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The British-English phrase you can’t get the staff these days, and its variants, are used humorously to indicate that something has not been done or maintained properly, or that someone’s efforts have failed to meet expectations.
This phrase occurs, for example, in the column Newson’s Value, by Graham Newson, published in the Harrow Observer (Harrow, London, England) of Thursday 11th February 1988 [page 6, column 6]:
Yes I know. A sizeable part of last week’s award-winning column—well it’s been shortlisted for the Postman Pat Handwriting Competition—read like the Icelandic version of the 1985 AA Members Handbook. Put it down to typographical gremlins!
The typographical gremlin responsible—you can’t get the staff you know!—has suffered swift and merciless retribution.
This humorous use of you can’t get the staff these days and variants reflects the fact that the phrase has often been used, in a serious manner, of actual staff shortages. The following, for example, is from the column Everybody’s business, by Dan Atkinson, published in the Reading Evening Post (Reading, Berkshire, England) of Tuesday 16th October 1984 [page 9, column 6]:
For the past year, manpower and training chiefs have warned of the looming Thames Valley skill shortage.
Now two reports reinforce the old complaint that you just can’t get decent staff anymore.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest humorous uses of the British-English phrase you can’t get the staff these days and variants that I have found:
1-: From the caption to the following cartoon, published in the Eastern Evening News (Norwich, Norfolk, England) of Tuesday 8th January 1957 [page 6, column 2]:
PASSING BY
“One just can’t get the staff these days.”
2-: From the caption to the following photograph, published in the Sunday People (London, England) of Sunday 24th October 1976 [page 25, column 2]:
—Context: This is from an article about the various characters (the chauffeur, the gardener, the butler, Colonel Saunders, the cook) that the British actor David Niven (1910-1983) interpreted in the U.S. comedy film Candleshoe:
THE COOK You just can’t get staff these days. . . . Having parked the Rolls, pushed the barrow, announced the colonel and dropped the monocle, Priory the butler turns up again as the cook. Not a bad day’s work that for the star of them all, David Niven.
3-: From the television programmes published in the Daily Record (Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland) of Friday 20th May 1977 [page 26, column 2]—The Cedar Tree is a British television series that ran from 1976 to 1978 on ITV:
STV
[…]
3.50—THE CEDAR TREE “The Suspect.” The digit of suspicion for the jewel theft now points markedly at Jim Tapper, the handyman. You just can’t get decent staff these days.
4-: From Moody blue, by the British television and radio critic Nancy Banks-Smith (born 1929), published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Saturday 28th April 1984 [page 10, column 3]—the Scottish politician Ramsay MacDonald (1866-1937) was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1924, and from 1929 to 1935:
Let’s imagine: London Bridge Station in the Thirties: a queue has formed at the ticket office and is beginning to make irritable but British noises like “You can’t get the staff” and “Personally I blame Ramsay MacDonald.”
5-: From Church News, by ‘Watchman’, published in the Herald Express (Torquay, Devon, England) of Saturday 24th November 1984 [page 15, column 4]:
The Church of St John the Baptist, Shiphay, is holding its Christmas Bazaar next Saturday. It opens at 10am, closes for lunch at 1pm (“Simply can’t get the staff nowadays, Madam”) and starts up again at 2.15pm.
6-: From the caption to the following photograph of Charles (born 1948), then Prince of Wales, published in the Weekend Post (Reading, Berkshire, England) of Saturday 25th May 1985 [page 2, column 2]:
Prince Chelsea
“One can’t get the staff any more, can one..?”
Actually, despite his expression, Prince Charles was not showing concern about the overgrowth.
He was admiring the wild flowers produced by John Chambers at the Chelsea show.
And maybe reminding himself that he must get the lawnmower out when he got back home.
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