Neil:
… the fellow is who knows first hand how a booming economy and getting back to work and getting everything back on stream can play both ways. With that demand comes a demand for finding workers. And right now, Buddy Foy Jr. cannot. The Chateau Anna Maria, The Chateau on the Lake, this guy’s got all the bases covered. Buddy, you’re facing the same problem, right? Business is booming, no doubt, but finding workers to address that is a real problem, right?
Buddy Foy Jr.:
Neil, this is a real problem that’s faced from the supply chain all the way to the consumer at the retail level, at the restaurants, and on average, we’re having a turn away 30% of our business a week. On Mother’s Day, tomorrow, we’ve got demand for 600 reservations and we can only handle 300. And Mother’s Day, that’s a Black Friday compared to retail. It’s the biggest day in the restaurant industry.
Neil:
when you put out ads or take out notices and these jobs are available, what do you hear from people?
Buddy Foy Jr.:
It’s starting to pick up in Florida because in 21 days the waiver’s gone. So in the last four days, Neil, we’ve had an increase in applications more than we’ve had in the last four months. We got some light at the end of the tunnel down here and we’re waiting for that reinforcement of employees. The requirement to look for a job in order to collect unemployment as of the 21st of May is off the table. And finally it’s at play here for unemployment benefits. We have rockstar staff that we do have, but the reality is we can’t handle the demand. Who knew we would have as much demand coming out of a pandemic, but it’s here.
Neil:
We’re told that with the extra federal benefit that the comparable hourly rate for these workers who could be workers, but they’re staying at home, would be in excess of 20, $21 an hour. That’s tough to compete with.
Buddy Foy Jr.:
Yeah. It’s tough to compete with the federal government. We don’t have the wherewithal the federal government has as an industry combined. We couldn’t compete against the federal government, that’s our competitor to employ and attract people to come help us with our demand. The competitor is the federal government and that wasn’t anticipated.
Neil:
What other bene’s have you been trying to entice people with?
Buddy Foy Jr.:
Well, we’re given employees that bring in their friends to come work for us, we’re given every employee $250 that refer someone to come work for us. Those new employees can receive that. We’re putting together 401k and health benefits, which is all a very difficult thing to do when you have less than 100 employees, but we have no choice, we have to figure that out. And employees that come on board, the training is minuscule. We need them now and they’re getting A shifts, making anywhere from 300 of $500 a shift, out of the gates, day one.
Neil:
These unemployment benefits that were extended were done originally with the best of intentions, as you know, but if you had to go back and advise politicians who were voting for them on both sides of the ledger, I have a feeling you would be saying, put a much shorter time limit to it.
Buddy Foy Jr.:
Either that, or time it with the demand, have a formula. As demand and as the economy opens, then the enhancement of unemployment shrinks. It was necessary at a certain point, but right now the demand for the diners in the industry of the restaurant, they’re dying to go out and eat. People want to go out and they want to be amongst friends. They want to dine out, they’ve been really looking forward to it. It’s here, the restaurants, we need labor. And when you’re setting up programs, remember eventually we’re going to get back to normal. We’ve got to set up incentives to get back to work as much as helping people get through the bad times.
Neil:
All right, keep us posted. Buddy Foy Jr. The Chateau Anna Maria, The Chateau on the Lake. Very good food, well regarded on all these locations and he’s in that odd position of business booming, but he can’t take advantage of that business booming out of all times, Mother’s Day weekend.