- If you walk down any sidewalk, you will see "now hiring."
If you drive down any road in this area,
you will see "now hiring."
We had 42 employees before the pandemic.
After the pandemic, we had about 15 when we opened back up.
We have about 22 employees now.
- I got you a drink. - Oh, is it now?
Thank you. - You're welcome.
Got it? - Yeah, ain't even see you.
- Now you know! - Okay.
- A lot of our people moved.
Some of our people retired.
And then some of them, we don't know.
- And then kind of also get the turkey gravy
on that, please.
- Yes, ma'am. - So, that.
'Cause what you do, you take a whole bunch of towels,
or you can use your trash bags.
Alright, come on in.
So, last year was my first time sitting down
for a good little six months without no work.
It felt good.
You know what I mean?
The unemployment actually did help a lot last year.
It actually helped me catch up on bills.
But then, when Governor Kemp stopped it,
it was just pretty much like, "Ugh.
Now I got to go back to a job."
Can you put in a work order in your phone?
Tell them the floor looks horrible
and it needs to be shampooed.
I think he's off today, so he'll be here tomorrow.
We're understaffed now.
We only have probably, like, four, five housekeepers,
and sometimes we have a whole house, and we have 80 rooms.
So if those 80 rooms sell out and 70 of those people
decide to leave, we have a lot to do.
So, I still think that a lot of people
are not coming back to work because --
-They're scared. - They're scared.
Cases are still rising. Whoa!
Like, if you want me to risk my life, give me more money.
- Like, y'all want everybody to get back to work.
Y'all forcing people to go back to work.
- For $7.
25. - For $7.
25.
- That's how much our minimum wage is.
- For $9 -- for just $7.
25, $9, $8. 50, $7.
75. That's not enough.
- That's not no money. - I promise you everybody
in the state of Georgia will go running back to their jobs.
"Oh, the job is paying $15 an hour?
Okay, cool. I'm running back.
I need the money." But now people are looking like,
"Well, y'all still paying the same.
I'm still making the same thing,
and I'm still behind on my bills.
There's no reason for me to work.
I might as well just sit at home and work it out with my kids,
rather than get up every day and go to a job
that's not paying you nothing
and is not supporting my family."
- Can you dust? The TVs look a little dusty.
- Yeah.
- And wipe the black around it, too.
It's got fingerprints and stuff.
- We're finding it difficult,
especially for skilled labor to come.
We have one staff who used to do housekeeping
during the pandemic, and then she came back,
but then Target offered $15 an hour,
and we were at around $10,
so we couldn't compete with that.
- Alright, don't forget to sweep really good and mop really good.
- Yes, ma'am.
I can see myself.
- Sunday was okay. Sunday -- Monday through Sunday.
- Mm-hmm. - You 'bout to go with --
You like these two? You do?
- Well, when we knew that the barbershop was closing,
the guy from the news came first.
And he talked to me right out in the parking lot.
He said, "You guys are closing." I said, "Seriously?"
He said, "Yeah.
You're closing." - And I said, "Man.
Like, what we gonna do?
This is how I feed my family.
This is how I take care of myself.
This is my livelihood."
- Be in my house, don't sit down.
- We were closed for up to eight to nine weeks.
Everyone tries to not talk about it,
but this pandemic has put more on our health and wellness
than anyone could even imagine.
- I'm-a style it, though. I'm gonna style this.
- Oh, yeah. Style it.
- And I'm a star-caliber stylist.
- You know, my mom and dad instilled in us
to always make a way, especially out of no way.
I cut hair in my yard for like 2 1/2 months
before I came back to work.
- Some people, it's cheaper for them to stay home.
Sometimes it costs them more money for childcare.
It costs more money for health insurance,
where it doesn't even balance out.
- You know what, man?
Gave it a little cutoff. Let's try evening it out.
- Oh, man, that's serious -- -A couple of guys, me included,
decided not to come back when we first opened,
because, like I said, we had got comfortable.
I'm at home.
I can put on what I want to put on,
wear what I want to wear,
listen to the music I want to listen to.
- I was trying as much as possible,
to my strongest ability, to try to bring them back.
Took them out, tried to feed them.
I tried everything I can.
- You want kids, right? - Right.
- Got to support your kids. - Right.
- Everybody came back to the shop except me.
I was the last one to come back.
And then when I came back, we was fully staffed again.
It was the camaraderie, missing the guys,
and missing the barbershop atmosphere, missing the feel.
- See you later. - Alright.
- Later!
- Appreciate it. - Alright.
- Have a good night. - Alright.
♪ This could be love ♪
♪ Because I had the time of my life ♪
-JJ's -- we do a restaurant.
We do a bar. We do entertaining.
We do catering.
We do decorations, and we are at the venue for,
like, pretty much everything.
♪ Everybody's talking all this stuff about me ♪
♪ Why don't they just let me live ♪
-It's been really stressful, and I'm not gonna lie.
♪ We've been meeting here so long ♪
-You know, when the pandemic first hit,
nobody knew what was going on or, you know, the potential
of if you're gonna get sick or if you're not gonna get sick.
- It definitely has opened my mind up to, you know,
go back to school and furthering my education
and expand out to see more of what's out there.
Not saying I'm leaving this job, but just to see, you know,
what might be out there, you know?
- I have to do pay raise.
You know, I'm not a franchise, so I cannot afford to be giving,
you know, $14, $15 an hour.
♪ Give it to me Give it to me ♪
♪ Give it to me, what ya say ♪
♪ Give it to me ♪
-I mean, I got people that put on applications.
Some of them, you know, they come,
they might try a day or two,
and they say that it's not for them.
Some of them will try to do part-time and another part-time,
and then they have come back
and told me that it's too much, they're overwhelmed with work,
even though they're younger people.
♪ And I called you the other day for a -- ♪
-I don't really --
I used to get frustrated at the beginning.
And right now, I'm like, "Okay.
You know, I just got to do what I need to do with what I have,
and hopefully it will get better."
That has always been, like, the nature of Americans,
you know -- to work and make your money
and find a way to better yourself.
♪ Killing me softly with his song ♪
♪ Telling my whole life with his words ♪
♪ Killing me softly with his song ♪