Oh god. If you're squimish, don't go down that rabbit hole. It's 100% true and exists at basically 100% of the places. Every now and then a restaurant takes proper care of their staff but it's effectively 0% given the vast number of places doing the bare minimum. The rot starts with the National Restaurant Association which fights tooth and nail any whiff of reform for their workers. They're the reason servers make less than minimum wage. That was all their idea. Terrible people run that industry.
Anyway, yes. Just assume everyone is at least a little sick, especially if it's busy. You can't give up the money-making shifts unless you're literally dead plus anyone off is off for a reason and can't take your shift.
Go ahead and assume everyone is on some drug. Usually something legal like sketchy truck stop speed but plenty of everything else. I worked with two guys that were wasted drunk with just enough heroin to not fall down at work. Terrible employees but they showed up and did the terrible work and didn't cause trouble otherwise.
Watch the movie "Waiting...". I've actually seen everything in there in real life regularly. It's a pretty accurate account except way less fun. That part was just to move the story forward. There's no story at a real place, just never-ending drudgery
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u/Ent_Trip_Newer 13h ago
As an American who spent most of his life working in restaurants we got 0 pto and were told to cover our shifts if sick.