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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, SEpTEmbER 23, 2021
Change: ‘Oh, wait, there are other options’
Continued from page A1
Lilly worked as a waitress at
several restaurants for over two
decades. She was working at Asto-
ria Coffeehouse and Bistro when
she was laid off in March 2020.
Shortly after she lost her job, her
daughter’s school closed to in-per-
son classes. A lack of child care
options meant Lilly spent the early
days of the pandemic as her daugh-
ter’s playmate, only adding to her
desire to make a career change.
“It was kind of like a sense of
feeling trapped because I was with
my daughter 24/7,” she said. “I
loved her, but at the same time, I
need space to do stuff I need to do.”
So Lilly finally took steps
toward pursuing her longtime goal
of becoming an electrician.
She enrolled in classes at Port-
land Community College and
worked part time at Columbia
Housewarmers when she was able
to find a babysitter.
Now over a year since her
career shift, she is still taking
classes remotely and hopes to land
an apprenticeship in the coming
months.
Reflecting back on her time as a
waitress, Lilly remains happy with
her decision to exit the field. “I was
actually elated because I wanted
out of the restaurant industry for a
really long time,” she said.
While a number of factors led
to burnout, she said the lack of
respect from customers played the
biggest role.
“It’s pretty draining because
people go in there and take out
all their problems on you,” she
said. “(When) people are hungry,
you are basically constantly being
abused and expected to smile and
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Ethan Myers/The Astorian
Josie Lilly chose to change careers during the coronavirus pandemic.
be nice to them.”
The added tensions during the
pandemic could be among the
driving forces behind the worker
shortage that has plagued so many
businesses.
“A lot of it lies with the way
they’re treated and the people who
are coming in,” Lilly said. “I know
they are trying to raise people’s
wages, and that definitely helps
because people are more willing
to take on those sorts of things if
they’re making a higher wage to
kind of mentally compensate them-
selves for the abuse.
“But I really think that stuff has
to happen to bring the anxiety lev-
els down, or anger levels down, to
make it better for people.”
Judging from her own experi-
ence, Lilly also thinks the lack of
affordable child care options is a
barrier.
As the labor shortage takes its
toll, she believes it’s going to take
a major effort to lure workers back.
“If employers treat their employ-
ees with better wages, health care,
making it more stable … and find-
ing a way to help them deal with
the abuse in some way, that would
definitely help,” she said.
While Lilly sees her exit from
the restaurant industry as inevi-
table, she is grateful she was able
to use the pandemic as a transition
period in her life.
“I probably would have
(changed careers), but it would
have probably taken me a lot lon-
ger,” she said. “You get stuck in the
loop of, ‘I just need to pay the bills.
I just need to keep going on the
same course until something (gets)
derailed.’
“You only have to be like, ‘Oh,
wait, there are other options.’”
Causeway: ‘It was the strangest sound ever’
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“The next step is A — we need
to figure out a plan to restore some
power back to the boat tenants
down there, and then B — work-
ing with Bergerson Construction to
get a plan together for getting that
debris out of the water,” said Isom,
who said the collapse occurred on
the northernmost portion of the
causeway.
Shelley von Colditz, who lives
along the riverfront near the East
Mooring Basin, said she heard a
loud noise and looked out toward
the causeway when it collapsed.
“It was the strangest sound ever,”
von Colditz said. “It sounded big. It
sounded very destructive. The only
thing that came to mind right away
was maybe a boat hit it. But it was
too loud for one of these boats.”
The state had urged the Port
to shut down the causeway after
inspectors found rotting timber pil-
ings and other problems.
A fence was installed at the base
of the causeway at 36th Street near
the Astoria Riverwalk to keep peo-
ple off the span. Locals and vis-
itors now gather along the river-
bank to watch sea lions. Fishermen
and other boat owners have had to
fashion workarounds to get to their
slips.
The East Mooring Basin was
originally built after World War II.
The causeway extends to a break-
water on the Columbia River con-
structed by the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. Both the Port and the
Jean Danforth
The collapse knocked out power.
city hope to improve the marina for
redevelopment.
The Port has struggled to keep
up with deferred maintenance and
other infrastructure challenges
along the waterfront. Some mate-
rials meant for fixing part of the
causeway were purchased in 2019,
but layoffs to the maintenance staff
during the coronavirus pandemic
stymied that process.
The Port is looking at a grant
proposal to the state for a por-
tion of the cost to rehabilitate the
causeway.
