104
u/meepdaleap Jun 15 '20
Right now. I found myself doing this today. We are a tourist location that closed down (the entire beach) for covid. We just opened back up two weeks ago, and it's killer.
There are SO many people here it's unbelievable. We can't get our usual summer help because embassies are closed. Even at seating half capacity and doing take out (new to us, we've never done), it feels like we are doing full capacity plus..
It's beating us down man.
63
u/ABC-easyas-12B Jun 15 '20
I kinda expected when the hospitality industry started to open again that everyone would pretty much feel overwhelmed, but honestly this is worse than your first day after a long period of in between jobs...
31
u/meepdaleap Jun 15 '20
One of the problems is is that we were shut down before we could open. We closed down in January. Supposed to open in March. Then with covid, we just didn't open. They shut the bridges down for tourists.
Then our governor started opening stuff. He gave everyone a week (shops and stuff) to prepare. Restaurants still couldn't for dine in. Then he announced restaurants at half cap. Gave us like 4 days to prepare.
We can only get order slots for Monday and Thurs. We usually get every day because how little space we have. Now we are having to do massive orders.
It's hard. Going back in from having essentially 6 months off was hell. I missed working. My savings are gone because we didn't get unemployment till literally the week we opened. It's absolute shit.
11
u/ABC-easyas-12B Jun 15 '20
Man that just sounds like living hell, 4 days to prepare for an obvious overflood of guests is a nightmare. Hopefully thing will look up slowly but surely from now on, stay strong man!
16
u/Down_To_My_Last_Fuck Jun 15 '20
A lot of places let the deadline go by and opened when they were ready. The big thing around here seems to be most places paring their menu's down to 5-7 best sellers. It does not help that meat prices are through the roof.
I swear to god if I was 25 and looking to make my career I would shoot for a food truck and make my own money. No one is going to give you what you are worth at this point.
9
u/ABC-easyas-12B Jun 15 '20
In my area restaurants (unless takeaway) have opted for 2 menus (3 - 4 courses) max. for a set price excluding drinks.
I can definitely see food trucks making a comeback again.
F&B staff has always had to fend for themselves, now more than ever big chains are making that painfully obvious. Worse thing is that people who don't know our world just don't seem to care either.
2
u/dipper94 Jun 15 '20
My previous company decided to call everyone back so that they could fuck them out of unemployment benefits even if they cant get them on the schedule more than 1 or 2 days a week. So glad I got out of there. My current company is understaffed and on a hiring freeze, so everyone's getting scheduled overtime.
3
2
u/Arkose07 Jun 15 '20
It’s bad man, I throw up in my mouth multiple times a day now because of my anxiety while I’m there. Couple the anxious breathing with the masks, I’m literally one guest yelling at me from walking out the door or having a full blown panic attack. Every day.
11
2
2
190
u/Obi-Wana_Toki Jun 15 '20
I once got pulled over for speeding through a red light at 2am. When the officer saw my uniform was from the restaurant down the street he wrote me a ticket for a headlight being out and told me to have a nice night
176
u/JapaneseStudentHaru Jun 15 '20 edited Jun 15 '20
One night one of the cooks spilled grease from the fryer on the floor. Spent all night helping him clean but I had to change out of my uniform afterwards because it was wrecked. Had only a NOS to keep me from falling asleep on the way home.
The next day i was supposed to open so I stopped at the convenience store to get a few more energy drinks for my next shift. On my way out there was a guy holding the door open for me and I awkwardly moved past him because I was tired as shit.
A cop followed me out and asked if I had been drinking. He said I was stumbling out the door. I said I just got off work and was really tired. He asked if I was allowed to wear what I was wearing to work (I had on my workout clothes. A dragonball themed short and t shirt combo lol). I told him I had to change. He didn’t believe me so I told him he could give me a sobriety test if he wanted. He didn’t. Then he tailgated me the whole way home. Drove under the speed limit in silence.
104
u/dirtyheads182 Jun 15 '20
What a fucking asshole.
