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THE LIE OF “NO ONE WANTS TO WORK”

A fter eight years in the restaurant industry, Estefanía de- cided 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.

Despite her hesitancy to return to the industry, Estefanía just started working at a Mexican restaurant in Logan Square, which she describes as a better experience than her last job. The fact that Estefanía quit restaurant work and returned makes her a COVID-era rarity.

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 quarantine. When she came back, she noticed a shift in the way her employers treated her. “I came back to be given the silent treatment from the owner,” she told me via email. “He said I aban- doned 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 call ICE on her. She quit the restaurant, got a job as a receptionist, and thought she was done with the restaurant industry altogether. But the pay couldn’t com- pare to what she was making before, so now, she’s back.

“ 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. ”

For months, restaurateurs across the country have been sounding the alarm about an indus- try-wide labor shortage. Managers of small, in- dependent restaurants and big national chains alike have told the press they’re having trouble getting longtime staff to return to their jobs or finding new employees to replace them. Man- agers and owners are largely blaming their inability 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” be- cause they’d rather stay home and cash unem- ployment checks have become commonplace, even though they aren’t entirely accurate. n

P64 November 202 1 / HOSPITALITY NEWS