“We have been in the process
of trying to secure grant funding
in order to rehab the causeway and
just have not quite gotten there yet,
both from a financing standpoint as
well as a permitting standpoint,”
Isom said.
School staff: ‘The timeline was tight’
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of Seaside, said over 90% of their
staffs are vaccinated.
“The timeline was tight, but we
got on it pretty quick and gave our
staff numerous different options
for them,” Hoppes said. “I was, to
be honest, pleased to see the large
number of staff who got vaccinated
based on this requirement. We
weren’t sure how that was going to
go, but a large number got vacci-
nated based on this mandate.”
Superintendent Tom Rogoz-
inski, of the Warrenton-Hammond
School District, said about 87%
of his staff are vaccinated, but he
expects the number to reach 92%
by the deadline.
“As far as the challenges of
meeting that deadline, it was a tight
window to get a two-dose vaccine
… but at least in my experience,
it’s very manageable,” Rogozinski
said.
Superintendent Steve Phillips,
of Jewell, said he believes his staff
will reach the 90% mark by the
deadline.
Superintendent Bill Fritz, of
Knappa, said 92% of his staff are
vaccinated and he anticipates the
Shortage: ‘We got
aggressive with
compensation’
number reaching 95%.
Fritz said the school district will
lose a couple of staff members who
are choosing to step away due to
the mandate.
“We’re saddened by that. We
value all of our people, but we
also understand that people need
to make individual choices,” Fritz
said.
School districts are working
closely with the county’s Public
Health Department to track and
respond to virus cases.
“We work together to make sure
that there’s consistency between
the guidance and the school proto-
cols, and that we’ve covered all the
bases without overreacting,” said
Margo Lalich, the county’s interim
public health director. “We want to
maintain perspective. It’s been a lit-
tle bumpy — as we all expected —
coming back to a new school year
and yet we’re working through it.”
During the news conference,
Hoppes laid out the process of
how the Astoria School District
responds to virus cases.
“We have, as the other schools
do, a procedure and process we
put in place where … we identify
a case, we contact trace and then
based on that contact tracing, we
do specific phone calls or in-per-
son meetings with either parents
or staff members to let them know
of the positive case, or for peo-
ple who have come in close con-
tact with them that have to quaran-
tine,” Hoppes said. “Then the final
step is that we inform our parents
at the very end of the day of any
cases within our school system for
that day.”
While the county has experi-
enced the worst few months of
the pandemic, superintendents
described schools as safe for
students.
“Due to the safety protocols
that schools have currently and
have had for the last year, schools
are the safest place in the commu-
nity for children to be,” Fritz said.
“The likelihood of COVID spread
in schools is far lower than the like-
lihood of spread in our communi-
ties at large.”
The Oregon Health Authority
reported 14 new virus cases for the
county on Wednesday and 15 new
virus cases on Tuesday. Since the
pandemic began, the county had
recorded 2,146 virus cases and 26
deaths as of Wednesday.
show up. If someone did show
up, return my call for an inter-
view, that was rare. It was a
strange position to be in.”
The labor shortage has hit
some industries harder than
others as they ramped up all
at the same time after govern-
ment-mandated
restrictions
were eased. At restaurants, reser-
vations stacked up, causing long
lines at the door. At hotels, book-
ings soared from summer travel-
ers flush with cash from govern-
ment stimulus funds and pent-up
demand. And at medical clinics,
staffing issues thwarted outreach
and hospitals delayed elective
surgeries.
Switching jobs prevalent
recognizing that they need to
focus on their workers and forge
a culture of taking care of their
workers. The hospitality indus-
try is often an entry point into the
workforce, Brandt said, and 1 in
3 Americans had their first job in
a restaurant.
Each summer, Sunriver
Resort brings in student workers
from around the globe to fill out
its workforce needs, said Tom
O’Shea, the resort’s managing
director. This year was no differ-
ent, other than the fact that only
35 of the 100 who were sched-
uled to work arrived.
In addition, the resort held
several job fairs and boosted
housekeeping salaries to $25 an
hour. Still, the resort was 85%
staffed this summer.
“We got aggressive with
compensation,” O’Shea said.
“We got through the busy sum-
mer. We managed to pull it off
and find staff, but we did pay
significantly higher wages. We
all worked longer hours, but we
got through the summer.”
As the leisure and hospitality
industry heads into the slower
season, some hotels that barely
had enough staff to get them
through the summer are keep-
ing their workers on and finding
work to occupy their time before
the next busy period during the
Impatient customers
holidays.