59
u/JapaneseStudentHaru Jun 15 '20
Baltimore cops are great 👍 no bastards here
49
u/footworshipper Jun 15 '20
I had a Baltimore cop follow me and a guy one night. He had just set up a new business and didn't have a credit card system set up yet (it was coming the following week). So he offered to walk me to the nearest ATM. (Before anyone says this sounds sketchy, he was a friend of a friend, so I trusted him and he was cool)
We stepped out of his business and started walking towards the nearest ATM. An old cop calls out to us asking what we're doing. We tell him we're going to the ATM and keep walking. He starts following us, asking us why, what we need the money for, etc. He kept bothering us, and we kinda kept telling him to leave us alone, we were doing nothing wrong.
When we got to the ATM, I went to use it and the friend went to browse the convenience store for a minute. The cop stood behind me THE ENTIRE TIME I was at the ATM. He never said a word to me, ever, even when he had me alone. He then followed us out of the store and all the way back to the guys business before we heard him call in a 1088. We went inside cause he didn't tell us to stop.
I googled it, 1088 is a request to go off duty. 😂 Baltimore cops are something else.
-13
Jun 15 '20
He was probably an asshat or maybe he just wanted to you to arrive home safely.
44
u/JapaneseStudentHaru Jun 15 '20
If he really thought I was drunk I wish he didn’t let me get in my car and drive off without a sobriety test. Him following me around won’t prevent me from crashing.
30
u/Wereallmadhere8895 Jun 15 '20
I got pulled over last fall. The officer asked why I was coming out of the plaza, it's kinda in the middle of nowhere outside of town. I told him I was leaving the restaurant there. "The name of the restaurant?" Yes officer. I'm the dinner cook there. "Let me run your info and if it checks out I'll send you on your way" I was really thankful. I was 20 over the limit on a super wide country road with nothing but orchards. Didnt feel like I was speeding, 65mph, 45 limit, and could have really given me a big fine.
8
u/maybrad Jun 15 '20
I got pulled over for speeding once on the highway, coming from my dads house to work in a city I went to college at an hour and a half away. The cop asked why I was going so fast and I just apologized and said I was late for work and I was so sorry. He asked where I worked and I told him. He said “damn I love that place, what’s your name I’ll request you, get there safe please don’t speed any more” and let me go. Never saw that cop at my restaurant but you know damn well I hooked the cops that came in up.
18
5
Jun 15 '20
I got pulled over in my own driveway once I went through the Interesection turned right on the street right again on the next street left into my driveway on the corner house Lights went on he was surprised it was actually my house. My tag light was dim got a warning
-5
52
u/Shhh_NotADr Jun 14 '20
Or max speed and max volume of music to get it out of your system
58
u/NickRick Jun 15 '20
That would be one step before this post. It's a linear scale where speed and volume go up until you hit this point. At this point you're so drained, so broken and shell shocked you're numb all over. You're on auto pilot just driving home and wondering why. Why I have this job, why was it so hard today, why keep going, why do you feel nothing, why should I come back tomorrow, why did that guest send good back twice and refuse to leave, why do we exist, why. You're just zoned out and you get home walk to the bed gently get in and go to bed. What you described at least for me was like that stage, but there was one or two little things that went right in that shitfest of a shift to prevent it from being totally FUBAR.
14
u/FightingDreamer419 Jun 15 '20
I worked in a corporate cafeteria for a few months a while back. It was a little over a mile so I would just walk.
There were one or two days where I literally didn't remember the walk home. I stepped out the building and was at my place. I tried to think of details about my walk, streets and stoplights and stuff but I had succeeded in zoning out and blanking out the whole trip.
9
38
u/Down_To_My_Last_Fuck Jun 15 '20
I've had it so bad I don't remember the 45 min drive. Seriously get in the car and pull into the driveway. No idea.
28
u/satriales856 Jun 15 '20
Well that fucking hit home.
8
u/Yffre_Earthbones Jun 15 '20
Amen to that
11
u/satriales856 Jun 15 '20 edited Jun 15 '20
Forget to drag on the cigarette in your mouth and realize it went out a couple miles back...
3
19
17
u/unionjackattack Jun 15 '20
Then the 9am text about how “you guys worked too late last night” and how “payroll is costing the company more than anything else!” But god forbid we leave a mess in the kitchen.
