‘A great way to show care’
Hyatt Regency gives dinners to working and laid off employees
GREENWICH — On Monday afternoon, staff at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich began greeting people in cars as they drove up to the facility’s lobby.
Company leaders grabbed bags filled with
three-course meals, giving them to laid-off and actively working employees alike. The culinary team prepared the special meals, which included a salad, braised short ribs, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, dessert and a card from the hotel’s leadership committee, for families of four to enjoy at home.
General Manager Sherry Hicks-Buckles said the drivethrough dinner “is a great way to show care” to local Hyatt employees. The fully prepared dinner required no shopping nor cooking and gave employees a safe way to quickly gather in an outdoor setting. Many Hyatt Regency employees have not seen each other face-to-face since last year when the pandemic began, HicksBuckles said.
“We miss that human interaction with them,” she added.
“It’s just a matter of keeping in constant contact with our colleagues. We obviously have a fair amount that have returned, and are working with us, but we also have a fair amount that are still in layoffs, just based upon our business needs, and they’re still our Hyatt colleagues and we want to just keep in constant communication with them,” she said.
Back in March 2020, when the pandemic first hit Connecticut, Hyatt Regency Greenwich leaders chose to temporarily close their doors and lay off around 150 employees. But as COVID-19 infection rates drop, and state officials move to increase capacity at larger scale events, Hicks-Buckles said the number of furloughed employees continues to drop. For example, before the first round of layoffs last March, the local hotel had employed around 220 people. Now, it employs 188, Hicks-Buckles said.
“Unfortunately, it was a fair amount of our workforce that we did have to lay off. But as business levels continue to progress, it’s nice, because we can bring more colleagues back into the workforce,” she said.
Before the Monday afternoon event began, Hicks-Buckles said Hyatt Regency staff had sent invites to more than 100 of their colleagues.
And the hotel wasn’t the only entity giving back to the community on Monday.
Colleagues who were not able to make it to the event could donate their meal to another colleague with a bigger family or more pressing need for the food, Hicks-Buckles said.
“So, that’s another nice gesture that people will do as well,” she said.