PANAMA CITY BEACH — After enduring five years of seasonal layoffs from her Panama City Beach waitressing job, single mom Sheila Fuith decided she’d had enough.
“Every October it closed; every March it started back,” Fuith said of the Front Beach Road restaurant, one of many that shuts down during the slow tourist season. “It was hard. I didn’t want to be laid off. I’d work every day if I could.”
Fuith relied on unemployment checks through the winter months, and when the restaurant was open, she grew weary from the late-night shifts that kept her away from her 12-year-old daughter, Emily.
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“That’s a hard job ... working nights, and sometimes I didn’t get home until midnight or 1 a.m.,” Fuith said. “I had Emily; I knew what I had to do, but yet I was working until midnight every night. I made sure I was always there for her homework and stuff like that, but as she got older, it got harder, because she needed me more.”
The challenge is one many workers face in Panama City Beach’s seasonal economy.
According to data from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the hospitality industry lost about 4,000 workers between July and December of last year.
Yet the data also shows it is possible to work in hospitality year-round. Although the number of jobs shrank by about 25 percent between the seasons last year, the slowest of months still supported more than 10,000 jobs in the area.
With Emily depending on her, Fuith made the first move toward a lifestyle change after spotting a flyer advertising a free hospitality training course sponsored by Goodwill.
“I was at the unemployment office and I saw this flyer, and I thought, ‘Why not?’” she said. “I tucked it in my purse and I still have it to this day.”
Following the two-week training course, Fuith managed to secure a year-round job with By the Sea Resorts, with better pay and the benefits needed to support her daughter, who was born blind in one eye. In addition to providing skills needed to find steady employment, the course also affected her in ways she never expected.
Just weeks into her new job as a front desk clerk, Fuith was robbed at gunpoint, but she flashed back to a presentation made by the Panama City Beach Police Department during her training. Following the incident, officials said her response to the robbery was something out of a textbook, and the description she gave was enough to catch the gunman.
“I never realized just how much those guest speakers would affect my life,” said Fuith, who walked away shaken but unharmed. “Without that training, I might have handled that a lot differently.”
Becoming a ‘core employee’: Fuith is one of many success stories for Goodwill hospitality trainer Annette Jones, who used her 25 years of experience in the industry to develop the program in Bay County about two years ago.
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“I could just tell she had that special thing that is needed; the attitude about her was just right,” said Jones, who helped match Fuith with her current employer. “She’s now working in a reservations department, and since her first month there, has had the highest sales each month and has even set a new record for the company.”
Jones’ message to Fuith was the same to all of her students as they transition into the hospitality industry: Make yourself valuable to your employer.
“One of the things I challenge them on is to become what I call one of the ‘core employees,’ the people that the employers don’t want to live without,” Jones said. “At the end of season, not every place on the Beach shuts down. They keep the people that they don’t want to live without.”
So far, Jones said a majority of her students have managed to keep working through the slow season.
“They may have their hours cut, maybe drastically, but (employers) keep them working.” she said. “They don’t want their competition to get those great people.
This year, Goodwill is offering three different hospitality courses for concentrated skills in lodging, restaurants and housekeeping, which Jones said has emerged as the highest-demand job in Panama City Beach over the years.
“There’s a higher demand for housekeepers than pretty much anything else in hospitality,” she said, citing a recent crackdown on the frequency of guest worker visas issued by the U.S. Department of State. “This opens up an opportunity for local people who are looking for jobs to get those jobs, but they have to be able to do them well.”
Jones said the courses have attracted students from diverse backgrounds, with ages spanning 17 to 72, and educational attainment ranging from those with no high school diplomas to those holding graduate degrees.
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“There’s no rhyme or reason to who comes or why they come, but they all have one goal — they want to work in hospitality,” she said. “It’s not about finding jobs; it’s about finding a career.”
With Spring Break right around the corner, hospitality employers are now in the process of beefing up staff to help handle the upcoming crowds. Earlier this month, Goodwill teamed up with regional workforce center CareerSource Gulf Coast to host dozens of employers and jobseekers at the second annual Hospitality Job Fair at Gulf Coast State College.
“We have a lot of cool stuff that is unique to our area and we can serve a diverse group — everything from these crazy, partying spring breakers, to the families, to the older people that come down here in the winter,” Jones said. “We can make everyone happy here.”
