The labor shortage prompted office workers from a hotel and restaurant group to lend a hand to their colleagues in the field for the very busy Grand Prix weekend.

• Read also: A tsunami of tourists, but who will welcome them?

“We want to help them and show them that even if we have different positions and we are at head office, we support them and we are a team”, explains Stéphane Letellier, talent acquisition advisor at Gray Collection, which counts the Jacopo and the Auberge du Vieux-Port among its hotels and restaurants.

This initiative emerges from the employees of the group, and not from management. Given the influx of tourists expected for the Grand Prix weekend, sales and human resources employees wondered how to help their peers in the field.

Quickly, they decided that the best way to do so was to join them in the heat of the moment.

Dishwasher, waiter, hostess, help with housekeeping: office workers will come to occupy various positions according to their experience and desires.

Some, like Stéphane Letellier, former restaurant manager, already have experience that can be put to good use.

“I think the welcome from colleagues will be very good and it will allow us to work a little on team spirit, our culture,” he explains.

Others who have never worked in a kitchen or dining room will be trained to meet health and safety standards.

Positions to be filled

“We are going to take all the possible volunteers, we are aware that otherwise, we would not have these people [on the ground]”, launches Stéphane Letellier.

“The management of our establishments will assign us positions so that we can be useful for that weekend”, explains the director of human resources, Claudia Drozdoski.

So far, seven employees have responded. Between 70 and 100 positions are currently vacant at Gray Collection facilities.