The title is a bit clunky, but I didn't know how better to phrase it. When you work in the service industry, be it at a restaurant or retail or whatever, you begin to understand how much misery goes into making just one customer satisfied.
Service workers work long hours, constantly on their feet, catering not just to customer's physical needs, but mental needs as well. Being cheery, polite, and trying to make conversation with customers to improve the experience is just as taxing as providing the physical service.
So, when you get out of work and step back out into the real world, you begin to feel an immense amount of guilt as a consumer. You walk into a coffee shop, and you know exactly the kind of shit those workers put up with and for how little pay. You start thinking about how you are part of the problem. How these shitty workplaces only sustain themselves because enough consumers either don't know or don't care how bad the workers have it.
For me, it has essentially immobilized me. I don't want to go anywhere. I don't want to contribute to another worker's misery. I don't want anyone else to go through the shit I do.