The Labor Shortage Reaches the Marist College Campus

Sodexo Worker. Source: Marist Eats

In August 2021 alone, 4.3 million people quit their jobs – down 242,000 from the previous month of July, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report.

This likely stems in large part from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including that people lack the motivation to come into work after being home for such a long time, in addition to changing responsibilities and work preferences or seeking other jobs that do not require as much actual labor.

The losses we all have experienced as a result of the pandemic have been insurmountable, and many have not felt these emotions in their whole lives. I know for me, this has been one of the most difficult times in my life. Each individual experienced unexpected changes and as a result, the motivation and passion levels of many people decreased significantly. Some students noticed this on the Marist campus.

“We are fortunate to have extraordinary people on our team who have navigated personal and professional challenges caused by the pandemic to still be here today,” Field Marketing Specialist Kate Cole at Sodexo said. “It’s important for us as Marist Dining leaders to understand that our employees come from all walks of life and each face different challenges at work and at home.” 

Currently, the number of job openings outweighs the number of unemployed workers throughout the world. This has caused an outflux of those who want to work, as many continue to receive unemployment assistance from the government that does not require them to come into work until the checks eventually expire.

On Sept. 5, 2021, New York State announced that several benefit programs will expire, but one of the most important programs will remain: Unemployment Insurance. This allows those who were previously employed to stay home and receive the benefits of going to work, just without working. 

The belief that work-life balance is attainable is almost impossible, as a worker clearly cannot be as motivated if they are facing an issue in their home life. Specifically, regarding COVID-19, this has caused conflicts in the workplace due to staff obligations resulting from family and friends being affected by this virus and should be taken seriously by all that are involved in this huge health crisis.

Recently, students have expressed backlash about how Marist has handled food services in wake of the effects of the labor shortage, as certain items were sometimes unavailable. But realistically, all of those critics have no idea what really went on behind the scenes at the school. This semester, there have been long lines at several of the food restaurants across campus, as well as orders being confused or stolen resulting from the lack of regulation in the food pick-up process.

I was a former critic of how the food service was being handled because I often found myself waiting a long time to get my food after I was notified that it was ready to be picked up, so I investigated why it had been such a huge issue in the academic year 2020-2021. But, what I learned changed my opinion.

Sodexo, the food and beverage supplier for Marist, has had an extremely difficult time keeping up with the rate at which students order their food during the day, possibly due to a lack of employees at the food areas. I spoke with Nadia Castell, the General Manager for Sodexo on the Marist campus to further understand what was going on behind the scenes at the Sodexo food locations, such as the Dining Hall, North End Dining, Donnelly Cafe, Steel Plant Garden Cafe and the new McCann Cafe. Castell said that to do this, they have been increasing student employment.

“With students back on campus, we’ve been actively employing our students,” both Castell and Cole said.  

Sodexo navigated their way around the issue of finding employees, and most often college students need money and are willing to work at lower wages. This was a great idea to improvise and deal with the pandemic situation, but it may have caused unforeseen issues.

The student workforce may find it difficult to stay on track or keep focus if they are working on a campus with their peers, and the amount of needed training may be increased if these students are only focused on a paycheck rather than learning the ins and outs of their job position. 

Cole wanted to improve the wait times and how efficiently students received their food while also keeping their employees engaged and satisfied. 

“Because we find a place in our workforce for almost anyone and everyone, it has helped us close gaps in open positions rather quickly,” Cole said.  

Many employees work at several food locations across campus, which shows how well Sodexo has done in response to the pandemic.

The whole world is still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the biggest being struggles in the labor sector, which students at Marist and people around the world have seen in the form of a labor shortage. 

Let us hope that these unemployment rates decrease while workers begin to come back to work, and let us use Sodexo as an example of a company that works hard to engage its employees while creating an environment that keeps employees coming in.