The Globe and Mail
The pandemic left the restaurant industry reeling, with up to two-thirds of food service workers losing their jobs during the shutdown. Now that things are opening back up, restaurants find themselves in desperate need of workers – and baffled that they can’t seem to find them.
I was a server for 15 years. When the pandemic struck a year-and-a-half ago, I was one of millions of food service workers – cooks, bussers, hosts and servers – who were furloughed as the world shut down. I’m also among those who chose not to return to the industry when things began to open back up. I’m one of your missing service workers.
Let me shed some light on the “mystery” of this labour shortage: With an abysmally low rate of pay, bad (often erratic) hours, no sick days and near-constant sexual harassment, racism, sexism and queerphobia, working in service sucks.
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