I was working last night at a restaurant on the west coast when the owner poured shots for everyone in the house, customers and staff alike, to celebrate the lifting of mask mandates on the east coast. Everyone was elated, but I couldn't help but feel resignation at the fact that after a million people dying in the last few years that as a society we did nothing to make our situation better. Nearly two thousand people are dying a day from COVID and basically people are celebrating the release of responsibility for people losing their lives so that they can get back to what they consider to be “normal”. I ended up the only person in the establishment wearing a mask. A customer goaded me to take it off. The owner said that soon my mask would be illegal, to which I replied, “I guess I'm an outlaw”. Thankfully, he laughed at that. I worked in the service industry before the pandemic, but everything that happened put a stark light on everything wrong with the industry. I feel like I am a good worker, and I deeply care about the people who I work alongside, but I also feel like the place where they exist mentally is borderline narcissistic and is ultimately tiring. I don't know how to conduct myself in the coming days. Do I hold on to these socially responsible habits? Or recognize that they are futile in the face of overwhelming burnout and apathy and move on with things? It is devastatingly frustrating to me. I've tried so hard to do the right thing for two years now and it feels like it was all for naught.
Edit: I should also note the owner went around asking people if they got COVID. If you said no, he said, “You're unworthy!”. I don't know what the hell he meant by that, but when he said it to me I told him I had a history of lung conditions and I didn't want to risk getting infected, and he suddenly shut up about it.