Low Pay, No Benefits, Rude Customers: Restaurant Workers Quit At Record Rate

[Nevilledog]

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NPR
@NPR
Workers are leaving jobs in restaurants, bars and hotels at the highest rate in decades. The industry has 1.2 million unfilled jobs, and half of those who've quit say they'll never go back, complaining of high stress, no benefits and aggressive customers.

Low Pay, No Benefits, Rude Customers: Restaurant Workers Quit At Record Rate
Average wages for nonmanagers at restaurants and bars hit $15 an hour in May, but many say no amount of pay would get them to return. They are leaving at the highest rate in decades.
npr.org
5:53 PM · Jul 20, 2021

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/20/1016081936/low-pay-no-benefits-rude-customers-restaurant-workers-quit-at-record-rate

A wooden spoon gliding over cast iron. Barely tall enough to see over the stove, Lamar Cornett watched his mother, a cook, make his favorite dish of scrambled eggs.

That first cooking lesson launched a lifelong journey in food. Cornett has spent over 20 years in Kentucky restaurants, doing every job short of being the owner. The work is grueling and tense but rewarding and rowdy, and so fast-paced that the pandemic shutdown was like lightning on a cloudy day.

"It was almost like there was this unplanned, unorganized general strike," Cornett said.

In those rare quiet moments, millions of restaurant workers like Cornett found themselves thinking about the realities of their work. Breaks barely long enough to use the restroom or smoke a cigarette. Meals inhaled on the go. Hostile bosses, crazy schedules and paltry, stagnant pay.

To top it off: rude customers, whose abuses restaurant staff are often forced to tolerate. And lately, testy diners have only gotten more impatient as they emerge from the pandemic shutdowns.

*snip*

[DURHAM D]

1. Over and over again these stories fail to mention

the fact it is not safe from covid. Customers are not wearing masks so workers are not/can not wear masks. No distancing in the kitchen or the front of the house.

[Warpy]

2. I'm afraid a lot of places are going to have to be takeout only

because front end workers are the ones who don't want to go back to those working conditions.

People were on their last nerve a month ago. Now this asshole of a disease is back again. I don't think civility is returning any time soon.

[Klaralven]

3. According to the St Louis Fed, it looks like restaurant sales have fully recovered in May at $66.5 B

Retail Sales: Restaurants and Other Eating Places

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MRTSSM7225USN

Bars and restaurants ring up big business in June and lead rebound in U.S. retail sales

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/big-tabs-at-bars-and-restaurants-drive-u-s-retail-sales-higher-in-june-as-americans-get-out-and-about-11626439961

[rownesheck]

4. Those jobs would be great

if it wasn't for the f@#$ing customers.

Paraphrasing a line from one of the greatest movies of all time.

[pecosbob]

6. Some days I would rather have my toes chewed off by rats than see one more customer.

[rownesheck]

8. Yes.

I'm right there with you.

[NightWatcher]

7. I'm not even supposed to be here today

[rownesheck]

9. Ha ha!

I've come awfully close to closing the store and playing some hockey on the roof, too.

[LizBeth]

5. I have watched the hotels go from 13-13.25 to 14 an hour and last week 4 go to 15 an hour.

I worked hotel before covid and last couple months trying to get a clerical at 60. Lots of interviews, but then lots of apps for them to choose from. I had an interview at 15 an hour yesterday but I just didn't want to do hotel again. Not yet. Not until I have to. The customers are so mean. To the point men (white men) from 40-60 were often enough threatening where I would stand up, grab phone, back away, ready to call 911 and plan escape route. I just feel that is not the way to go at 60.

[KentuckyWoman]

10. Our local McDs is offering $15 + $500 after 90 days.

They still struggle to fill shifts.