"I'm a 41 year-old chef of 20 years. I worked my way from dishwasher all the way to executive chef. When the pandemic hit, I was laid off, and I left the industry for good. The service industry is incredibly demanding of your personal time, and the pay never truly equals the amount of time you devote to your career. My starting pay in the industry was $7.25/hour , and I left the industry, twenty years later, being paid a $36,000 salary.
"When we got laid off for COVID, I was honestly so relieved to not work there anymore that I didn't even care how I was going to pay for rent and food. I'd rather be destitute than ever go back there. When they asked me back in June 2020, it felt so good to say 'no thanks' — though I wish I'd said more.""I didn't leave because of the money. The money was fantastic — I can't make money like that anywhere else.
"While I still work in a restaurant , I dread walking in there every single night of my life. Hopefully, this is my last semester ever working in the restaurant industry.""I waited tables for 10 years, and I don't miss it at all. The company and managers only care about money, and the customers are so verbally abusive and entitled. Everyone should have to work in a restaurant at one point in their lives, just so they know howto treat restaurant staff.