(OBA®) – Orange Beach, AL – While his boat Bandito and crew were out chasing the big one in the Blue Marlin Championship of the Gulf Coast, Bobby Wade wasn't with 'em.   

He was slinging margaritas and beers at Cactus Cantina on Canal Road in Orange Beach. For 12 hours.

The principal owner and founder of all the Cactus Cantinas on the Alabama/Florida Gulf Coast he was dealing with the chronic worker shortage that's affecting the coast and virtually everywhere in the country.

He made nearly $700 in tips and can’t understand why he can’t find somebody ready to make that kind of money.

“I enjoy doing it but if I’m bartending, it means we are in dire need of people,” Wade said. “One employee right now can make or break a restaurant."

Further east on Canal Road at Oso Early, owner Tyler Kean, also the owner of Oso at Bear Point Harbor, was putting his cooking skills to work as the head chef several full days this summer and continues to do so when necessary.

“I’ve had to, there’s an empty hole in there,” Kean said. “I’m a cook by trade. It’s not a spot that you can just throw anybody in, it’s not like washing dishes. You’ve got to know what you’re doing and be able to have high output.”

The Flora-Bama was one of the first companies to offer hiring bonuses of $500, payable in $250 after a week and another $250 after being employed there for 60 days.

“We are dealing with the same shortages at the Flora-Bama that everyone is, especially due to the unemployment payments that have rewarded people to not work,” Flora-Bama majority owner John McInnis said. “We have always tried to provide the best working environment and benefits we could to our team. For that reason, I think that we are in a good place even with the challenges and have probably made less adjustments than most people had to make. We continue to make sure that we have competitive pay and benefits. It is definitely a challenging labor market and very competitive. The people that we do have are working incredibly hard to make sure that we succeed even in the difficult times.”

Both Wade and Kean say they are thankful for the hard workers that are willing to come to work and try to impress upon them the importance showing up.

“The biggest thing that I’ve been preaching lately for our staff is we staff the restaurant every day how it needs to be staffed and if one person calls out, it makes everybody else’s job harder,” Wade said. “It’s the most selfish thing you can do to call out of work for no reason because it affects all your co-workers. This job may not mean that much to you but for a lot of these people this is it. They’ve got to support their families, support their kids and put food on the table. When you call out it’s just not you that you are affecting it’s the whole restaurant. They’ve got to pick up your slack because the days of over staffing are gone. You can’t do it. We’re barely getting by, we’re on thin ice with our staff.”

Tacky Jacks CFO Ken Kichler said his restaurants are lucky to have a strong core of long-time employees but it’s still a struggle finding enough help.

“Our summer help we have at each of our restaurants is as good as I ever remember,” Kichler said. “That being said, our folks are tired. Folks love making overtime but at some point, they need more time off than they are getting.”

Finding workers has been a struggle in the resort area for years but the pandemic and ensuing unemployment incentives have made finding help even tougher.

“The labor shortage is not a new thing,” Kichler said. “It’s been an issue for more than five years, but this year it’s worse because the available work force is shrinking as job growth in the area continues to grow. In addition to these concerns, our business growth is at the highest rates ever, even exceeding the 2011 growth after the BP oil spill.”

Undertow owner Sanford McLain said the expanded unemployment may have been necessary and understandable when the pandemic halted businesses in Alabama but wonders if it is still necessary.

“It started with good intentions, the shutdown, people could no longer go to work and the government offered up that,” McLain said. “But we’ve got jobs everywhere now and can’t get them filled and it’s crazy. You’d think with the small businesses that were put out of business because of the shutdown all of their employees, where are all of them? We should actually have a larger workforce but it’s much smaller and now businesses that remained open and were able to get through are hurting now because they can’t get employees.”

Kichler said Baldwin County unemployment is among the lowest in the state with 55 of 67 counties having a higher rate than Baldwin. But those workers can’t move here for jobs because they can’t find affordable housing.

“There are a lot of people in need of work in Alabama,” Kichler said. “How can we create affordable housing and incent them to move to our area?” 

Other OBA Restaurants changing hours because of staff shortages include:

• Big Fish owned by Leck and Jana Lilayuva shut down lunch service early in the pandemic days and now opens at 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

• Sauced cut out its lunch service early in the pandemic and now opens daily at 4 p.m.

• Bon Temps PoBoys and Specialty Meats opened just during lunch service for a few weeks earlier this year but are back on regular hours.

• Oso Early was closing on Mondays and Tuesdays earlier this year but is now back to full hours.

• Tiki Bar at Safe Harbor Sportsman was closing Mondays and Tuesdays earlier this year but is back to full hours.

• Fisher’s Dockside at Orange Beach Marina and Playa at Sportsman Marina are closing one day a week and offering incentives and bonuses to current and new employees.

• Bubba's Seafood House now opens at 3 p.m. instead of 11 a.m.