In the past, if you walked into a fast food restaurant you would probably be welcomed by young teenagers who pick up shifts working as waiters or waitresses. They would need the money to cover for their college tuition or simply buy things. But it looks like nowadays things are quite different and restaurants prefer to hire seniors over those from the young generation.
If you don’t believe us, next time you enter a big fast food company restaurant, or the local pub, just take a closer look at the employees and you’ll see for yourself that the number of senior workers is bigger than that of teenagers.
If you wonder why it is like that, and how come things changed so drastically, the answer is more than obvious. Restaurant owners believe that older people are more polite and better at approaching the customers, compared to the youngsters who spend most of the time on the internet with the mobile phones in their hands.
You may also notice how the ads of vacancies relating to a career at the food service industry welcomes seniors to apply for the positions opened. The restaurant owners even try to recruit employees by targeting them in ads where they will stumble upon them, such as churches and senior centers.
Not only their approach to customers is better, but according to the owners, seniors are more likely to show up for work on time.
Many of these workers are retired and need some extra money, or they are simply bored and like being active and around people.
Take Stevenson Williams for example. He is a 63-year-old retired construction worker who started working in the food service industry. He says, “It’s fun for a while, not getting up, not having to punch a clock, not having to get out of bed and grind every day, but after working all your life, sitting around got old. There’s only so many trips to Walmart you can take.”
Having never worked at a restaurant before, Williams got a dishwashing job at Church’s Chicken four years ago. Now, he manages 13 employees and works up to 70 hours a week. “I just enjoy Church’s Chicken. I enjoy the atmosphere, I enjoy the people.”
He also helps younger people learn how to be more efficient and how to better communicate with the customers. He says, “A lot of times with the younger kids now, they can be very disrespectful, so you have to coach them and tell them this is your job, this is not the street.”
Williams started working as a waiter but was promoted to a manager, which isn’t something many of the senior employees want. Most of them are satisfied with their low positions and are not interested in being promoted, which is another plus for the employers.
It is estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that the number of working Americans aged 65-74 will increase by 4.5% between 2014 and 2024 while they expect the number of working Americans aged 16-24 to decrease by 1.5%.
Please share your thoughts on this subject in the comments bellow. Do you believe older people are better workers?