Today I had the absolute displeasure of walking into a “family run business” with the family nowhere to be found, and a young girl still in university doing almost everything at the little restaurant. Cleaning, serving, cash, literally everything. She was being paid the minimum wage for her age, (I live in Europe) which is lower than the adult minimum wage. To basically run the place. She couldn't even string a sentence together other than the basic “How can I help you” etc. I really saw myself from years ago, struggling like that, burning out. Nobody was behind me in line. So I asked if she was ok. She said yes, and i said you don't look ok, are you sick. So she said she was tired but it was all good. I told her to take her time with the order. She said the family owners would complain if she was slow, and that if she was done with a customer she immediately had to do something else like clean etc. She told me they were sitting down at the restaurant and not to look immediately but later. I looked behind me later and there they were, 3 people, just relaxing, on their computers. Ridiculous. Apparently they had all main jobs and this was their “investment”. Sorry, but it was almost full and they couldn't even lend a hand to her? And she has to do everything? I asked if she was paid per hour, she said yes. I asked if overtime was paid, she said they made sure she wouldn't do too much overtime because they didn't want to pay it. So maybe 10 mins a day extra. Good. So then I asked her about literally everything on the menu. I made sure I was loud and I took like 20 minutes to ask about everything (my lunch break is 30 mins). She realised what I was doing eventually and kind of made herself comfortable. In the end I tipped her and she refused (tipping is not in the culture) but she said she smiled and said “thanks very much for coming”. I told her I might call sometime to order (because it's very close to my house) and so I would probably forget all the information she told me and would have to ask again, and she could pretend I was asking stuff for however long she wanted and I would just lay the phone on the side, and she could hang up when she wanted. I have unlimted calling so I don't care. She laughed, and in the end it was a nice experience. I did it for myself to be honest, I struggled like that too. But yea, wanted to vent out in the void how much I hate outsourcing work disproportionately. Poor girl.