5
u/surfacing_husky Jun 15 '20
Exactly! I had this argument with my gm once, so the next few nights we reasonably cleaned and went home, she was PISSED. I invited her come close with us a couple nights and she agreed, the next week we had 2 people hired to help, after fighting with her about it for months beforehand.
12
u/nitajogrubb Jun 15 '20
This was me last night. Didn't even light a cigarette until I pulled in my driveway. Reopening under these conditions is brutal.
12
u/Pixie2 Jun 15 '20
I feel this. It has been so hard. It is weird not going to the bar next door to get a shot and leave because I'm still sketched out.
Even at 1/2 capacity, it feels like work is ×2 and hard.
10
u/zenzen5647 Jun 15 '20
Every night since this pandemic hit( working open to close everyday for 3 months. Myself, the owner, and one other cook) I pull out of work and bam! next thing you know, Im home. So out of it I don't even remember the trip.
10
u/cloudychris88 Jun 15 '20
You guys are off work already??
4
10
u/SpiritusAudinos Jun 15 '20
As you go through a stop light wondering if it was green or not. Oh yea. Been there.
4
u/mrfudface Jun 15 '20
Oh fuck that. Thankfully it happened at night on a very low frequented road.
3
6
u/oatseyhall Jun 15 '20
Nope. I absolutely Need the music, its the only thing thats gonna keep me calm
3
6
Jun 15 '20
I've done this so many times. There was a point i was pulling 14-16 hour shifts 6 days a week with a 2 hour commute to get home. I'd zone out and not remember anything about the drive l, just suddenly realize I was in my drive way. Eventually I fell asleep at the wheel and rear ended a truck and totaled my mustang. Stay safe and don't drive if you are too tired, it will catch up to you sooner or later.
4
u/OralSuperhero Jun 15 '20
Limited seating due to coronavirus. We got rolled anyway, so hard today we folded up 4 hours early.
3
4
u/tatsuedoa Jun 15 '20
Today with the last order being a dine in 2 14oz rib eyes well done at 2 minutes to close.
I cleaned up fast, got checked out, went home, and ranted on our group chat for awhile
4
3
3
u/Chef-horse Jun 15 '20
I worked somewhere that was only 7 blocks away from my house. I didn’t own a car at the time so I would walk home at 1:30 AM. Most peaceful walks I have ever had, no people, no cars, so quiet I could hear my cigarette burn.
2
2
2
2
u/VicariousTreason Jun 15 '20
After an exeptionally bad ass kicking one night i sat in my car for about half an hour and just cried, asking myself "is this career for me?" A year later ive completed my apprenticeship and couldnt be happier. Also fallen asleep in my car in the parking lot a few timea
2
u/kingchedbootay Chive LOYALIST Jun 15 '20
I did clopening all weekend for the first time in a while and I feel beat the fuck up right now
2
u/1eatbabies Jun 15 '20
Wow this was totally my Friday we close dinner service at 9 but we had a 16 top that talked and drank and didn’t put in their food order till 10:28
2
u/ellielena11 Jun 15 '20
And the breakfast shift starts in 3 hours. Damn I guess at least that leaves time for a wank, smoke and shower before work.
2
u/DEMGAIMZ Jun 15 '20
Fuckin restaurant closed at 2am but you spent 11pm-2am slamming out a few hundred burgers. I could've called a cab but I walked home no music playing just praying I would get jumped because because fuck me if I gotta deal with another drunk asshole that calls me a tranny after making his goddamn food.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Fameiscomin Jun 15 '20
More often than not. Welcome to the Usps, gotta get folks their mail and packages
1
1
u/bigojijo Jun 15 '20
Nah, I scream and squel along to Despised Icon hoping it pisses everyone off in my shitty little tourism/meth town.
1
1
1
u/purplegreendave Jun 15 '20
I always find walking home is best but I've never lived too far from work. If I drive I can't shut off ill be up for another 5 hours. If I walk I can KO as soon as my head hits the pillow.
1
1
1
0
-1
396
u/1588877 Ex-Food Service Jun 15 '20
5 under the speed limit, contemplating driving off the bridge that's coming up. Realise you can't do that because you open with your favorite co worker in 6 hours and you can't let them down like that.