KILL DEVIL HILLS, NC. — Many employees in the Outer Banks stay from Memorial Day to Labor Day. As the summer season comes to a close, many organizations are having to operate without their seasonal staff.
“It's really tough at that time, because you're dealing with the same amount of business," said Jesse Hines, who co-owns Surfin' Spoon with his wife Whitney.
Surfin' Spoon opened its doors in 2012. In the busy season, they employ 30 people, that number is now around 10 or 15. Despite this, they have been successful in not having to change their hours or days when their doors are open.
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“Basically everybody's just doing a few jobs at one time, and everybody's just hustling a little harder," said Hines.
It's the same on the beach at Kill Devil Hills Ocean Rescue - which has 60 full-time employees at full force.
“Within the last let's call it week, we've lost just about 50% of our staff," said David Elder, supervisor for KDHOR.
Twenty one stands and five ATV zones need to be occupied every day and so far, even the recent storms haven’t led to a change in operations.
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“We can't really cast into the future so far, and if we do, we're kind of pulling ourselves a little bit off balance. So, we're doing the best we can to do everything we can and get to people in a preventative mode, which is where we still are and hope to remain," said Elder.
Something that has been working for both organizations, is having locals on staff to help get over the late season hump.
“The good news is the majority of our staff is local, so we hire them younger, and with the young workforce, there's a lot of variables for them," said Elder.
Labor Day is a time where every organization in the Outer Banks can take a deep breath and both organizations are just happy they have what they need to get to the finish line.
