The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown order and the order to wear masks have had a serious impact on the psychology of Americans. Although most of the focus has been on the economic losses caused by the coronavirus outbreak, it seems to have affected the way Americans get along.
This trend can be seen in a recent report, detailing the dynamics between food service employees and customers as the country strives to recover from the pandemic. Due to the shortage of workers, which is largely caused by the expansion of increased federal unemployment benefits, restaurants and other types of small businesses have been understaffed, but still have difficulty maintaining their operations.
In the case of a severe shortage of employees, the difficulty of running a business has caused a certain degree of friction between employees and customers. They seem to be unaware of the challenges faced by the strained workforce. CNN According to the report, in some cases, restaurant staff are facing increasingly unruly and aggressive customers than before the pandemic. In at least some of these cases, these workers quit their jobs because of their harshness.
One of the employees interviewed by CNN was Joshuah Morton, a 36-year-old waiter in Phoenix, Arizona, who returned to work because “it was frustrating to sit at home all the time.” He first started staying at home because he had diabetes and his four-year-old son had an immunodeficiency. He pointed out that many employees “just come out in shifts” due to treatment issues. He told CNN that when customers arrive at their table, they are “already angry and want to complain.”
Kat Combs, who works at an Asian fusion restaurant in Richmond, Virginia, told CNN that although most of her customers performed well, she noticed that after the reopening, several customers were not so good. she says:
On the first night we reopened, someone came to the bar and yelled at our manager. [He said] “You need to hire more employees”, as if she can solve this problem right away, right there.
Combs explained that although the table is empty, many customers become angry when they have to wait for the table. They don’t understand the reality of understaffed restaurants, so they don’t have enough manpower to serve them immediately.
SF gate A report was also published in which the author spoke with food service workers who told similar stories. Vi Nguyen, the owner of Berkeley Vanessa’s Bistro, recalled an incident in which a customer stood in front of the kitchen and screamed at her because the server went wrong. she says:
This is the beginning of the reopening, we have a series of takeaway orders. Her husband stood at the door and said,’She is hungry! She needs her food now!
Nguyen explained that this situation has become more normal since California reopened on June 15. She even had to ban the behavior of some regular customers.
“A gentleman yelled to my waiter,’I don’t understand why you don’t have more tables’… because they didn’t want to wait for a table. They were just super rude,” she recalled. “Where do you want me to put all these extra tables? Where does the car drive on the road?”
Mina Makram, founder of Palo Alto’s Misfits Bakehouse, said she has been “seeing a dramatic increase in the number of people forgetting to be human.”
From CNN:
Makram tells the story of a customer who ordered a bread pickup on the Friday before Memorial Day, but it never showed up, and then it happened when she arrived next Wednesday and found out that her order was no longer available. When he didn’t give her the refund she asked for, she left a one-star rating on Yelp.
“Then she filed a fraudulent claim with her bank,” Markram said. “The bank withdrew the amount from our order, but also fined us $15. … As far as I can see, she stole something from the bakery.”
These salty customers react irrationally to situations beyond the control of the restaurants they frequent. They assume that since the economy has reopened, everything is the same as before the pandemic. Although people have recently begun to return to work after the cancellation of federal unemployment benefits in the states, small businesses still do not have the level of staffing before the pandemic.
Sergio Emilio Monleón of La Marcha Tapas Bar in Berkeley told SFGate that “people just want everything to be perfect” even though the restaurant is “solving labor shortages” and has to train brand new employees.
These are just a few of the reports about grumpy customers.This trend has already appeared in retail and airlines industry as well as.
It seems reckless to emphasize the trend of people becoming increasingly annoying to workers due to the impact of the coronavirus. But it is worth considering whether this issue will transcend the service industry. The pandemic has brought fierce debate and raised questions that seem to divide the country further.
Debates abound about which COVID restrictions are necessary or appropriate. Recently, two groups of pro-mask and anti-mask protesters engaged in physical violence in front of a breast cancer clinic that required patients to wear masks.
New video: Anti-mask protesters and anti-protesters including SoCal Antifa fought outside a breast cancer clinic in Los Angeles on Thursday over their request for patients to wear masks.
The video in the thread was taken by @N2Sreports Contributor Jack Lee Green @AeonPhotoCo pic.twitter.com/gm22yiJp2r
-Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) July 24, 2021
There are many other violent incidents against the government or companies Need a mask. It has become a worrying trend, and it does not seem to disappear anytime soon.
It may take some time for the United States to return to normal. In fact, some people may believe that we may never get there. However, it is worth considering whether the way Americans treat each other will return to normal when the economy is fully open and companies are fully staffed. Will more and more hoaxes continue or subside?
