They Put A Sign In their Shop Window And Immediately Had The Whole Town Against Them…

A popular Jacksonville pizza chain posted a sign in its window blaming government handouts for a staff shortage, and asked customers to be patient with slow service.

The sign, posted on Twitter, reads:

“Sadly, due to government handouts no one wants to work anymore. Therefore, we are short staffed. Please be patient with the staff that did choose to come to work today and remember to tip your server. They chose to show up to serve you.”

Social media users criticized the sign and quickly pointed out the various V Pizza restaurants also received more than $2 million in PPP loans from the federal government. The owner of V Pizza said it was able to re-hire workers that were laid off earlier in the pandemic after receiving the assistance.

The owner of the franchise, Paul Scott, who opened his first storefront in San Marco, said the message does not reflect his feelings about ongoing struggles to find workers as businesses begin re-opening.

He told our sister station News4Jax the sign was posted by the owner of a franchise location in Georgia. Scott said he asked the franchise to remove the sign after learning about it on social media.

“That sign and the wording with it, there’s so much wrong with it,” said Scott. “But, the one truth of the sign is everyone is having a hard time hiring because the reality is what we can pay our staff, you know, typically one of our staff members makes $14-$15 an hour, if a person is sitting home and they have children that they’ve got to put in daycare and they’re able to get almost as much money staying at home and keeping their kids versus daycare. Nobody blames a person for making a smart decision for their family.”

“Yes, we are understaffed, there is no doubt, but we’re not so severely understaffed. Our people, the workforce comes in with a great attitude every day. As an owner, we try to support them in every possible way that we can support them,” he continued.

Since the beginning of the year 2021, unemployed workers in the US have been able to claim $300 a week in benefits as part of a COVID-19 relief package. While some states have since cut this, California said it would continue to offer unemployment benefits through September 4.

Signs of this sort have become more common across the US. Business owners grappling with an ongoing labor shortage are starting to blame the worker “laziness,” or government handouts, for these employment gaps.

The labor shortage has reached a crisis point in the US. Job openings rose to a record high of 9.3 million in April, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey – and business owners are scrambling to fill the gaps.

Source: AWM