Credit crunch aftermath: longer queues

We're really lucky here at Hatch PR to still have jobs despite the recession. I feel grateful for that every single day. The credit crunch hasn't impacted me or my close colleagues in any extremely nasty ways unlike a lot of people who are really struggling right now. But now that things seem to have bottomed out (or, one can at least hope) I'm starting to notice the little annoying after effects that make day-to-day life run a lot less smoothly.

And that can be summed up in two words: longer queues.

As companies have dealt with the recession by cost-cutting, that sadly means cutting staff. In my opinion, a lot of enterprises have done the most vulgar thing imaginable and used the recession as an excuse to make lay-offs they didn't want to risk the negative PR for before. I hate that. But the bottom line is that not only are people losing their jobs but organisations aren't running very smoothly without adequate manpower.

I went to the Birmingham airport the other day, on a random Thursday morning (not a holiday weekend or anything) and the queues at every turn were absolutely massive. That's also true of New Street station, which we travelled through, too. We nearly missed our flight even though we got there with what should have been enough time. My local Cafe Nero had queues out the door yesterday at 10:30 am. We got sandwiches at Subway and there was one poor guy working along during the lunch rush and looking extremely stressed over the thought of another 6 inch cheese & veg.

In short, everything feels like it's bursting at the seams as organisations think they can get away with having just one sole employee behind the counter.

Note to airports, train stations and High Street shops: expecting one employee to be able to deal with trade during busy times is nothing short of stupid. You need to retain customers, not turn them away, at this most crucial of times.