Why are most hotel workers not Irish ?

@wmpdd3 you understand that you contradicting yourself thanking to the last senna's post and Johnny Foreigner's first one?

I know it is tradition etc in Latvia to pay/bribe someone for your job, but I have no experience of it happening in this country.

I have seen people refered for interviews and the person referring the interviewee, getting a present, if the interviewee is successful, that's about it.

I would say, its mostly Polish, Chech and Slovac I work with.

The reality is that they are probably hungrier than we are and willing to work harder than we are, emigrated many moons ago to work as a dishwasher in a restaurant in the U.S. because the locals were not willing to do that kind of work and there were vacancies, no job here, moved on to busing tables and made on average $600 a week after tax and that was a long time ago, (80's) happy days as far as I was concerned.

alex73 wrote: »

My wife is Polish. We had to move for work some years ago (my work) . My wife said she would also like to get a job. In one week she go a job in a hot. At the time the was 14 % unemployment in the town. (this was before eastern Europe joined EU in 2003).

Lets not kid ourselves that were many people who just could not be bothered to work even in the boom time. When things were good if you had no job its was easily to ride it out with Social Welfare.

In my own work place I sometimes get people sent by FAS for interviews, They come badly dressed, with bad CV, badly presented and with little interested or qualifications, when you need to make a choice of who to hire you have to give the job to the person who ticks all the boxes. Today things haved changed and there are a lot of Irish Unemployed who are very employable, But I find that those who been out of work for more than a year loose a lot of work related skills, also the longer you are out of work the worse it looks on CV.

Yes there are lots of Foreigners in hotels, but they took up Jobs that us Irish did not want 6/7 years ago.. are we supposed to kick them out now that 200,000 Irish people have lost their well paid jobs ? What about the 300,000 Irish who work in UK,USA,AUS/Canada? Do those countries look at us and say...Those Foreign Irish People taking our jobs?

Don’t believe you for the following reasons:

1. Poland had access from 2004 not 2003

2. If your wife got a job prior to 2004 then it must have been in the mid-nineties, Ireland has not experienced 14% unemployment since then. A quick look at the CSO website verifies this. Comparing the Irish economy to the mid-nineties is ridiculous as you are aware.

3. The people you describe attending for interviews are the ones from disadvantaged backgrounds with a host of social problems, a day’s work won’t do them any harm. But they won’t get it because low skilled Irish workers from these backgrounds are the ones who are being displaced, the CSO backs this up because from 2004 onwards unemployment has risen very year since the accession states were allowed access to Ireland labour market.

The same individuals are also the ones who cannot emigrate to AUS etc. because unlike Ireland AUS CAN, AND NZ only takes workers with the skills they need. They don’t run an immigration policy on a come one come all basis. So these guys are dammed if they dammed if they don’t.

4. Are you telling me if you lose your job tomorrow that in 12 months you will have lost your skillset, that’s is the most laughable thing I have read in months, complete crazy suggestion.

5. Where are you getting the statistic for the numbers of Irish abroad? Even if they are correct they equate to the number of accession countries national who immigrated to Ireland in under 18 months after May 2004 and that excludes other EU and non EU nationals. What is the population of AUS, CAN, NZ combined and compare that to under 4 million for Ireland.

Opening the labour market of a country with a population of 4 million, to a labour market of 70 million people and the effects it had on an already over heated property boom was the one of the craziest things an Irish government has done to its own people, second after the bank guarantee of course.

May as well add that I have plenty of perspective, I have emigrated twice due to having no work here so I know what it's like to arrive in a country not knowing anybody although I did speak the language.

I know what it is like to have no money and was prepared to work bloody hard to make some.

I'm Irish & proud to be so,

Having said that, now I'm lucky enough to get away for the odd weekend and couldn't give a monkey's whether the hotel receptionist / bar person / cleaning person etc is Irish or not, what is important though is that I'm greeted with a smile and made to feel like I am reasonably important seeing as though I am handing over my hard earned cash

We Irish have a lot to learn yet as regards customer service skills but you would be surprised how quickly you learn and use those skills when your dinner depends on it

There are some Irish working in hotels who are excellent, there are many who aren't, there are plenty of foreign nationals who are excellent and I have no doubt many who aren't, in my experience though, the foreign nationals I have come across seem more pleasant and eager to please (I know that sounds odd) but if I was a hotelier and was hiring staff I would hire those who seemed eager to please & pleasant with a good work ethic no matter what their nationality.

naughtysmurf wrote: »

May as well add that I have plenty of perspective, I have emigrated twice due to having no work here so I know what it's like to arrive in a country not knowing anybody although I did speak the language.

I know what it is like to have no money and was prepared to work bloody hard to make some.

I'm Irish & proud to be so,

Having said that, now I'm lucky enough to get away for the odd weekend and couldn't give a monkey's whether the hotel receptionist / bar person / cleaning person etc is Irish or not, what is important though is that I'm greeted with a smile and made to feel like I am reasonably important seeing as though I am handing over my hard earned cash

We Irish have a lot to learn yet as regards customer service skills but you would be surprised how quickly you learn and use those skills when your dinner depends on it

There are some Irish working in hotels who are excellent, there are many who aren't, there are plenty of foreign nationals who are excellent and I have no doubt many who aren't, in my experience though, the foreign nationals I have come across seem more pleasant and eager to please (I know that sounds odd) but if I was a hotelier and was hiring staff I would hire those who seemed eager to please & pleasant with a good work ethic no matter what their nationality.

