Help Wanted

Just about anywhere you go in Virginia Beach and beyond you will find signs plastered in businesses’ windows announcing that they are hiring. Some businesses are even offering large signing bonuses to entice workers. 

Due to COVID, some workers have chosen to quit their jobs for safety reasons or to take advantage of unemployment benefits. This has caused many work environments to become understaffed. Students who have continued to work throughout the pandemic have found themselves in understaffed work environments that can be tense and stressful.

“In an understaffed environment, I have way more responsibilities than I should have and it’s too much for one person to do and therefore it holds up the lines and makes what should be menial tasks very difficult,” said junior Liam Wolski who works at JcPenney.

The problem with understaffing is a perpetuating cycle.

“We hire new people and then they come into the environment, see it’s terrible and quit,” said junior Howl Bates, who works at Panera Bread.

Since these environments are so understaffed, managers are having to be pulled away from their responsibilities to help take care of customers and complete tasks such as clean up, stocking, grabbing orders, etc.

“Whenever I’m doing my job if I’m not present, like if I’m cleaning a table and someone comes in to be seated they [her managers] will seat them at a table and sometimes they help with cleaning tables when there’s a lot to be cleaned and they take phone calls and they do orders,” said freshman Natalie Lewis, who works at Twisted Crab.

One benefit of this work environment is that it offers a sense of security to current employees. They aren’t likely to be fired given that no one is lining up to replace them. The other benefit is more hours which means more money.

“I mean I get paid a lot more ‘cause I work a lot more, so the money I get is\ an advantage,” said Bates.

Unemployment benefits increased during the pandemic, which encouraged more people to stay home, but those extended benefits have now mostly ended. Restaurants and the hospitality industry have not yet seen a huge increase in people returning to work since the benefits ended last month.

“We are doing our best with the people we have,” said Bates.

Over the next few months we will see whether the removal of the extra unemployment benefits will encourage more people to go back to work.