Strapped for Staff: Northland Restaurants Balance Business, Employee Burnout through Labor Shortage

For some restaurants, it means cutting back on hours of operation while trying to balance the quality of life for the workers they do have.

DULUTH/CLOQUET, Minn.- From Duluth to smaller cities like Cloquet, restaurants big and small are experiencing the effects of being short on labor. For some, it means cutting back on hours of operation while trying to balance the quality of life for the workers they do have.

Just last week, Family Tradition Restaurant in Cloquet has had to close their restaurant on Mondays.

“It was a heartbreaking decision to have to make but we’re pushing everybody to their limit,” said Manager Kenny Heehn. “And I don’t want anyone else to quit, I don’t want anyone else to go anywhere.”

While it’s a smaller place, manager Kenny Heehn says without at least two more workers in his kitchen the staff is getting spread too thin.

This has been affecting their service, even going into the summer….

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