I've gone to multiple restaurants of late that have had to close early (even very early, like 3pm) because they are so short staffed. Other restaurants have people waiting but have empty tables because there is no one to work them.
Restaurant workers quit at record rate
271–280 of 961 posts
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#272I live in france, and I recently went to some presentation by some "restauration job industry" school director, who tried to encourage us to apply. I was open to other jobs and I discovered that it was mostly about working in a restaurant after arriving at the presentation. It's summer, france is a destination for tourism and there is a big shortage of workers. Post covid, people want to go out and have a good time.…
> Except it's hard work, and there will always be a culture of "I pay, I decide, you work".
Isn’t that every job, though? In return for money, you do something you wouldn’t do if you weren’t paid?
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#273The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult. Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.
This is happening in more than just the United States... so your theory doesn't hold up. Also, at least near me, people living on tips make REALLY good money. Some make 6 figures. I've talked to some bar workers specifically that are totally against the idea of getting rid of tipping and the wage structure. They make really good.
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#274I live in france, and I recently went to some presentation by some "restauration job industry" school director, who tried to encourage us to apply. I was open to other jobs and I discovered that it was mostly about working in a restaurant after arriving at the presentation. It's summer, france is a destination for tourism and there is a big shortage of workers. Post covid, people want to go out and have a good time.…
Restaurants by and large are not high revenue businesses. Most small grocers generate more revenue in 1 to 2 months than a restaurant will generate in a year.
It seems like restaurant owners in the US turn over often, varying from every few months to 3 years on the outside. Seems like a really stressful industry that can have good margins, but maintaining profitability is hard and consumers are quite fickle.
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#275Good. Here's my story from the industry I was a part of for a better part of a decade: One time while I was a line cook, I was cleaning a meat slicer and sliced 3/4ths of the way through the tip of my thumb (just the meaty part at the end, not bone or anything). I realized I had 2 options: Leave work, go to the ER, miss my shift/pay, and incur a bunch of medical debt I could barely afford OR; leave work, go to the CV…
Do you not have workers comp? I sliced my thumb open working at a Kroger deli, never got even a hint of a bill. Workers comp covered everything.
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#276The restaurant industry has known the solution for a long time but everyone wants to pretend it would be too difficult. Stop the tipping guilt trip placed on the public, raise your prices 20%, and pay your employees a livable wage. The public will still show up to eat in your restaurant.
The pay generally isn’t the issue; especially, tipped positions. It’s the work conditions, treatment by management and customers, the inconsistency in hours, and no benefits. We’re seeing here in Portland that people still don’t want return to restaurants at $15/hr. Restaurants suck to work at.
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#277I live in france, and I recently went to some presentation by some "restauration job industry" school director, who tried to encourage us to apply. I was open to other jobs and I discovered that it was mostly about working in a restaurant after arriving at the presentation. It's summer, france is a destination for tourism and there is a big shortage of workers. Post covid, people want to go out and have a good time.…
It's not slavery, that's a ridiculously naive and dumb statement. It's a shitty job, but it's not slavery.
There's no inherent reason why it has to be a terrible job, either.
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
Folks raise that spectre when a living wage is mentioned. "So many service jobs lost!" I shake my head at that - folks who imagine themselves Free Market advocates, and here they are agreeing with Karl Marx that a capitalist system can't survive without a slave-wage class to prop it up. Paying everybody a living wage should be the minimum bar for any economy. If ours can't do it, we need a different one.
> and here they are agreeing with Karl Marx that a capitalist system can't survive without a slave-wage class to prop it up. The employers aren't obligated to employ anyone. What do you think happens to the "slave-wage class" when the job disappears entirely?
No specific employer is obligated to employ a specific employee, but we as a society have an obligation not to allow a slave-wage class to exist. We can do this, but we choose not to.
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
Restaurant work sucks, it's not tipping's fault. I don't work nearly as hard as a software developer compared to when I was a waiter or cook. Software development is lower stress most of the time too.
Some folks would say the same thing about software development sucking. I think it probably depends on which restaurant you work at and on your skill set and ability to thrive in that fast paced environment. The difference is that software is easier money if you have the knack for that type of work. But it’s like anything: you have folks who are passionate about cooking but not business savvy. They might be excellent…
I think this is a little ignorant of the actual, moment-to-moment realities of working these jobs.
Software development is done from a laptop, in whatever air-conditioned room or office you'd like.
Restaurant work is, by definition, hot, loud, and surrounded by people who treat you like a servant.
You could take two people who have the exact same "knack" for each profession, and one of them would still be much more miserable.
It just sucks more to be in a restaurant than it does to write code. I think that's kind of tough to argue.
Re: Restaurant workers quit at record rate
#280I live in france, and I recently went to some presentation by some "restauration job industry" school director, who tried to encourage us to apply. I was open to other jobs and I discovered that it was mostly about working in a restaurant after arriving at the presentation. It's summer, france is a destination for tourism and there is a big shortage of workers. Post covid, people want to go out and have a good time.…
Restaurants by and large are not high revenue businesses. Most small grocers generate more revenue in 1 to 2 months than a restaurant will generate in a year. It seems like restaurant owners in the US turn over often, varying from every few months to 3 years on the outside. Seems like a really stressful industry that can have good margins, but maintaining profitability is hard and consumers are quite fickle.
How is this a justification for paying workers less than a livable wage?