Completely disagree with that statement given the cultural differences in some countries and Ireland. Also how does an employer know who a better employee is prior to them commencing work?

K-9 wrote: »

I think you'll find you're wrong on that one, it's why information is published on a an exchange basis, usually a town and areas basis. Subscribe to local local radio and you'll get the information.

Surprisingly Ireland's unemployment was high in the late 90's. Celtic Tiger my arse!

Ireland’s unemployment rate was approx. 5% in the late nineties regarded by economists as full employment.

The CSO publishes unemployment data at 11am on the first Friday of every month. The last one is here. Either way unless I see the figures or given a date that I can check 14% sounds at best an exaggeration.

http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/latestheadlinefigures/qnhs_q32011.pdf

Bishop Strong Suit wrote: »

That's your average hotel job. Hotel work in any country is ridiculously hard work, ridiculously long hours and ridiculously underpaid. I don't think anyone gets it until they work in one. You just don't have the 'rights' that people in other lines of work take for granted. You're on your feet constantly, with one lunch break you might not even get if it's busy. You're usually dying for the toilet because you can't just pop off for a wee if you're alone at reception. Need to drink water cos you're wearing a suit in 35 degree heat? Forget it. You can drink water on your lunch break. Made plans to see a gig/meet friends/go to a birthday party because you're meant to finish at 3? If the manager needs you in the evening, cancel the plans. Hotel work isn't a job, it's a lifestyle. You can forget maintaining friendships with anyone outside work because you're either working at night or going to bed early to get up at 5 for the early shift. You rarely get a Saturday or Sunday off and almost never get the entire weekend. I did it as a young, single person and it nearly killed me. I don't know how people with families do it.

Just to add a bit of prospective. There are plenty of negatives when it comes to working in hospitality, but there are a few positives too.

A descent hotel will ensure descent conditions for staff, not able to go to the toilet is ridiculous, Jesus did it not occur to you just leave the desk for 2 minutes? the world wont end.
Split shift are not productive and are a false economy. Emergencies can happen and the rota can change, but last minute changes are (within reason) at the discretion of staff.

Most people just wont be able to work in a hotel, if you have worked in an office or normal 9-5 job then changing to a physical demanding, erratic work shifts, unsocial hours job just wont be easy. I have seem many people start with the best of intentions and last a couple of hours. The negatives to hotel work wont change, the nature of the industry demand it.

Also just to stay on topic, next time you're speaking to a foreign member of staff in a hotel, pub or restaurant, ask them had they done this kind of work before in their homeland. You might be surprised to find most of them have and that's why hotels hire them, they have experience.

I think everybody should work for a while in a bar or hotel, just to realise one thing; maybe how **** it is, maybe how much they love it, but really just so they will appreciate every other job they get afterwards:D

SWL wrote: »

Ireland’s unemployment rate was approx. 5% in the late nineties regarded by economists as full employment.

The CSO publishes unemployment data at 11am on the first Friday of every month. The last one is here. Either way unless I see the figures or given a date that I can check 14% sounds at best an exaggeration.

http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/latestheadlinefigures/qnhs_q32011.pdf

It's rather odd I get reports by each town, but you are saying it isn't possible. Donegal gives unemployment figures based on Letterkenny, Ballybofey, Buncrana etc.

Going on what you said, this is impossible"!

Senna wrote: »

Parts of Donegal had 10% unemployment during the bubble, so higher in the 90's is very possible, out the west was (still is) an employment black spot.

Indeed. According to SWL we didn't have this community level information then.

SWL wrote:

How did he know that, unemployment is monitored on a county by county or a region basis, it is not measured on a community basis.

I find that amazing.

Senna, you familiar with how the unemployment figures are presented here? Maybe up here we are indeed different!

naughtysmurf wrote: »

May as well add that I have plenty of perspective, I have emigrated twice due to having no work here so I know what it's like to arrive in a country not knowing anybody although I did speak the language.

I know what it is like to have no money and was prepared to work bloody hard to make some.

I'm Irish & proud to be so,

Having said that, now I'm lucky enough to get away for the odd weekend and couldn't give a monkey's whether the hotel receptionist / bar person / cleaning person etc is Irish or not, what is important though is that I'm greeted with a smile and made to feel like I am reasonably important seeing as though I am handing over my hard earned cash

We Irish have a lot to learn yet as regards customer service skills but you would be surprised how quickly you learn and use those skills when your dinner depends on it

There are some Irish working in hotels who are excellent, there are many who aren't, there are plenty of foreign nationals who are excellent and I have no doubt many who aren't, in my experience though, the foreign nationals I have come across seem more pleasant and eager to please (I know that sounds odd) but if I was a hotelier and was hiring staff I would hire those who seemed eager to please & pleasant with a good work ethic no matter what their nationality.

All of us ?