{"id":469056,"date":"2026-06-09T21:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/469056\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:36:09","slug":"tauranga-workers-experience-of-five-redundancies-in-six-years-and-the-toll-of-repeated-job-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/469056\/","title":{"rendered":"Tauranga worker\u2019s experience of five redundancies in six years and the toll of repeated job losses"},"content":{"rendered":"

He learned hospitality skills from his mother, whose own mother owned five restaurants in her lifetime.<\/p>\n

Nicholls followed the family tradition, working in a range of restaurants from the age of 17, and later following his cousin to Australia for training as a chef. <\/p>\n

\u201cI never looked back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the downturn in the economy and repeated layoffs since Covid-19 have left him battling constant self-doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter about three times, you start wondering if you\u2019re the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nicholls said he had questioned whether he was somehow to blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider myself a well-grounded, mentally stable person who\u2019s always able to seek out perspective to lessen the mental blow and feel like things aren\u2019t personal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there were times where it was really tough, because repeated occasions make you think you\u2019re the common denominator.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series of layoffs had left Nicholls feeling he was failing to provide for his family, although his wife worked as a teacher and they shared financial responsibilities. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou look to your family and start to feel like you\u2019re letting them down. In an old school way, as a father, I believe I should be a support pillar for my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicholls\u2019 first redundancy came in 2020 at the University of Auckland following a post-Covid-19 restructure. He worked as the summer operations manager overseeing reservations, catering and more. <\/p>\n

He was later made redundant from a management role with The Professional Builder in 2022 after the company shifted its business focus and restructured its operations.<\/p>\n

His role as venue manager at Freeport with Cleaver and Co in Mount Maunganui<\/a> ended in redundancy in 2023 after rising costs prompted the owners to return to hands-on operational work, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the third redundancy, I entered Tauranga CBD, which in itself is in a severe struggle. I had been warned about that, and I thought it would be interesting to see it for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started working as a venue manager for Nectar and said it was already \u201cin struggle\u201d despite it being a beautiful venue with great food.<\/p>\n

\"YorickYorick Nicholls was left questioning himself after repeated job losses. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt had all the things going for it but there just wasn\u2019t enough trade.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nicholls was affected by the closure of the restaurant in 2025, which he said struggled for more than a year after declining trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy career was in disarray. I didn\u2019t really know what I was doing any more, and I got a bit of impostor syndrome. I knew I was good at my job, but was I the cause of all this?\u201d<\/p>\n

He lost his role as venue manager at Crown and Badger after the business entered voluntary liquidation in May<\/a> this year. <\/p>\n

Nicholls said he started looking for another job when he recognised signs the long-standing pub would be closing its doors for good.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Crown and Badger’s last official trading day was May 2. Photo \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just learn to pick up on the signs of businesses in struggle, and you start to really become pretty good at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these jobs held the line for at least a year every time, and some slightly longer, which gave a feeling of hope that if you\u2019re staying that long, you enjoy it and they enjoy you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicholls is now a duty manager at Clarence Restaurant in Tauranga CBD. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomething fell into my lap, and it slowly came together, ironically, just in time. And this is where I am now, which is extremely stable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was a \u201chuge relief\u201d that the business brought him on earlier than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the level of hospitality that I was always set to do, semi-fine dining, elegant staff, everybody\u2019s so professional, a boss who is always one step ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said repeated redundancies and instability were driving experienced workers out of hospitality, thinning the pool of middle and senior management talent in the sector.<\/p>\n

His advice to anyone in a similar situation was to think like a business person, learn fast, and be more brutal with decision-making.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a noble thing to look at the greater good and think about the business being there for you, but, at the end of the day, think like a businessperson. You have to for your own sake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it doesn\u2019t smell right, make plans because there\u2019s nothing worse than feeling like you\u2019ve decided to be there for a business and that business wasn\u2019t there for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He learned hospitality skills from his mother, whose own mother owned five restaurants in her lifetime. Nicholls followed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,17515,1342,78,3112,5342,111,43,139,69,1118,13604,10056,4739,1227,223,42032,4478,1530],"class_list":["post-469056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-experience","tag-five","tag-in","tag-job","tag-losses","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-redundancies","tag-repeated","tag-six","tag-tauranga","tag-the","tag-toll","tag-workers","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}