THE LIE OF “NO ONE WANTS TO WORK”
SHANGHAI’S UNDERWATER QUARRY HOTEL
A fter eight years in the restaurant industry, Estefanía decided she’d had enough. Last summer, she quit her job at a New American restaurant in Chicago where she had worked as a manager and sommelier since 2017.
S hanghai, China is home to some of the tallest buildings on Earth. From the Oriental Pearl to the mega-tall Shanghai Tower, the city is renowned for taking architecture to extreme heights. But just 30 kilometres from the skyline, a truly ground-breaking project is nearing completion. Extending 90 metres down into an aban- doned quarry the 18 storey InterConti- nental Shanghai Wonderland is a struc- ture like no other. Located in the Sheshan Mountain Range, the hotel was conceived by Atkins for the Shimao Group as a unique destination to rival the extravagant resorts of Singapore and Dubai.
Despite her hesitancy to return to the industry, Este- fanía just started working at a Mexican restaurant in Logan Square, which she describes as a better expe- rience than her last job. The fact that Estefanía quit restaurant work and returned makes her a COVID- era rarity.
“ I came back to be given the silent treatment from the owner,” she told me via email. “He said I abandoned him and that he couldn’t trust me [or] see me as a manager anymore. ”
Estefanía, who asked to be referred to by her first name because she is an undocumented worker, said she got COVID-19 in June and took two weeks off to recover and quaran- tine. When she came back, she no- ticed a shift in the way her employ- ers treated her. “I came back to be given the silent treatment from the owner,” she told me via email. “He said I abandoned him and that he couldn’t trust me [or] see me as a manager anymore.” Estefanía said the last straw was when a co-worker threatened to
For months, restaurateurs across the country have been sounding the alarm about an industry-wide labor shortage. Managers of small, independent restaurants and big national chains alike have told the press they’re having trouble get- ting longtime staff to return to their jobs or finding new employees to replace them. Managers and own- ers are largely blaming their inabil- ity to retain — or even re-hire — staff on expanded unemployment benefits designed to mitigate the economic devastation of the pan-
demic; claims that “no one wants to work” because they’d rather stay home and cash unemployment checks have become commonplace, even though they aren’t entirely accurate. n
call ICE on her. She quit the restaurant, got a job as a receptionist, and thought she was done with the restau- rant industry altogether. But the pay couldn’t compare to what she was making before, so now, she’s back.
Read the full story on this video, including images and useful links, here: theb1m.com/video/shanghais-underwater-quarry-hotel
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