Summer Jobs

I've been hiring people for their summer jobs for the past 20 years. We have food shops at theme parks ... "Grab Shacks" would be the industry term, since we don't really have dining rooms. We don't sell typical grab shack fare, because we're in "Themed" theme parks ... Renaissance Festivals. So we're selling Bangers & Mash, or Scotch Eggs, or Fresh Fruit Tartlets, depending on the venue and the jurying process at that venue.

For a restauranteur, it can be a dream. All of the manic problem-solving and the 85 hour weeks are wedged into a section of the calendar year; so recovery time in the off-season is part of the deal. However, the hiring process can be intense. It's opening a restaurant and hiring 35 people twice a year, in two different markets. What works in one, may not work at all in another. (For example, Craigslist is considered a shopping site in Texas.)

So today I'm hoping to get some new hires from the NY festival's hiring day. Many of last years' employees have moved away for college, or their phone numbers have changed. It's not unusual for teenager's phone numbers to change, but apparently in this age of cell-phones, people are discontinuing their land lines in their homes. Parent's phone numbers had always been my fall-back connection, and some of my key people have been hard to find this summer.

I only need 8 weekends from someone ... you'd think it would be easy to get a commitment. It's not. In fact, this year I'm going to give a bonus of $1 per hour, at the end of the festival, to every employee that has been on time, every day they were scheduled to work. We'll see how it goes.