At the Redmond Consumer
Statewide, the hardest-to-fill
jobs through the spring were Cellular call center, a daylong
housekeeping, sales clerks, per- job fair this month netted a
sonal care aides and cooks and handful of customer service rep-
restaurant workers, said Damon resentatives, said Tiffany Smith,
Runberg, a regional econo- the company’s call center man-
mist with the Oregon Employ- ager. The company was hop-
ment Department. During the ing to fill 300 positions during
second quarter, which is the the job fair. With call centers
most up-to-date data, 71% of in Phoenix, Portland and Red-
the nearly 98,000 job vacancies mond, Consumer Cellular holds
were deemed hard to fill, Run- job fairs every two weeks to fill
berg said.
out vacancies.
“We tracked restaurant work-
To lure in more applicants,
ers through the pandemic and the company is offering remote
found a higher than normal tran- and in-person work for part-
sition to different industries,” time and full-time positions.
Runberg said. “It was a dispro- New hires who stay at least 90
portionate share moving to retail, days can receive a $1,000 bonus,
professional services, warehous- Smith said.
ing and health care.
“We didn’t get the turnout we
“The pattern was they were expected, with what we’ve been
moving to industries that were experiencing for the past few
more stable and higher paying. months,” Smith said. “We’ve
The result is the lowest wage had a big downturn in the num-
ber of people applying.”
jobs have the highest demand.”
It’s a hard job these days to
To meet the labor demands,
employers have raised wages, be in front of customers. Busi-
offered bonuses and tried to be nesses say that customers are
flexible with hours. Brick-and- impatient with delays, lines and
mortar businesses that vie with service.
“We still see certain times
other businesses for workers are
finding themselves having to when callers are waiting lon-
compete with giants like Ama- ger than normal due to the sheer
zon that recently announced number of incoming calls,” said
that the starting wage was more Carla Stevens, Mosaic Medi-
cal’s director of
than $18 an
operations.
hour and could
‘THE
Mosaic
include up to
has about 70
$3,000 sign-on
pANdEmIC
vacant posi-
bonuses.
tions. For the
“During the
HAS SHOWN
first time, the
pandemic we
uS THAT
nonprofit com-
have, for the
offered
most part, been
WORKERS ARE pany
an employee
able to continue
retention
to offer our nor-
ImpORTANT
mal services
bonus program
TO THE
without having
and is offer-
ing bonuses
to turn anyone
buSINESS
to
employ-
away for care,”
ees who refer
said
Elaine
ANd THEy
applicants,
Knobbs-Sea-
HAVE TO
sholtz,
the
said
Jenni-
director of strat-
fer
Stewart,
bE pAId A
egy and devel-
Mosaic Med-
COmpETITIVE ical’s human
opment
at
Mosaic Medi-
resources
WAGE.’
cal. “Our staff-
director.
ing capacity,
Daniel Elder | The
“We also
plus pandemic
Campfire Hotel’s general
have a renewed
manager
restrictions,
focus on our
have impacted
employee
our ability to
retention strat-
send our teams out into the egies, including providing
community as often as we had increased opportunities for social
connection and team building to
anticipated.”
Businesses in the hospitality keep our connections and resil-
industry that kept in contact with iency strong during these stress-
their laid-off workers during the ful times,” Stewart said.
Finding the right employee
early days of the pandemic were
able to restore their workforce, at any price is a challenge. With
said Jason Brandt, the president central Oregon’s high hous-
and CEO of the Oregon Restau- ing prices, it’s difficult to find
rant and Lodging Association. In workers who can afford to live
a survey of its members in June, where they work, Elder, of the
the association said only 4% had Campfire Hotel, said. The goal
enough workers.
is not just to recruit but retain
“So 96% of the survey the workers who are passionate
respondents are dealing with a about their position, he said.
worker shortage,” Brandt said.
“We’ve looked at our hourly
“The folks who were able to wage and where we want to
hold on to their staff were the have it start,” Elder said. “To be
ones that kept the relationship competitive, we need to offer
alive during the volatility of the sustainable wages. Bonuses are
pandemic. Even if they had to great, but they’re not sustain-
furlough the workers, they kept able. We want people who have
in contact and had more success bought into the business.
“The pandemic has shown
to bring them back online.”
There’s a lot of hindsight in us that workers are important to
the industry right now, Brandt the business and they have to be
said. Hospitality businesses are paid a competitive wage.”