This past few days there have been several stories on the Greek media about a problem that many hotels have around the country. As we see the country slowly beginning to open up for the summer season, it seems that the belief is that some tens of thousands more employees are needed to staff the hotels that have contracts with foreign tour operators. This year the problem seems to be worse than normal. Hotels are reported not be to opening as early as they’d have liked, because they simply don’t have the manpower to operate.

The staffing problem has increased year on year for several years now, ever since the pandemic, when many who would always apply in the past for work in tourism (especially hospitality) found other ways to earn their crust and never came back. Five years ago there were reportedly around 30,000 unfilled vacancies, resulting in job ‘rationalization,’ which amounted to what the industry called ‘unifying positions.’ That simply amounted to those who were still working as waiters, room maids, bar people, clerical staff etc working even more hours than they had been already. This year the estimate is around 80,000.

It’s always been a conundrum really, because people in colder countries who want to enjoy their two weeks in the sun (I own up, that was me for many years too) don’t want to pay a penny more than they have to for their package, whereas in countries like Greece this has meant that the hotel staff were much put-upon, working ridiculous hours for very low wages. Not much has changed, sadly. If hotel and bar staff here in Greece were to be paid what they’re worth, and also given conditions that enabled them to have an hour or two off each week, this would put the prices charged by tour operators, and indeed in the cafés and bars, up to such an extent that people would be earnestly looking elsewhere to book their package. Net result? Even more misery for the workers, who would go from living like slaves (which sadly most of them do for six months every year) to having no work at all.

I don’t pretend to have any solutions. I only wish I had. All I will say is this: if you’re coming to Greece from another country this summer, do please spare a thought for those who work to make your stay an enjoyable one, and maybe look for ways to show your appreciation for these poor, hardworking people who can barely take the time for a shower, and for whom a leisurely swim is merely a dream, until the last tourist plane has left in November. How often Yvonne and I talk to those whom we know well on our favourite beach during the course of the season, and they almost all say that the idea of taking a swim in that beautiful water that’s usually only metres from where they’re working is simply a dream. 

Do please come anyway, because irrespective of how poorly paid the workers are, and how many hours each week they must toil, without you they’d be worse off still.

Snaps then…

The photo at the top of this post is from May 2019, taken at Kampos Beach, Patmos.

Above: Taken during a walk near the village on Monday April 28th (yesterday, in fact), and it’s an orchid, of course. Most of them have gone over by now, but this one was still looking good. I tried a plant ID app and it came up with quite a few suggestions, and I settled on ‘Fragrant Orchid,’ but maybe you can enlighten me if this is incorrect.

I haven’t taken many photos this past couple of weeks, so here are some from the archive…

Above: All (bar one!) taken whilst we were living on Rhodes, some years ago. Come September we’ll have been living on Crete for six years. Blimey, how time flies. August marks the twentieth anniversary of our move from the UK to Greece. The group shot above is of a bunch of friends of many years from South Wales, UK, together with a couple of their kids who’d grown up in the interim since the last time we’d been together. The place is the summit of the highest mountain on Rhodes, Mount Attaviros. The first and last shots are at St. Paul’s Bay and the second one is at Bali, here on Crete, October 2020. Oh, and here’s one more I especially like, taken at the wonderful Hiona Taverna, not far from Palekastro, east of Sitia…

You might just recognise the above photo since I used it on the front cover of my memoir book ‘A Slightly Larger Motley Collection of Greek Oddities.’

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