Help wanted: Here’s why Gig Harbor restaurant staff are looking so frazzled

The signs are all over Gig Harbor, plastered to drive-up windows, taped to doors — even on the toll booths at the Narrows Bridge.

“We’re hiring.”

Only a little more than a month since the long COVID-19 pandemic shutdown ended, employers are facing a new challenge — there aren’t enough returning workers to go around.

“It’s an everyday struggle,” says restaurateur Sergio Andrade. “We post ‘Help Wanted’ on social media; we just don’t get any responses.”

Andrade and his wife, Patricia, own Puerto Vallarta in Gig Harbor and the Blue Agave Mexican Grill in Port Orchard.

Puerto Vallarta, like many other local businesses, has been short of staff since the state reopened, Andrade said.

Both he and his wife have been helping out in the kitchen and the bar, Andrade said, but it’s hard to manage a restaurant and be a cook, bartender or server at the same time. Although they have about 30 employees, they could use 10 to 15 more, he said.

The restaurant’s food and beverage suppliers are having the same problem, he said.

“We’re all struggling,” Andrade said. “They’re not able to bring delivery to us because they don’t have drivers. They don’t have pickers at their warehouse.”

Andrade said it has even been difficult to get beer. Try telling a customer you don’t have his favorite beer, he says.

“That’s honestly no fault of ours, it’s just ... the distribution issues everybody’s having right now,” Andrade said.

Anthony Anton, president and CEO of Washington Hospitality Association, told KIRO Radio in early June that the state is “leaving one crisis and now having another.” The hospitality industry is short about 90,000 workers, he said.

The number of employees in the transportation and warehouse sector dropped by 3 percent between January 2020 and May 2021, according to the Washington Hospitality Association. In mid-July, one major food supplier had to discontinue delivery service to about 500 restaurants in southwest Washington.

Gig Harbor is no exception, said Warren Zimmerman, president and CEO of the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce. Restaurants and retail stores are suffering most, as well as healthcare institutions — some of the area’s major employers.

“Everyone seems to be having an extremely difficult time attracting qualified people for positions,” Zimmerman said.

As of Aug. 12, the job site Glassdoor has over 1,000 job openings listed for Gig Harbor specifically.

There are several reasons why people may not be returning to the job market, Zimmerman said. Some may be unable to afford childcare, he said. Some may also be concerned about getting exposed to COVID-19.

Restaurant workers themselves have complained about low pay and harsh working conditions. Two weeks ago, workers at a Burger King franchise on the Key Peninsula walked off the job for a day.

Landscapers, too

Shannon Grina, a landscape designer in Gig Harbor, said the landscaping industry is impacted by the staffing shortage as well. She keeps running into landscape maintenance companies that do not have enough workers or are booked out for about a year, she said.

“Lots of companies don’t even return phone inquiries because they just can’t handle what’s going on,” said Grina, owner of Grina Landscape Design, LLC.

Now is a good time for new workers to get into the landscaping industry, she said, because there is “a huge demand for it.”

“The whole COVID thing is throwing us up for a loop,” Grina said.

Some Gig Harbor businesses had to reduce their hours, Zimmerman said. Some restaurants, like Anthony’s, had to stop serving lunch hours due to a lack of staff. Others, like the popular Tides Tavern, are closing one day a week.

“Once people started coming back into the restaurants and the retail stores, they suddenly had a need for more people to provide services, and that’s where the real glitch started,” Zimmerman said.

Cutting back hours

Anthony’s in Gig Harbor is only open five days a week, compared to some of its other locations that are open seven days a week, said Lane Hoss, vice president of operations for Anthony’s Restaurants.

”We have not been able to kind of open 100 percent because we don’t have the team members to work,” Hoss said.

Anthony’s needs to hire six more servers before it can be open seven days a week, Hoss said. The restaurant has been trying to attract potential employees through social media.

Andrade said he and his wife have had to close their restaurants an hour earlier and limit their daily specials. If they do specials or promotional dishes and drinks, they would not have enough staff to cook or serve them.

“I don’t know any restaurant owner that isn’t doing exactly what we’re doing,” Andrade said.

Staffing shortages are just something business owners will eventually get through, he said.

“There’s no smoking gun that will solve this,” Andrade said. “It’s gonna be just time.”

Angelica Relente is an intern reporter at The News Tribune

This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 5:30 AM.