LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — Unemployed restaurant workers are finding new work in a very new field.
The owner of Manning General Contracting in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, said some of his employees came forward explaining they had friends who lost jobs at restaurants due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, Bryan Manning decided to bring a handful of them on to help handle increased demand he’s seeing. The business is getting up to 60 phone calls a day for questions about roofs, windows and other contracting needs.
“We don't have a [job] posting out there, but if there are good people looking for a good place to work, it's just about good people,” Manning explained.
Manning admitted he didn’t go into the pandemic expecting to hire but he has found himself in a position to do so.
Aside from roofers, he’s added four office-style employees in the last two months and had another interview Monday.
Now, his big challenge will be keeping the restaurant employees on staff when restaurants reopen. He foresees needing the new roofers long-term, not just during the pandemic.
"We take care of them, we make sure they have everything they need, we make sure they're getting paid well,” Manning said. “They're really fitting in well. Afterward, I don't want to lose them, I want to keep them."
The stay-at-home order in Jackson County, Missouri, allows construction services like roofing to continue as long as the work meets certain criteria, like the project has to be done immediately for sanitation reasons and is not just a cosmetic fix.