Foreign influence in Restaurants

guitarzero

Would it be easier to get a job in a restaurant if I were foreign? From my experience, the level of foreigners in the catering industry in pretty high, always has been. Dont get me wrong, plenty of Irish have positions in this environment.
But from just handing in my Cv's to having a coffee to talking with friends, the ratio of foreign to Irsh seems pretty drastic. This isnt a rant of "theyre takin' our jobs!", just an a loose observation - I didnt do a census on any of the restaurants.
Yes, there's the potential fact that Irish folks wouldnt take a restaurant job, for whatever reason, but to me it pretty stark at times.
The last 2 times I've been out last place I and worked - I wont mention the names of the bars or the cafe unless I'm permitted, the ratio was appauling.

-So I'm either a bigot
-Its a bizzare coincidence in observation
-Irish people are too snobby for certain jobs or
-Managers are more likely to higher foreigners

mikemac

2005, boom times indeed.

I was stuck for a full time job straight after college.
And got turned down by McDonalds :pac:
Manager wouldn't hire me, said they were fully staffed, fair enough

Eventually got a porter job in a Galway hotel with 3 Irish staff out of 17.
And American tour groups commented on this, wasn't the experience they were expecting.

And yet a lot on boards will say Irish people look down on these jobs and won't do them!

I understand a lot of managers want full time staff and not part time students. But even getting full time work was never that easy

but43r

Depends when you go to the restaurant. If it's evening time or weekend it is most likely you will meet foreign person serving you. If it's during the week between 9-17 it will probably be an Irish person. Noticed that in few places that I worked in - because I wasn't Irish I was expected to work weekend and nights. I know of few restaurants that don't pay minimum wage to their staff - foreign person will less likely be contacting SIPTU over it. If you look at the factories, it's the same story. Irish people are either supervisors or office workers hardly any Irish person doing manual work. Couldn't really blame them where most of the time they will be better off being on dole money wise than they would be when they are working for a minimum wage.

maneno

surely they need to work as well,what do people want,all foreigners to be jobless?

tina turner

from my experience non nationals are more likely to stay in the job, in hospitality business there always has been high turnover of the staff, i'd notice that the Irish person would more likely leave the job if they weren't happy at it.
Might be a reason?

Mr. Loverman

guitarzero wrote: »

-So I'm either a bigot
-Its a bizzare coincidence in observation
-Irish people are too snobby for certain jobs or
-Managers are more likely to higher foreigners

It's a combination of the above.

In general, Irish people don't want to work in restaurants, and in general foreign people are pretty good at helping their foreign friends get a job where they work. This makes sense. If you go into an Irish bar abroad you'll find the staff knew each other or are friends of friends, that sort of thing.

Don't blame the foreigners though, because that sort of thought is what leads people to bigotry.

Cork

How best would go about to find restaurant work?

Would walking in off the street backfire?

Rafa1977

Foreigners are better workers in general in my opinion. Rarely do they come in hungover, or call in sick or use some other pathetic excuse to get out of doing a hard days slog. In the celtic tiger era , jobs in catering weren't good enough for the Irish, only foreigners were prepared to do it.

tina turner

Rafa1977 wrote: »

Foreigners are better workers in general in my opinion. Rarely do they come in hungover, or call in sick or use some other pathetic excuse to get out of doing a hard days slog. In the celtic tiger era , jobs in catering weren't good enough for the Irish, only foreigners were prepared to do it.

Coming from their countries, having a job with a steady income is a true blessing, so mostly they're quite grateful for having one here...

Mrs OBumble

Rafa1977 wrote: »

Foreigners are better workers in general in my opinion.

IMHO this applies to migrant workers in general: they're living where they're living in order to earn, not to have a lifestyle, so they focus on earning.

Someone asked what's the best way to get a restaurant job: imho it's to have a friend who works there already and recommends you. So choose your friends wisely!

Chessala

I observed the same before in Germany before I moved to Ireland. In this case it was hospitality and cleaning jobs. Most Germans look down on these kind of jobs (though I was brought up being told all jobs are equally important)so you'll find them often staffed with foreigners that are happy to work.

Can't say a lot about working morals here...just know my own are to be punctual, at my best at work and not taking off days until unavoidable. I don't understand people that make excuses to stay home just because they had a glass too much. If you want to drink yourself senseless before work you have to live with the consequences and not take the easy way out.

mikemac

Rafa1977 wrote: »

Foreigners are better workers in general in my opinion.

They are slower to speak up when managment sticks them on mad split shifts or tells to work breakfast shift after finishing up extremely late.
Refuse and you won't be fired. No, your hours get slashed, you get told it's quiet but strangely a new hire gets hours

Minimum rest periods don't seem to exist in the hospitality trade and all sorts of messing goes on:(