One of the unfortunate aspects of a late start to the season is that staff members have been looking forward to starting on a certain date and they bank on that.
It’s not the 12-month, salaried people. It’s the support staff – the bag drop, the dishwasher, the line cook or assistant manager. They’re banking on getting back to work on March 15 or April 1 and then, there’s delay, delay, delay and for somebody who is working seasonally, that’s a lot of money out of their coffers.
We need to be cognizant that we hired people in January-February based on when the normal opening is, but we’ve been in such bad weather this year that we’re just counting on full-time staff in the early going if we are open.
Staff morale is a huge thing at any operation and I think all good operators understand that and we can try to make up the lost time in different ways.
When the season gets rolling, if you can give them some extra hours here and there, it helps matters or you can hold staff awards or a staff bonding party, just try to do what you can in an unfortunate situation that can’t be helped.
Most of them have worked for you before and most understand it’s Mother Nature, not you or your operation, that caused this, but it does affect their income for the rest of the year.
