Covid-19 has been in our lives for a couple of years now and has changed the lives of millions of people. I am a restaurant manager and the struggle is so real with regard to having a full staff to work with due to a lot of colleagues leaving the industry. Due to a shortage of staff managers have no choice but to where many “different hats” to their daily activities which can be very stressful that affects the mind and body.
Managers are now having more anxiety in their day-to-day duties due to the lack of staff that and thinking outside the box can be a way to deal with the day-to-day duties. On a typical weekend night before Covid, many establishments would have a full staff both in the kitchen and in the dining room now most places struggle with that. A lot of guests don’t understand when you tell them it’s going to be 20 minute wait time even though you have all these open tables but only have 2 servers to take care of them when before Covid you have 6 or 7 servers on the dining room floor.
As a restaurant manager, you now have to explain why there is a wait and then deal with the guest’s reaction, which at times can be very difficult. In the past year, I have been yelled at, cursed at, and even threatened with violence because of the guest anger.
This affects me in a lot of different ways and speaking with other restaurant managers they also have the same feelings of a lot of my co-workers. First it is the feeling of going to work wondering who is not going to show up and what I am going to have to do to get through the night. That feeling starts when you wake up in the morning and can last all day until you get to work. That affects your personal life in so many ways. Before Covid if I was working the night shift you had a lot of time to run errands or enjoy some other kind of activity. Now for me it can be very depressing these days knowing my shift is going to be like a trip to hell which can keep me inside until you have face your fears and the anxiety of going to work not knowing how are you going to be treated by the public.
I’m very interest in hearing other people thoughts in regards to stress at the workplace due to the staff shortage in any occupation. What are you doing to handle it? How does it affect your personal life outside of work?
Thanks,
Kevin