Why don’t you have my back?

Testimonial by Larisa M., former server/host

1) As a current/former/future restaurant worker, how has the pandemic changed your perspective on the restaurant industry? How has it impacted your willingness to work in the industry?

LM: The last restaurant job I worked, which I quit in July 2020, left me feeling manipulated and abandoned by a management team that I once believed would have my back. Before the pandemic, the folks I worked with made the busy nights and tough customers easier to bear. Reopening for dine-in in summer 2020 came with top-down pressure to return to work; any sense of camaraderie disappeared. Our asks for hazard pay and higher base wages were scoffed at by the president of the restaurant group. Our regional manager stressed that serving customers for dine-in was “good for their mental health”. What about workers’ mental health? I was suddenly serving unmasked customers 5 nights a week and upholding the false image that dining in during a pandemic was “safe”. The mounting pressure caused my anxiety and panic attacks to skyrocket, and I quit, unsure how I would earn an income but unwilling to continue putting myself on the line. I miss the industry but I’d rather explore other career paths than risk returning to this type of environment.

2) What would you like to see change in the restaurant industry? What changes would encourage you to return to work in a restaurant/food service environment?

LM: Abolishing the tipped subminimum wage of $2.83/hr is non-negotiable, in my opinion. I did well earning tips in “normal” times, but there will always be a certain lack of autonomy when the people you serve are responsible for your paycheck. BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ people are vulnerable to earning fewer tips due to customers’ prejudices. Back-of-house workers earn poverty wages for challenging work, too, with industry standards around $10 or $11/hr. Restaurant work is physically and mentally demanding, and yet it is degraded and dismissed by those who have never been in our positions. This rhetoric justifies our working conditions. It is the responsibility of an employer to provide dignified work for a living wage, at least $15/hr, with benefits including paid sick leave, PTO and healthcare. If you cannot offer that to employees, you are not a job creator but an exploiter of the working class.

3) What issues were you experiencing in the restaurant industry before the pandemic?

LM: Almost every feminine-presenting person I have worked with or or talked to in the restaurant industry has been sexually harassed or assaulted by a coworker, manager, or customer. As many as 90% of women and 70% of men in the restaurant industry reported experiencing sexual harassment in 2018, and it has increased in frequency since the start of the pandemic. I have been sexually harassed by coworkers and managers both on and off the clock, and have watched harassers and abusers with multiple reports against them keep their jobs while their victims are silenced. No one should have to put up with abuse, especially not in their workplace.