SERVICE

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 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 anymore. 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

worried about my boyfriend and grandparents,” she said. “Customers don’t see that because they don’t care.

“They’ll get COVID and they’ll probably still go on with their lives. I don’t think anybody will ever know how it feels until somebody they know gets it and is fighting for their life. Of course, I don’t wish that on anyone, but they won’t know how it feels until something like that happens.”

Sally said that in addition to some customers fighting her over having to wear masks, she was working twice as hard without seeing it reflected in the money she was making. Even on nights when Sally made good money, it didn’t feel worth it for the mental exhaustion that followed, she said.

“People are not feeling as generous as they used to,” she said. “Around Christmas time, usually we have customers who come in and they tip outrageous amounts of money. This past Christmas, the first Christmas we’ve had in this pandemic, was probably the worst holiday season I’ve ever worked in my life.

“If you can’t afford to tip, simply do not go out to eat. It costs nothing to cook food at home, instead of coming to my place of work, sitting in my section making me do this and that for you, with a good attitude — for you to not tip or tip poorly, it’s kind of a slap in the face.”

Sally said there was no support from higher levels of management, either.

“I’m probably most disgusted with the owner, actually,” she said. “When we were down to 50 percent (capacity), it was very busy, and he was in the restaurant and he says, ‘Sit every table.’

“He obviously didn’t care. Another (higher level manager) had COVID and still came into the restaurant without a mask on.”

Sally thought about going to the health department to report the COVID guideline violations, but she was scared of retribution and wasn’t certain the health department could even do anything.

“I had discussed it with another coworker of mine, and we thought if we both called and got more people to call, they would take it seriously,” she said. “But I know the kind of power the owner has, and I really thought, ‘I will probably lose my job if I do this.’

“I work in a kind of place where if you see something wrong happening with managers, or anything in that area, and you say something about it, you will be shut down. They do not want to hear about it. You’re going to be in the wrong regardless. This has been going on since I started working there almost three years ago — it’s always been like this.”

When Sally finally contracted COVID, she said management’s response was surprising.

“I was told, ‘You can still come to work, I won’t tell anybody,’” she said. “That’s really messed up. Obviously, I did not go back to work. I quarantined for two weeks, but it made me weary because, ‘Could I be working with somebody who has COVID right now?’”

Sally said management rushed her back to work even though she had mild COVID symptoms and her quarantine period was not over yet.

“Someone telling me that I could come to work and not tell anyone may seem like they care about me in order for me to make my money, but they obviously don’t care about the health of others,” she said. “I could have easily spread that to the whole restaurant, everyone I worked with. Not only that, I heard that they thought I was lying, even though I did send in my, not one but two, positive test results as proof.

“I was being rushed during my quarantine as to when I was coming back, and it was really annoying because I’m trying to focus on getting better and isolating. I don’t want to be dealing with that and I shouldn’t have been dealing with it.”

Sally said that while she didn’t necessarily enjoy her job before the pandemic, it has become almost unbearable since it began.

“It’s terrible,” she said. “Working in a restaurant is already mentally draining enough, but during a pandemic it’s almost off the wall crazy — it’s terrible. I’m always telling my boyfriend or my family about it — I’m always dreading going to work.

“I get it, a lot of people don’t want to get up and go to work. But I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about a job. It’s almost not worth it. I have thought about looking for something else, but I just can’t risk the money. I don’t think I’ve ever been this overwhelmed and stressed before, and a lot of that does have to do with my job.

“I come home and all I can think about is every negative thing that happened at work, whether it was a customer and their attitude, or just management, or another employee bringing me down.”

Customer service has never been easy, but it’s never been this hard, Sally said.

“Before COVID, it was definitely tolerable,” she said. “I mean, customers were customers. Some are hostile at some points but overall, everyone just wanted to have a good time. We weren’t stressed about anything or having to enforce these rules that most customers don’t want to follow anyway.”

Now that the mask mandate and capacity restrictions have been lifted, Sally said it doesn’t feel like everything has gone back to normal.

