a shortage…is immigration. We haven’t had immigration in this country since March of 2020.”
The manager said he has added extra incentives for new employees, such as getting rid of probation periods. This allows all workers to immediately have access to benefits.
He has talked to other hotel managers who have done things like offer signing bonuses, extra money for people not calling in sick, and feeding staff at lunchtime.
“Everybody’s a little different; you read your staff and see what their needs are, and that’s what you offer,” he said.
The manager also hits back at the notion that the hotel industry is suffering because no one wants to work at such a job anymore. He also doesn’t believe there are a lot of people out there who would rather go on unemployment than work a full-time job with wages and benefits.
“Contrary to what a lot of people believe, a lot of people who have been working for that long, with one company, don’t want to go on unemployment. They would rather make a full wage and continue working where they were,” he said.
“My regular staff love their jobs and enjoy their jobs.”
