Too Much On Their Plate

Food service woes amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation

The COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty it brought about awakened U.S. workers to their worth. Many decided they would no longer accept being overworked for substandard pay. 

Even though wages have increased more in 2021 than in previous years, increasing inflation rates erase what little benefit earners may have seen. 

Workers across the country resigned from their positions at an unprecedented rate, with 4.4 million leaving their jobs in September 2021 alone. Though people decided to leave their roles for different reasons, many sought higher salary offers from competitor companies. Others wanted to exit the labor market entirely. 

The Great Resignation has touched virtually every industry, but one in particular seems to have been hit the hardest: food service.

In March 2020, many restaurant workers were furloughed or altogether let go as the world hastily closed up shop. Once things opened back up, workers began questioning why they continue to work for employers who were so willing to cast them aside at the first sign of peril.

Some people try to attribute labor shortages to supposed moral failures of service workers who decide to quit and not work. This is an unsubstantiated assumption, and people who espouse it have themselves failed to consider the true reasons behind why people are leaving the service industry, like low pay, long work hours and few employee benefits. 

These are often the same people who gape at the Taco Bell drive-thru when the line wraps around the whole building and huff and puff when it takes 20 minutes to get through. They are also the people who, when told they have to wait 40 minutes for a table, point to an empty table in an empty section and demand to be sat immediately, even after being told by the restaurant’s host that there are not enough servers on the floor to accommodate seating that section. 

But the point is not that people succumb to moral failings and sit at home, lazily watching each day pass. Rather than work for a laughably trivial wage, they decide to put pressure on the industry to increase pay by staying home. 

Beyond the issue of low wages, food service workers have also put themselves in high-risk situations every day throughout the ongoing pandemic. 

“It’s felt incredibly strange to continue to serve guests during a pandemic,” said Daniel Huitt, a server at a Spanish restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee. “I’m constantly stressed about my health and the possibility that I could be spreading a deadly illness without knowing it.”

Labor shortages caused many restaurants to overwork the few staff they retained, leading to widespread burnout among food service workers. After being stretched so thin in what were already physically and mentally taxing positions, many food service workers realized the costs of remaining in the industry outweighed the benefits so much that they wanted out of the industry entirely.

“After Covid, the industry became too toxic to sustain a stable mentality,” said Jordan Rodeghier, who most recently served in a popular Nashville restaurant but now works in sales. “It wasn’t worth the money anymore.”

Rodeghier is happy to have left food service to work in sales.

“[Food service] was never my endgame, and I’ve found something that could be, so I’m very happy where I am in work,” said Rodeghier.

Others continue to work in food service despite its drawbacks. Workers without college degrees see few other feasible work opportunities for themselves in this day and age.

“My main motivation for staying in the service industry is knowing that it’s the only place I can really earn a living wage without a degree,” said Huitt.

The whole country learned how essential so-called “low-skill” food service workers are to the economy in the early days of the pandemic. When many tech companies and consulting firms were shuttered for weeks or even months, food service workers kept working, putting themselves at great risk of catching the virus before anyone knew much about how it spread. 

Restaurant managers have tried to adapt to the recent labor shortages. For all the talk of workers leaving the industry, restaurants are still inundated with applicants on online job postings.

“There is a flood of applicants for every position we have,” said Kevin Mendez, a front-of-house manager at one of Nashville’s top-rated restaurants. “That’s made it fairly easy to stay decently well-staffed.”

More than ever, they are being ghosted by new hires.

“The widespread availability of jobs means a lot of workers aren’t as committed,” said Mendez. “People have come for an interview, gone through onboarding, trained for a couple days and then never showed up again. Then they send us a message days later saying they’ve accepted another job. They can jump across the street and pick up another job immediately. There’s so much mobility right now. It’s happened way too many times.”

Mendez says he is listening to his employees and wants to offer them what he can to keep them with the company. 

“We have incentives for attendance,” said Mendez. “Whoever has the best attendance gets gift certificates to local restaurants and free bottles of wine. We’ve improved our benefits package. Employees get half-off food at all times. We try our best to schedule them only during their desired availability and work with them as much as possible to give them time off when they request it.”

When asked why he wakes up every morning and decides not to leave food service like so many others have, Mendez opened up about the perks he likes best as well as his future plans.

“A stable, steady paycheck is nice,” said Mendez. “I get to keep tasting and experiencing new wines. The food is amazing. My aspirations to one day open my own establishment keep me going.”

Food service is not for everyone. Industry workers have to deal with a wide variety of people on a daily basis all while on their feet for significant amounts of time with few breaks. For some, working in the food service industry is a stepping stone to bolster a different career path. For others, it’s a side hustle used to make ends meet. For a few, it’s a passion and lifestyle. 

Even after all the chaos of the pandemic era and the Great Resignation, the food service industry will live on. Hopefully workers across the industry will continue to see higher pay and better benefits as society establishes a new normal.