TW: mentions depression
Before the pandemic, I remember having a full time job in a restaurant with a TON of staff. The work was moderately laborious but the hours were distributed evenly so it was no stress at all. During the pandemic, all of my coworkers quit because of the stimulus checks so we were severely understaffed, and the remaining few employees (including me) were forced to pick up 1-2 persons worth of extra work every day, and we were all working 6-7 days a week for MONTHS.
During this time, the store got busier than ever. We were absolutely overwhelmed with work, and more and more employees were quitting every day. And the icing on the cake was getting screamed at by customers ALL DAY. I was 17/18 years old getting yelled at by 5-10 grown men every single day- because their orders were wrong, they didn't want to wear a mask, etc.
I have gotten 4 new jobs since then and each one has been basically the same. Ridiculously understaffed with helicopter management and horrendous treatment from customers. And that's not even including the $13-$15 an hour pay with the ABSOLUTE MINIMAL rent in my area being $1000+ /month.
In my opinion, the pandemic has caused the working conditions in America to become infinitely abysmal within the last 2 years. The same people who were screaming in my face because they had to wear a mask in May 2020 are the SAME people saying “nobody wants to work anymore.” NOBODY WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE BECAUSE NOBODY WHO ISNT DESPERATE TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE wants to run around for 9 1/2 hours WITH NO BREAK getting chastised by everybody around them for $13 an hour, 50 hours a week. It's absolutely dehumanizing and detrimental to the soul. My personal experience within the last 2 years has become so unbearable that I became deeply sicidal for MONTHS from getting broken down so much at work. I would drive to work, sobbing in my car because I want to de so bad and then walk in and get yelled at for not working fast enough. WORKERS NEED TO BE PAID MORE AND TREATED NICER OR NOBODY WILL EVER WANT TO GO BACK TO WORK AGAIN. And anybody who says “nobody wants to work anymore” wouldn't last 45 minutes serving at Denny's, period.