COVID
Story package by
Olivia Malick
Understaffed, overworked and scared of getting sick Food service workers detail pandemic hardships By May of 2020, three months after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a public health emergency in the United States, the nation’s restaurant industry had lost 5.9 million jobs, according to restaurantbusinessonline.com. Those workers who remained employed had to take over extra shifts and some had to take pay cuts while enduring sometimes unruly customers. ‘Sally,’ ‘Mary’ and ‘Jane’ are all Lamar students who worked at local PAGE 4 • SPRING 2021
restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their names have been changed for fear of potential retribution from employers. SALLY When restaurants in Texas were cleared to open for dine-in services in May 2020 after closing that March, Sally was hesitant to go back to work after being furloughed. Her boyfriend has sickle-cell anemia and she lives with her elderly relatives — she didn’t want to get them sick. Her general manager reached out to let people know that if they had reservations about coming back to work, the restaurant would accommodate them. But the reality was much different. “I was not ready to go back, and I expressed that,” she said. “Then, employees were told by management that if we did not come back, we would not have a job any-
more. That was obviously threatening, so I pretty much had to go back because that’s my job.” Sally reluctantly went back to work at a local restaurant that, she said, didn’t follow state or municipal guidelines, such as monitoring capacity limits or strictly enforcing Texas’ then-in-place mask mandate. “For example, say you were exposed to somebody with COVID,” she said. “They didn’t really care. At one point, there were a few people that had it and were waiting on test results and ended up being positive. “That was scary, because I’m around people that I can’t give COVID to. It was really stressful, because you want to do the right thing but it’s hard when everyone around you is not doing the right thing.” The lack of support from management, and difficult customers, made working throughout the pandemic tough, Sally said.
“You have some customers that understand and know you’re understaffed and that you have to wear a mask,” she said. “But on the other hand, we had customers who thought they didn’t have to wear a mask, and we’d have to tell them to leave and they’d get mad.” Sally said a lot of customers did not seem receptive to the struggles restaurants were facing during the pandemic. “Most of the time I feel like we have customers that have never worked in a restaurant ever before in their life,” she said. “Nine times out of 10, we were always understaffed and dealing with some of the worst people you could deal with ever. I am out here risking a lot.” Sally eventually contracted COVID in October. “When I did have COVID, that was the scariest thing ever, and I was so extremely
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