Rob Leonard, long-time cook and host of Mom and Pop Eateries on RogersTV, posted the following on Facebook, and we shared it with our readers.

"We are now officially into the busiest time of year for restaurants particularly in the vacation areas.Many many reports of being understaffed forcing eateries to alter their hours or close completely.What happened? I'd like to hear from former hospitality workers as to why you left the industry. Are we headed for the permanent closure of dining rooms and drive thru, takeout and delivery as the only options?"

Jaret Koop gave the questions some thought and his response seemed to resonate with others experienced in the industry.

"I’ve been working in bars and restaurants for 30 years as a musician and for whatever it’s worth here are my two cents about this.

I would like to preface this with, not all restaurant owners or managers are like this but I have seen a lot of them over the years.

#1: The abuse
This is an industry that for some reason has never had to move with the times. The abuse that I have witnessed in this industry towards staff from management owners and patrons is intense, especially for young women, and for the first time in my adult life I am seeing it called out in a real way.

#2 The Pandemic
These jobs were unreliable during the pandemic, people had to move on and retrain, do other jobs that were more pandemic proof

#3 There are more jobs out there than people right now, because the great retirement is happening. The thing that I have listened to analysts, economists, politicians and others have been warning us about for 25 years is happening. The great retirement is here and there are simply not enough people for all the jobs and that gives workers options. They don’t have to take whatever they can get. They can make demands of businesses looking to hire them. They expect enticement packages to get them to come work for someone because for the first time in my life, the workers have a sliver of leverage.

#4  People took a very important lesson from the pandemic, and that is

Time is valuable
Maybe it’s better to work part time and not pay for daycare.
Maybe it’s better to work fewer hours for a little bit less money to have more time to spend on what they love to do."