“Something feels off and strange,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get that feeling back that I had before the pandemic, of just going to work and knowing it’s going to be busy and dreading it, but still just trying to have a good time and serving a bunch of drunk people. It seems like I should be back home. Something feels off and I don’t really know what it is.”

Sally said she’ll probably never look at the service industry the same and there are some experiences she’s had while working during the pandemic that will stick with her for a long time.

“The numerous times of being yelled at for telling people to simply put on a mask — being cursed out by grown men, watching them slam doors — it will definitely stick with me,” she said. “I feel like I can never go to a manager about any problems again.”

MARY

Mary, who works at a different local restaurant, was one of the few employees retained by her job to work through the dine-in shutdown.

“When the pandemic first started, we didn’t have staff, a lot of us got laid off,” she said. “Basically, only the people who could work in more than one position were allowed to stay. So, it was like six of us doing the job of 20 people — just overworked then arguing with everybody, basically.”

Mary has worked as a cashier at the restaurant for almost five years, but has also worked as a host, server and sometimes line

Two out of three restaurant employees lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

Source: The National Restaurant Association Food service — page 6

Approximately 19 percent of Americans say they tip less than they did before the pandemic.

Source: Harris Poll for Fast Company

Food service — from page 5

cook when needed.

If there is one thing she gained through the pandemic, it’s patience, Mary said.

“I had to (have patience), because the biggest thing was when masks were enforced, you had a lot of people coming in not wanting to wear them,” she said. “We had one man come and rebuke the store in the name of Jesus. We’ve gotten into screaming matches with people just about masks.”

Mary said that once the restaurant reopened for dine-in, she became increasingly anxious about contracting COVID-19.

“I got nervous when things started to reopen,” she said. “We started having more people coming in and I knew people weren’t going to social distance. We had signs on tables separating them, and people would just move the signs.

“I was nervous for my health because people got sick. We had people at our job catch it, because they were going places. Then we’d all have to go get tested and have to shut down the store.”

Mary said the restaurant’s management was strict about enforcing the mask mandate when it was still in place, but they weren’t as cautious as they could have been.

“We had a manager who came to work knowing that he had to go take a COVID test because he didn’t feel good,” she said. “He had a fever of 102 degrees and was coughing but didn’t tell anybody that. He left on his lunch break, came back and was serving food and helping out until another manager came up and told him to go home.

“We asked why and (were told) he tested positive. So, he knew he had to get a test, tested positive, still came back to work, and HR didn’t fire him. He’s still working with us — he tested negative and they let him come back. He put everybody — not just us, the customers — he put everybody at risk that day.”

Mary said dealing with customers was tough, especially when it came to enforcing the mask mandate.

“When things started opening back up, there was more animosity,” she said. “We knew that we were going to have at least one or two customers a day that we were going to have to tell them, ‘Hey, wear a mask,’ and getting into arguments — especially people with MAGA hats always coming in not wanting to wear masks.

“They would say, ‘My president, Donald Trump, he doesn’t wear one, I don’t want to wear one.’ Some of our coworkers also didn’t agree with the mask mandate and you can’t work here without wearing one. So, there were a lot of arguments because there were so many different beliefs about it.”

Mary said about 75 percent of customers were nice and understanding.

“When the stimulus would hit, they would leave nice tips,” she said. “A lot of people would thank us for staying open during the pandemic and coming to work. We had one lady who would come every day and give us pretty masks.

“But, of course, you had people coming in complaining about how long things were taking. We were understaffed, so it’s going

to take longer to get things done because you “Me and a manager got into a giant argu- restaurant, convenience store and a sno- man who is very anti-mask,” she said. “He don’t have as many people doing the same ment — it was the straw that broke the cone stand. She said that when the pan- wouldn't dissuade us from wearing a mask, amount of work. camel’s back,” she said. “We were making demic began, it felt like the apocalypse was however, he went out of his way to tell us

