Restaurant employees who have been sidelined by the coronavirus are concerned about returning to their jobs unless some assurances are made that it is safe to work in an environment where practicing social distancing is difficult — if not impossible.
“Going back to work because of the economy is not good enough for a lot of us,” said Robert Davis, a 50-year-old bartender who works at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp allowed businesses such as gyms, bowling alleys, and hair salons to reopen on April 24. The city of Atlanta is closed, but its airport remains open, as it is deemed essential. However, several shops within the airport are closed, including Davis’s place of employment, Cafe Intermezzo.
Davis supported Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s decision to keep the city closed until an advisory council weighs in on the situation.
“She really looked out for us,” he said, adding that “a lot of us are scared to go out there, and our mayor is acting rationally, not thinking about her portfolio like our governor is.”
Davis receives unemployment benefits, and after the rent is paid, there is a little left over for groceries. What he collects from unemployment is much less than the tips he earned as a bartender. To compensate for the lost income, he delves into the risky business of day trading.
“It’s not that reliable,” he said.
He says he needs facts proving that it is safe before returning to work.
“I’m not going to feel that it’s safe until someone with a medical background, like the surgeon general, gives us some data as to what has changed to give us that warm, fuzzy feeling about going back to work,” he said.
Customers also need assurances before returning to bars and restaurants, according to Bart Watson, chief economist at the Brewers Association.
“The buzzword is going to be risk mitigation. Establishments are going to need to do everything they can to create an environment that eliminates as many of these risks as possible,” he said, adding that “this is something that they are going to have to do for the health and safety of their workers, their customers, and frankly to welcome people to come back.”
Davis thinks personal protective equipment could be the new normal at bars and restaurants until a vaccine is created for the coronavirus, but the look could be off-putting to customers.
“I don’t want to be at the bar with a mask on,” he said.
Davis is lucky in that he receives unemployment benefits. Others are not so fortunate. Vanessa Calderon, a bartender at the Orlando airport, has been out of work since March 18 and has yet to receive a single payment in jobless benefits.
“Foodwise, I’m getting a little worried,” she said, adding that others who applied for unemployment benefits after she did have already received payments.
Shortly after being laid off, Calderon spent her savings to pay her rent through the end of May. She taps into her paid vacation leave to cover other expenses.
She currently has five weeks left of paid vacation leave and could face a difficult financial situation come June, when she is out of money and owes rent. Landing a new job has been made more difficult since schools have closed and she must devote hours to educate her child.
“I tried to apply anywhere I could,” she said, adding that “places want full availability, and if you’re a parent, you have to be a teacher right now. So there’s no way to give full availability.”
Calderon would also like to see her employer take precautions protecting employees from infection once they return to work, but she doesn’t have much faith that they will. Her employer is HMSHost, which staffs airports. It recently provided sleeping masks to essential employees to wear over their mouths as PPE, Calderon said.
“They did it not in an apologetic way,” she said. “They handed it to people proudly, like it was a good thing. It is scary when you think about how many people are going to go back to work and that’s what we have to work with. … Our company took a while to get everything together that they needed for only 100 employees who are currently working. What are they going to do when 600 to 700 of us come back to work?”
Not everyone who was laid off because of the coronavirus is itching to return to work. Doug Rike, a 25-year-old cook who worked at the Upland Brewing Co. in Bloomington, Indiana, receives more money collecting unemployment benefits than he earned at his job.
His boss recently notified prior employees that they are rehiring, but that everyone must be reinterviewed. While Rike has some concerns about becoming infected upon returning to work and will apply for a job after his benefits run out, the real reason for his delayed return to employment is because many of his former co-workers face financial hardship and need to return to work more than he does.
“The people who have children, they’re going to apply first so they can support their family. I can support myself, but eventually, I’m going to apply in May or maybe in June,” he said.
He and his co-workers communicate through an app called Homebase, which employers use to schedule work shifts. It also has a chatroom where Rike’s co-workers are essentially prioritizing who applies for a job at the brewery based on financial need.
“The GM and assistant GM are in the chat, so they know what is going on,” Rike said.
Rike is satisfied with how the federal government has handled the coronavirus pandemic on the financial side. He does not agree that the country should be reopened.
“I don’t think they are handling the situation very well. Trump wants to open up early. I feel like he’s jumping the gun on this. He’s not really taking his citizens’ well-being into perspective,” he said.
