For Unscrupulous Restaurant Managers, the Chickens are Coming Home to Roost

For the first time in recent memory, with the pandemic lifting and the economy booming, management needs workers more than we need them.

Photo: Rene Asmussen, Pexels

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Ontario restaurants have once again begun to open at 100 percent capacity for the first time since the pandemic. Yet even as they do so, restaurant owners and their staff continue to face considerable challenges.

This $90-billion industry, which employed over 1.2 million Canadians prior to the pandemic, now faces a labour shortage of 230,000 people. A recent survey by Restaurants Canada found that 80 percent of food-service operators have found it difficult to hire kitchen staff, while 67 percent have had trouble finding enough staff for serving, bartending and hosting positions. Some observers have argued that the reason behind such shortages is that EI and CERB are disincentivizing Canadians’ return to work.

As a former server myself who left the industry in the middle of the pandemic, I believe that I can attest to a different story.

For decades, the restaurant industry has had a steady supply of workers. This has meant labour surpluses rather than shortages, which play to the advantage of employers. In the past when I have had an issue with management, they have on more than one occasion told me how expendable I am. So what is it about this pandemic that has caused such a labour shortage in this industry?

First and foremost, the pandemic has caused a stark reduction in the amount of tips wait staff are making per shift. Since they are paid sub-minimum wage, the largest incentive to work in a restaurant is tips, and servers depend on them in order to make a decent income. The restrictions that have been put on restaurants for over 18 months—alongside the lockdowns themselves—have made restaurants an increasingly unstable source of employment. As one food service worker told CBC News, "If anyone is wondering why there's a labour shortage, they just need to look at the paychecks of restaurant workers."

Working in a restaurant means unstable hours, usually requiring that workers are available on nights, weekends, and holidays. Such instability can produce family and other challenges, most notably when it comes to finding childcare. Additionally, servers are often given short shifts or split shifts. Two-hour shifts are not uncommon, for example, which are hardly sufficient to make a living. During the pandemic, many of my own shifts were cancelled on short notice due to lack of business. These are shifts that restaurant staff rely on. Through no fault of our own, we are forced to live with the uncertainty of not knowing when we will work again.

What is demonstrated in this labour shortage, then, is that restaurant employees desire a sense of stability that the industry has been unable to provide throughout the pandemic.

Additionally, managers have often taken out their frustrations on their staff. I have worked in six restaurants throughout my time as a server, and I have had many issues with the management of restaurants. There are responsible restaurant owners and managers who genuinely care about their staff and treat them well. However, I have come to believe that, industry-wide, issues with management are neither few nor far between.

In more than one instance, I have been screamed at by managers for making small mistakes. One time this treatment came on my second day on the job and it played out in front of customers. It would appear that my experience is not unique. As Corey Mintz wrote in The Globe and Mail, restaurant staff are expected “to perform at Olympic levels of perfection while being screamed at.”

Additionally, sexual harassment both on the part of management and customers is pervasive in the restaurant industry. An article in the Harvard Business Review found that more sexual harassment claims in the U.S. are filed in the restaurant industry than any other industry, with 90% of women and 70% of men reportedly experiencing some form of sexual harassment. Managers have played a large role in attracting sexual-harassment claims. One study for Restaurants Opportunities Centers United found that two-thirds of women have reported being sexually harassed by their managers, while twenty percent of restaurant workers reported being told by their boss to “look sexy” for the job. Unfortunately, issues of sexual harassment appear to have worsened during the pandemic. As a recent study by One Fair Wage found, 41% of restaurant workers have reported a noticeable uptick in the frequency of unwanted sexual comments.

Throughout my experience as a server, I have seen owners try various wage-theft scams in order to save themselves some money. I worked in one restaurant that had a policy of “no starts,” where a worker is scheduled for a shift but upon arrival is forced to wait around until it gets busier before clocking in. At least once a week, I was told to go home after waiting around for an hour without pay. For people who rely on these shifts in order to pay their bills, no-start policies are detrimental to their livelihoods, demonstrating a complete lack of consideration for employees’ personal time or work-related expenses including childcare and gas mileage.

Other restaurants have increased tip out percentages to ridiculous proportions. I worked for one restaurant where I had to tip out on take-out orders, and since the majority of people do not tip on takeout, it meant that with every takeout order I was essentially losing money. Another place I worked at made me pay for the bus boy’s wages out of my own tips.

The toxic working conditions that many restaurants demonstrate is not entirely unique to the pandemic—in fact, many of these issues are an inherent part of the industry. However, these conditions have only been exacerbated alongside the myriad other challenges of the pandemic, while also allowing former servers the opportunity to explore other career avenues. As Paul Krugman has commented in the New York Times, “the pandemic led many ... workers to rethink their lives and ask whether it was worth staying in the lousy jobs too many of them had.”

A Statistics Canada study found that 67 percent of hospitality workers fall below “decent work levels” making it the worst job quality out of any industry. This is a measurement established by the International Labour Organization that evaluates current working conditions based on metrics like living wages, safe working environments, and allowances for free time and rest.

With the loosening restrictions on restaurants it is now the responsibility of restaurant owners and managers to re-evaluate how they treat their staff. Hopefully, incentives for workers to return to the restaurant industry will reappear as business once again begins to boom. The good news is that, for the first time in recent memory, with the North American economy on a tear, management needs us more than we need them. Servers are no longer expendable, which means that food service operators must listen to the needs and demands of their staff. Indeed, like their own customers, they must now work hard to earn the loyalty of their staff.