Looking for employees: Austrian innkeeper is creative - "Please do not call us"

Created: 09/21/2022, 21:27

By: Yasina Hipp

Who will balance the tray in the future?

There is a lack of employees in the catering trade.

© picture alliance/dpa/Jonas Walzberg

An inn in Styria is urgently looking for reinforcements for his team and resorts to unconventional means.

He writes a job advertisement of a special kind.

Thal (Styria) - Working late into the night, serving guests at the weekend and always being friendly: this is what everyday life looks like for people working in gastronomy.

What sounds unimaginable for many is the dream job for others.

However, the latter are becoming fewer and fewer and at least since the Corona pandemic there has been a shortage of skilled workers in restaurants and hotels.

Skilled waiters, cooks or receptionists are desperately needed everywhere.

After a waiter asked Roman Pekarz about the possibility of working from home during an interview, the restaurant owner from Styria was satisfied.

He publishes a document on Facebook, which is a fire letter and job advertisement in one.

Austria: landlord is looking for employees, but be careful: irony!

Roman Pekarz runs the Kreuzwirt inn in Thal, Styria, Austria, a few kilometers outside of Graz.

There is room for about 130 guests in his inn with restaurant and outdoor terrace.

In order to be able to cook and serve them, he has been looking for reinforcements for his team since November 2021.

But: in vain.

"I have already paid 3,500 euros for advertisements this year and have never had so many unqualified applicants," reports Pekarz to the Austrian

.

So Pekarz tries something different: "You are looking for a job with a 4-day week, you would like to go home after exactly eight hours", this is how the ironic job advertisement that the host published on Facebook starts.

"Should you raise this requirement, please do not call us as it would take up too much of my time," it said.

An inn in Styria is looking for employees with this ironic advertisement.

© Roman Pekarz

Roman Pekarz wants to agitate and wake up with this advertisement, as he explains to our editorial team.

He knows from his own experience that work in gastronomy is not always properly rewarded.

Today, however, this is "no longer the case, since every restaurant has now recognized that the employees are the greatest asset," says Pekarz.

He calls for both a social and political rethink.

Austrian host wants to shake young people awake

The landlord couldn't do anything with terms like "work-life balance".

Rather, he would like gastronomy to be made more attractive as a profession for young people again.

For example, through ordinary pensions.

His guests and his staff responded positively to the published letter.

However, the vacancies in the kitchen and service have not yet been filled.