Brian Lehrer: [music] Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, we're going to open up the phones for restaurant workers and other food service workers. Are you experiencing ruder customers than you were pre-pandemic? How is that affecting your mental health? Also, how do you deal with rude customers? 646-435-7280 is our phone number now for restaurant workers and food service workers. 646-435-7280, because we've been hearing and reading these stories of pandemic rage in restaurants, rude customers.

According to the New York City Hospitality Alliance, the city's restaurants and bars are still more than 120,000 jobs short of pre-pandemic employment levels nationwide. That number approaches about 2 million fewer jobs. That's not just because the jobs aren't available. That's also because people don't want to do them. For diners, it's less staff per customer than they're used to having in many cases and less staff translates to longer wait times to be seated and to get served, which means, guess what? More people are complaining apparently a lot more. Have you been involved in any of these incidents?

One restaurant in Massachusetts closed for what they called a day of kindness after angry customers drove servers to tears. Other bars and restaurants report customers throwing food, asking to speak to managers more, and of course, refusing to wear masks. Listeners, if you work in the restaurant industry or otherwise in foodservice, 646-435-7280, help us report this story. Also, maybe this will generate a little more sympathy for you among people who might feel a little entitled when they go out to eat instead of eat at home. Did you know that it's restaurant week here in New York City until August 22nd? That's right.

This year, restaurant week is five weeks instead of just once little like infrastructure week in the Trump administration. Over 500 participating restaurants are offering reduced prices for lunch and dinner and other special offers. Folks, if you're going to dine out, please remember to be kind to your server because there's more people who want to go out to dinner and be social again. Fewer people are returning to work at restaurants, even though, and a short staff means longer wait times and more complaints for customers. Let's hear a few of those stories starting with Marcia in Upper West Side who's going to tell the story about her daughter, I think. Hi, Marcia. You're on WNYC.

Marcia: Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. This has troubled me so much. My daughter, She went through two ways when they opened up and then they closed and they opened up excruciating heat first and then freezing. It was outdoor dining end and indoor dining. She had so many entitled clients that one table, they paid $900. The bill was $900 and they gave her $3. They came to her laughing, "Oh, $3 is all we have, sorry." They would come up wanting to have their pictures taken without masks and say, "Oh, we're not going to get COVID because we're young."

They were all overworked and she was so hard to get to tables. One time, her manager went up to a table and said, "How was your service? He said it was great." Well, I was just curious because you didn't leave a tip. Oh, we're going to leave it. Then they walked away laughing. They didn't leave the tip. My daughter is an incredibly conscientious server and she finally had to get out of the business. It was killing her, losing her hair and everything so.

Brian Lehrer: Wow. Marcia, I'm sorry for that experience but thank you for sharing it instructive, I think. Rachel in Astoria with a good news story related to this question. Rachel, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Rachel: Hey, Brian. Thanks so much for taking my call. [unintelligible 00:04:29] It's so sad to hear Marcia's story about her daughter because I know of a lot of instances like that too. I just wanted to say that's so sad and I'm sorry that that's happened. I've been working for a restaurant in the village for a couple. I've worked for them off and on for about five years and I have nine years of serving experience.

I recently came back to serve at this restaurant around May, June and so far, the clientele you've got a really diverse range of people and a diverse range of needs and socioeconomic backgrounds. I've been very presently surprised during this time that a lot of the people coming in have been extremely kind and patient in ways that I wasn't really anticipating. Especially with hearing all of the horror stories during this time surrounding people's threats in different types of privilege that some people may have been able to afford during the pandemic that others have not, and just the different needs that people have coming from that. Anyway, I've been very pleasantly surprised. The tables that I have been pretty consistently serving the last couple of months have been very, very patient and kind.

There have also been though, some experiences with a couple of different crowds coming in with the new input mented rules of having to prove your vaccination. The thing is, I still think a little wonky for people who are working in restaurants to figure out how to organize those kinds of crowds and how to communicate those needs of proof efficiently and accurately and clearly and kindly.

I know that it's a new thing for customers. There have been some frustrations with the front of house, with management and hosts who have received. I haven't directly but have noticed tensions and frustrations with having to show proof or wear masks again. Then I received those tables later. It's unfortunate that the brunt of those frustrations have been expressed at all and in ways that are very unfair at times with the host or management.

