Restaurant Workers Endured a Worse Pandemic Than You Did
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the lives of individuals in profound ways. For restaurant workers, however, the last year and a half has been incredibly difficult.
Restaurants around the United States are still attempting to recover as “restaurant and foodservice industry sales fell by $240 billion in 2020 from an expected level of $899 billion.” This staggering number is only one side of the story, it is the tales of the waitresses, bartenders and stressed out managers affected that truly relay the impact of COVID-19.
Aside from those that lost their jobs, there was a certain sense of additional duties and stressful situations for those still employed in the food industry. Phil Brown, a manager at the Emporium at the Elizabeth Hotel in Fort Collins, said that, “We had to cut down to being open half the time that we normally are. We’re still trying to get back to normal but there is not much we can do after we almost went out of business.” Those that worked in restaurants did not have the luxury of being able to work from home as the capacity of restaurants such as the Emporium are still below average.
During this time, no industry had encountered more difficult experiences than those that work in restaurants. Some business owners had to give up on their dream. Hard working servers were let go and forced out of work as “The vast majority of the industry’s layoffs were in food service, where the government said 5.5 million chefs, waiters and cashiers lost jobs.” Also, customer service becomes increasingly difficult when there is a mandate for people to wear certain accessories such as masks.
Working in the service industry has enough challenges without a worldwide pandemic. Attempting to tell customers that they must wear a mask or conform to the rules in place has been more challenging than anticipated. Similarly, “restaurant workers repeatedly have been met with violence when asking patrons to wear a mask.” Not only have workers either lost their jobs or lost a great deal of money, dealing with people has possibly been the biggest struggle.
There may be an argument that an individual or a group had a harder time during the pandemic than restaurant workers, such as healthcare workers. While the experiences of each person cannot be considered at once, there is an overwhelming trend of terrible experiences from restaurant workers.
People may say that something happened to them which cannot compare to that of restaurant workers such as a death in a family. While this may be true, it is the combined data and stories from restaurant workers that emphasize the struggle of the last year and a half. This shows that empirically, restaurant workers had a worse time during the pandemic in terms of lost jobs and overall experience.
If you did not work in a restaurant, this may seem arbitrary. But think for a moment about the owner who could not fulfill their dream and had to close their restaurant because of COVID. Think of the family that had to move houses and could not pay for rent because they were forced out of their jobs and could not work remotely. Think of the host that was yelled at daily for asking customers to follow the rules. Think about these things before you complain about the last year and a half, because restaurant workers had it much, much worse than you.
