For former sous chef David Gibson, last Christmas was a good one, considering what he’d endured in the months leading up to it. After 15 years of work in the service industry ...
But he didn’t go back to the hotel steakhouse where he’d been laid off. It was still closed. Instead, he’s now happily employed as a dispatcher for a truck company. “I make more doing this than working over 55 hours a week as a sous chef,” Gibson said.
Then there is this from Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, reported byBut here’s the thing about shit jobs and unemployment benefits: The people who have those jobs still have to pay rent and buy food, and those temporary, higher unemployment benefits are long gone. So, where have all the busboys gone?
“We lost so many people, and how many of them worked retail or food industry jobs — high volume places with people in and out?” former bartender Jayme Campbell said. There’s been very little discussion in public forums of the effect reduced business had on tipped workers. Campbell told us that people who continued working had to “go there all day and just pray that someone comes in so you can make $20.
Whether from low earnings or low claimed earnings on taxes in a business with loads of cash tips, some workers didn’t qualify for unemployment or would receive a low weekly payment. Others had difficulty navigating the system or found that going weeks on end without income was too discouraging to persevere.
In other cases, furloughed workers focused on skills outside the kitchen and put them to use in their own businesses. From seamstress services and Etsy stores to cottage food businesses and lawn mowing, during the pandemic, we saw former cooks, baristas, bartenders and waitresses helping their neighborhoods in order to support themselves.
When it became clear the U.S. wouldn’t be spared from coronavirus, that changed. “No one knew what would happen, so at first we were given the option of a paid month off or continuing to work with a $3-an-hour temporary raise,” he said. “I took the paid month off. For some, the jolt from the pandemic opened their eyes to new possibilities outside the industry that, for whatever its shortcomings, offers jobs with flexible hours, a sociable environment and pay that’s frequently delivered nightly in cash.
Heather Clark, the former kitchen manager of Hypnotic Donuts, told us the hours, especially during the pandemic, were grueling. “I'm so over working when everyone else is sleeping. I didn't realize just how much of a toll it took on me mentally and physically, how much it affected my relationship with my partner and my other relationships until it was glaringly obvious,” she said of the months when they operated minus two workers who asked to be furloughed and never returned.
Despite the opportunity some have to make great money and meet great people, Tasha said she found “zero support, high rates of addiction, dependency and criminal records. It’s almost commonplace to have a DWI in this industry.In combined data from 2008 to 2012, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found workers in the restaurant industry to be at the highest risk for illicit drug use and substance use disorder . The industry ranks third in binge drinking .
But with a tight labor market, Thorn says those practices are not only cruel but those in the service industry now see that they can do better. He points to Voodoo Doughnut in Portland, which was able to hire back 90% of their furloughed staff, who earn “well above minimum wage” and also get health insurance, time-and-a-half for working the company’s 12 paid holidays and a fun environment.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
More Dumb 'Core Values' From the Greater Cleveland PartnershipHaving clocked the schizophrenia of trying to cast the poorest city in the United States as the greatest city in the world, and having tried...
Read more »
Nicole Kidman has a laugh playing Lucille BallWATCH: Nicole Kidman says she enjoyed playing the beloved American comedian Lucille Ball in 'Being the Ricardos'
Read more »
14 Can't-Miss Deals from Everlane's End of Year Sale - E! OnlineScore up to 60% off puffer jackets, vests, denim, athleisure and more stylish must-haves.
Read more »
All Scrambled Up: An Expat's Christmas BreakfastEvery year, our Christmas breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon, and a virgin Mary, made with some Bloody Mary cocktail mix, specifically brought home for the occasion from the most recent trip abroad. But the bacon available to us wasn't the belly bacon available here in the US; it was loin bacon, or Canadian bacon, and, to boot, it was bad—it was badly cured ham. And yet, I now remember those breakfasts fondly, and it's mostly because of those scrambled eggs.
Read more »
NASCAR driver who unintentionally sparked ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ chant says corporations don’t want to sponsor himNASCAR driver Brandon Brown says corporations have hesitated sponsoring him after 'Let's Go, Brandon!' chants went viral
Read more »