There is so much serious stuff on here that I thought I'd tell you a couple of amusing stories about how I beat staffing problems.
Many, many years ago (1984) I had a number of pub contracts for a large brewing chain (not the sort of contracts I would have now) and one in particular was hard to staff as it was in the City Centre.
One day I was discussing this with the pub manager (not a tennant) and he was telling me how badly he was paid as a manager by the brewery.
To cut a long story short, he used to get up in the morning and come downstairs to clean his pub FOR ME! At the end of the week I would produce an invoice and he would pay me out of the till. I would then count out his wages and pocket the remainder. I can't ever remember getting a complaint off that one!
On another occasion I was Site Manager at Devonport Naval Base in Plymouth with 150+ cleaners. Each morning the 'Barrack Master' at neighbouring HMS Drake used to phone me up and say "We've got 15 or so men on punishment duties. Can you use them?"
I'd have them washing walls, scrubbing stairs etc. The MOD was paying us to clean its Naval Base and I was using their labour to do all the periodical work!