“When we were doing to-gos only, we plates and I made something twice on acci- happening. that it wasn't necessary. And everybody that started charging 50 cents for food packaging dent. It was Sunday, and Sunday’s are busy “There was a definite tone shift, for sure,” came into the store-gas station-restaurant, because we were using more of it. One man — we’re understaffed, and I’m in school, she said. “We had the curfew, nobody was was not required to wear a mask for the ensaid, ‘Are you charging me for staying alive?’ stressed about school, stressed about allowed to go out. For a while, it seemed ev- tirety of this pandemic. That was something No, we’re not, you know, we just have to money, stressed about home, stressed about erybody was scared of this pandemic. It was that I never agreed with and, eventually, was make a living. But I try to focus on the 75 work. And (my manager) yelled at me over very busy for us because everybody was why I left the job.” percent.” chicken. stocking up on gas, almost like a hurricane, Jane left the job in November and started

Mary said, for the most part, she was “I just remember stopping and just going stocking up on gas and food and water. And at a retail store in January. used to dealing with difficult customers, but completely off. I was, like, my parents don’t then it was just kind of dead. Nobody would Jane said she didn’t face a lot of customer there seemed to be a lack of understanding talk to me like this, you’re not going to talk come in, it seemed like there were hours backlash at gas station during the pandemic during the pandemic. to me like this, and, honestly, at this point, without any customers. because her owner never required masks,

“I had already been there five years so I we can take it outside. I’m not violent, but “The restaurant closed beside us for a even though it was mandated by the state of knew that people could be nasty — I did not we were coming to blows. couple of weeks but everyone was cross- Texas from July 2020 to March 2021. know how nasty,” she said. “I did not know “My other manager had to pull me to the trained so no one had to lose their job. We “Everybody was happy not to wear a how much we really don’t communicate side and tell me, “I’m not going to write you ended up doing takeout orders and drive- mask,” she said. “We were cleaning and with each other, how much nobody really up, because you’ve been here so long, and I thru only. That was extremely bizarre, be- doing all that extra kind of work, but we didtries to step into your shoes. watched what happened. But I am going to cause we were busy all the time — we were n't have any plexiglass up and I just felt that

“There’s almost no human decency some- tell you this, don’t let someone take you out- one of the only places that was open at the it wasn't safe for us employees. As far as custimes. I consider myself to be very calm — I side of your character like that.’ time doing that. We were offering family tomer service went, everybody was happy. I live with seven people, I am patient.” “I’m 21 getting into arguments with 40- meals for discounted prices and, I'm not was constantly getting, ‘Oh, it's so good that

Mary said she did feel the restaurant did year-old men. I have always been the nice even joking, wait times for those family y'all aren't requiring masks’ — completely a good job of alerting its employers when one, I have never raised my voice. But it’s meals got into two and three hours because different now from my current job.” someone got sick. hard.” everybody was ordering so many.” Local law enforcement did nothing to re-

“Our head manager was serious about it Jane said her boss was outspoken about inforce the mandate, either, Jane said. because his daughter has sickle cell, she is JANE his beliefs regarding the COVID-19 panhigh risk,” she said. “So, he took this to Jane worked at her local family-owned demic. heart. If anybody tested positive, if anybody gas station complex which consisted of a “(The business) was privately owned by a even looked sick, he’d make them go home get tested. And if you were in that area with (them), he’d make you get tested and they would sanitize everything.” Source: The National Restaurant Association

In addition to the stresses of working through the pandemic, Mary said there was the added stress of being a student and keeping up with her classes.

“I’m working over 40 hours a week and I have these classes,” Mary said. “And then in the middle of all that, money got short, so both my parents ended up losing their cars.

“So, I’m driving everybody everywhere, driving to work, trying to get stuff done to the point where I’m listening to my classes on my way to work, just listening to them while I’m driving around and getting points off because, you know, you’re not participating, your camera’s not on. I’m just tired.”

Mary said it took a toll on her mentally and physically.

“I lost weight because I almost couldn’t eat at some point,” she said. “There’s a way to explain it to your professors, but I really didn’t even try to because they’re going to be like, ‘Well everybody’s going through something.’ But they’re giving twice the work and I’m already working twice as hard (at the restaurant). I made it through, but it wasn’t fun to get through.”

The physical, mental and financial stresses added up and culminated in an argument with one of her managers, Mary said. Food service — page 26

Minimum wage for servers is $2.13 and hasn’t increased since 1991.

Source: The Economic Policy Institute