Are there any areas that you feel like are making some progress as far as better work conditions?
I'll start: Businesses that close on Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day. I worked in restaurants for ten years, and always dreaded the holiday black out period for requesting off. It was just a given that you'd be at work on Christmas or Thanksgiving. I like hearing about corporations that have closed on those days in recent years. I know damn well they're not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. I'm guessing that it just was just a losing battle to get staff to work those days instead of just straight up quitting. I believe that is a case where workers finally one. We are not putting up with missing out on holidays with our loved ones anymore.
Another one is the number of businesses I have noticed who have modified their business to accommodate low staffing. For example, big corporate businesses like McDonalds or Dunkin that will lock the doors to the lobby and strictly keep the drive thru open. At the very least, it creates a single line for the few employees to focus on one at a time instead of being crushed from all sides.
Similarly, restaurants that will close down entire sections if they don't have the staff to keep the entire restaurant open. I worked in restaurants for a decade when I was younger. We would do a “mock wait” where we'd put guests on a wait list at the door despite still having open tables, just to give servers and the kitchen a chance to catch up. Some places don't even do that anymore. They just fill up the tables in the open sections then tell any guests who walk in that, if they want a table, theyll have to wait for one in the open sections to come available. The other tables in the “closed” section of the restaurant are straight up CLOSED and not an option. Some restaurants will still use the good old covid excuse for not filling to max capacity. But come on. I worked in restaurants for years. I know they don't give a fuck about their moral responsibility to prevent the spread of viruses. GTFOH. I spent ten years being pressured to come to work despite whatever illness I had. They don't care about their employees or if their guests might also catch a virus. If a restaurant isn't operating at max capacity, then I know it's because they don't have the expendable staff to deal with being overworked due to understaffed and risk yet another person getting fed up and quitting. That's a win for the work force.