I can recall the exact moment that I snapped. It took place in a popular restaurant in my city at 6:41 p.m. on a Friday evening in late summer of 2021. I was crouched in a corner next to the host stand, patiently waiting for my takeout order. On a bench across from me sat a man and a woman with face masks pulled down to their chins, exchanging looks of indignation with one another.
In perfect timing, the host walked over right in the middle of my rant. Wide-eyed, he handed me my dinner and said in a hushed tone, “Thank you for saying that.” I wanted to hug him. Instead, I nodded, thanked him and slowly turned back to the waiting couple. Just when it seemed like we were all finding our groove with social distancing culture, the supply chain broke apart, inflation boomed andNot everyone joined the Big Quit. Many service and retail professionals continue to stick it out. Gainfully employed at grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants, budget motels and fancy resorts, they work hard shift after shift to give the rest of the world some semblance of normality.
I stumbled upon one of these particularly harsh reviews when I was looking up the hours of operation for a nearby grocery store. “We are exhausted. First, we were terrified not only for ourselves, but for our families. We all have kids. Then the schools shut down and we began pulling even more of a double duty. Now, after three years of this, there’s no room for fear, there’s no room for joy. We are just obliterated,” she told me. “We are in survival mode.”I have several friends and colleagues in the service, retail and hospitality industries who have been pushed to their limits.
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