‘Blood, sweat and tears’: As a teenager growing up in Bay County, Rob Hammer spent his summer vacations working as an assistant manager for the Lark family, who owned Miracle Strip Amusement Park and “Whata Water Wonder World,” the water park now known as Shipwreck Island. During the school year, he bused tables at the Bridge Tender Restaurant at the foot of the Hathaway Bridge.
“I kind of grew up in the hospitality industry there,” said Hammer, who now manages three restaurants in Panama City Beach. “My dad believed in you have to work to earn money.”
Upon graduating from high school, Hammer enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served four years. He moved back to the Bay County area in the early 1990s with intentions of beginning college in South Florida once the summer ended.
“I did plan on just having a summer job, and then I unexpectedly met my wife that same summer,” he said. “I decided to put my education on hold and my story begins with the Bennett family from there.”
Hammer was hired by the late Clark Bennett as a manager at Sharky’s Restaurant. After two years in the position, Hammer worked three years managing a family entertainment center for Clark’s brother, Neel Bennett.
His work with the Bennett brothers continued when he partnered with them to open Hammerhead Fred’s in 1995. To get the business off the ground, Hammer recalls putting in 16-plus hour days at the Thomas Drive restaurant.
“I know that sounds crazy, but you have to be committed,” he said. “It’s blood, sweat and tears in the restaurant business as an operating partner, a managing partner. To do things right in the restaurant business, you have to really be there. It’s a lot of work, a lot of time.”
Today, Hammer still serves as a managing partner at Hammerhead Fred’s, as well as at the Front Beach Road restaurant Runaway Island. He also manages day-to-day operations at Sharky’s. Although two of the three restaurants close down during the slow season, Hammer said the partners do try to keep their management staff working year-round.
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“In this area, if you’re willing to commit yourself to the job that comes with the hospitality side of things, you can make a good living here,” Hammer said. “I do really well for myself, but it’s like anything in life; you have to work to get it.”
As a manager, Hammer said the biggest challenge in staffing a restaurant is finding people willing to work hard.
“They want the check, but they don’t want to show up and do the job and the performance to gain it; that’s what we run into quite frequently,” Hammer said. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity, and I think someone that has the right skill set can go a long way. It all boils down to how bad you want it.”
What They Make - Hourly wage estimates, employment
- Automotive and watercraft service attendants: employees, 60; average wage, $10.79; entry level, $8.75; experienced, $11.89
- Bartenders: employees, 460; average wage, $9.88; entry level, $8.42; experienced, $10.60
- Cashiers: employees, 2,620; average wage, $9.33; entry level, $8.57; experienced, $9.71
- Chefs and head cooks: employees, 30; average wage, $20.28; entry level, $13.57; experienced, $23.63
- Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food: employees, 1,990; average wage, $9.13; entry level, $8.46; experienced, $9.48
- Concierges: employees, unknown; average wage, $13.10; entry level, $10.07; experienced, $14.62
- Cooks, restaurant: employees, 1,150; average wage, $10.68; entry level, $9.35; experienced, $11.35
- Cooks, short order: employees, unknown; average wage, $9.61; entry level, $8.54; experienced, $10.15
- Counter and retail clerks: employees, 560; average wage, $11.13; entry level, $8.58; experienced, $12.40
- Counter attendants, cafeteria, food concession and coffee shop: employees, 210; average wage, $8.80; entry level, $8.43; experienced, $8.99
- Dining room attendants and bartender helpers: employees, 290; average wage, $8.54; entry level, $8.47; experienced, $8.57
- Dishwashers: employees, 540; average wage, $8.75; entry level, $8.45; experienced, $8.90
- First line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers: employees, 760; average wage, $14.60; entry level, $10.20; experienced, $16.81
- First line supervisors of housekeepers and janitorial workers: employees, unknown; average wage, $14.63; entry level, $12.46; experienced, $15.73
- First line supervisors of retail sales workers: employees, 1,040; average wage, $18.25; entry level, $12.83; experienced, $20.95
- Food preparation workers: employees, 650; average wage, $9.93; entry level, $8.46; experienced, $10.66
- Food servers, nonrestaurant: employees- 120; average wage, $9.43; entry level, $8.49; experienced, $9.90
- Food service managers: employees, 60; average wage, $29.24; entry level, $22.77; experienced, $32.49
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for Bay County