At table with Portugal – Collaborator is admitted (a)
It is heard that it is difficult to hire staff. In restaurants, cafes and patisseries, you can see advertisements that show just that. The problem always hits the same point. Wearing professions at all levels. Many hours of standing, whether in the kitchen or in the living room, involving a lot of physical effort. Dealing with an increasingly demanding and less educated public, still asserting the idea that the customer is always right. Salaries do not always match the effort that is made.
Then the world changed. The pandemic forced us to stop and let us know what, in many cases, we are to lose. Many were the ones who wanted to change their pace and define a life in which family and relaxation have space. In some cases, not even the love of the profession was necessary to ward off the desire to achieve quality of life.
If this is a problem that lives in several countries in Europe, it is a pity that the pandemic was not used to reflect on the problems affecting this sector. In Portugal, it would have been very good if this area of work and management, which mobilizes so many direct and indirect jobs, had been organized on a common platform in which greater attention was demanded to the problems that affect it.
We can start by talking about the multiplicity of taxes that are imposed on everyone who has a business. Good salaries cannot be paid when companies are suggested to the bone in official and unofficial contributions, as it is important not to forget the number of certifications that certifications what is already certified and whose provision of services has to be paid. But yes, you cannot pay fair wages when companies are squeezed until they have nothing left to give. For a sector that employs so much, the pity is that there are no proposals for alternatives to the obligations to which they are related.
Then the terrible habit we have of undervaluing what we eat. We measure the price of a meal or a simple product as if it were made of plastic and machined. Ridiculous price of some meals and products. How to get a budget for fair payment of salaries when the money that goes into the box is always thought of as a low value? Farmers sell at low prices, small restaurants have their meals almost on sale, patisseries forget the value of artisanal sweets. The devaluation of what we eat for acceptance of what we wear, wear, wear, makes professions as important as cooks, pastry chefs, restaurant employees, poorly paid.
I ask, until when? Yes, because it is necessary to understand that a new generation of hospitality professionals is being announced that is elucidated, enlightened, ambitious and very creative. They want to have their profession, but also enjoy their family. They want to work hard, but without falling into an unbearable amount of hours. They want to “serve” others, but feel the respect of those who give their best when everyone else is resting.
I hope they know how to build bridges that past generations didn’t know how to build. I hope they have a say in the associations that represent them and that show their weight in the economy and how fair change is. I hope that whoever governs us wakes up to the importance of hotels and restaurants. The lack of good representation, at this moment, is really the great Achilles’ heel. You have to go around and shake the structures.