The Kids Don’t Need Us Any More

There’s a low hum running through the industry right now. You can hear it if you stop long enough — beneath the clatter of glassware, the whine of the fridges, the static in your head from trying to rota your way out of another week short-staffed. Something’s shifting. Everyone feels it. Nobody can quite name it.

You used to put an ad out for bar staff and within an hour you’d have ten eighteen-year-olds knocking at the door, eyes wide, desperate to work. You’d show them the ropes, teach them how to pour a pint without killing the head, how to look someone in the eye when you hand them a drink. They’d fuck up a few times, get their confidence, and before long they’d be family. They’d belong.

That was the old deal. You gave them a job; they gave a damn.

But the new generation? They’re built different.

What’s going on?

Here’s what most owners haven’t clocked yet:

Eighteen-year-olds don’t need hospitality anymore.

They don’t need to scrub glasses or pull pints to buy their first car. They can sit in their bedroom and make a few grand a month flipping trainers, editing videos, streaming games, or running an online store that sells stuff they’ll never even see.

They can make rent without ever making eye contact.

❌ No doubles.

❌ No drunks.

❌ No burnout.

❌ No soul-crushing “Can you cover Sunday?” texts.

That opportunity didn’t exist for us. We worked in bars because that’s what there was. You wanted independence? You got a job. You wanted a life? You earned it one shift at a time.

But now, for them, it’s optional. And that’s the quiet panic no one wants to talk about.

Hospitality used to be a rite of passage. You learned how to handle people — the good, the bad, and the ones who shouldn’t be allowed in public. You learned grace under pressure. You learned teamwork, timekeeping, humour, hustle. It made you human.

But that world doesn’t hold the same gravity anymore.

Because when you’re hiring now, you’re not competing with the bar down the road. You’re competing with Wi-Fi.

What’s the solution?

So if you want that eighteen-year-old — that smart, funny, capable kid who could just as easily build a brand as build a round — to choose you, you’ve got to give them a reason.

Not a speech.

A reason.

Because the truth is brutal and simple:

Young people don’t need hospitality anymore.

But hospitality, this cracked, beating, beautiful monster of an industry — needs them more than ever.

So make your place somewhere they want to be.

Not just for the money.

For the belonging.

For the story.

For that holy hour between 10 and midnight when the room is electric, the playlist’s perfect, and the world feels like it still might make sense.

Because no TikTok fame, no side hustle, no algorithmic hit of serotonin can replace that feeling.

That feeling of being part of something real.

And that’s what we’re fighting for.