Then I received them later and sometimes, they're a little calmed down and sometimes, they're not. Eventually, I have just worked with what's present and tried to just be there for them and listen to them and then be patient with them. I've luckily been in situations where people have been very common kind and receptive, so far knock on wood, but yes, it's scary. It's hard to deal with stressful people. Everyone's very stressed right now.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, totally. What are you anticipating along the lines of the story you just told when new enforcement is supposed to start in September for every customer who wants to dine indoors having to show proof of vaccination?

Rachel: Yes, that's the very question. I'm hopeful that the majority of people will be understanding and will be aware of this shift. I think there might be some frustrations with that. I anticipate that there will definitely be bumps in the road where some people are more stressed and over with that energy than others. I'm not looking forward to dealing with that stress or seeing my peers have to deal with it. This is such a silly thing to say, but I do feel, personally, from my experience of serving and dealing with people who are stressful energy or certain needs that people might have for a handful of years, but it would be a similar thing to deal with as if someone didn't have something prepared the way that they were hoping to. I'm not looking forward to a new different stronger wave of stress from clientele potentially. Yes, I can see some people being frustrated by that for sure.

Brian Lehrer: Well, it sounds like you're a really good listener and so you probably have relatively good experiences with your customers largely because of you. [crosstalk]

Rachel: That's very kind of you. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: -but it's also the clientele coming into your restaurant. Rachel, thank you very much, and good luck out there as this continues. Joanne in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Joanne.

Joanne: Hey, Brian. First-time caller, long-time listener. I'm a little upset because it's happened yesterday. I really appreciate all the things that Rachel has said because we already deal with hungry people and people that are already elevated, but this is next level. We had to close the restaurant because we had a positive case. I had to go to the restaurant early and I went in my pajamas and I was just cleaning up and I made a sign and I had some customers approach the restaurant and they like, "Are you open," in silly and sarcastic ways. I was like, "I'm in my pajamas, looks like we're open." The guy laughed and the woman said, "I don't appreciate your sarcasm." He wrote a one-star global overview to be out there to the public. It's just so unauthentic sometimes I had to cancel a reservation and they were angry and they never ask about the person that's sick.

Brian Lehrer: It's self-centered and that's a one-star review without them even having gotten into having a meal.

Joanne: Even in the review it says, I didn't even try the food. The food's great. The plate is great.

Brian Lehrer: What's it like for people who haven't been through this, when you get a report, I guess, of a customer or a worker in the restaurant testing COVID, and then what happens? The whole restaurant has to close for 10 days, or how does that work?

Joanne: Everyone's got a positive PCR. You got to just do all the protocol. I'm sorry, I don't know all the protocol, but when everyone's proven themselves negative, you can reopen.

Brian Lehrer: In your case, was it a customer or a staff member?

Joanne: Staff member.

Brian Lehrer: You have to close and wait for the negative tests to come back.

Joanne: It was the positive test, was that person and we've been wearing masks. I think that just to encourage mask-wearing does is effective. I think that's maybe a reason why we're.

Brian Lehrer: That so many of you didn't get it when there was a person running around positive in the enclosed space of the restaurant. That's a good lesson, too. Do you want to leave the business or how do you look at the positive scenario of the future?

Joanne: That's a funny question. I felt like all of last year there wasn't a choice. This is what I do. This is what I like to do.

Brian Lehrer: Joanne, good luck out there. Thank you for sharing it. I hope that will help others do the right thing if you run into a restaurant where somebody is closed and in their pajamas and tell you no, we're not open or anything similar. Derek in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi Derek.

Derek: Hey, good morning, Brian. You mentioned that the top of the segment, that there's a huge shortage of workers for the restaurant industry. I wanted to remind all my fellow bartenders and servers and everyone else out there that it's a buyer's market for us. We rarely have leverage in being able to change where we work and right now we do. If your employer is not supporting you, when you encounter difficult customers, then maybe look for a new one. I know we're all super busy and we've been crushed the last year and a half, but yes, you need people to support you right now because you never know how someone's going to do.

Brian Lehrer: That's a great point about it being a buyer's market. There've been stories mostly outside of the restaurant industry, from what I've seen, like in retail, where target and Walmart just in the last week or so announced that they would pay employees college tuition because they're having trouble finding workers and want to work in that frontline kind of way. I imagine, while you may not be able to go to the owner of a little restaurant and ask them to pay for college, that there's an employees market in a different way than before. Maybe, if the wages stink or whatever, you have a little more leverage.

Derek: It's an unusual circumstance. There's a lot of good foreign restaurant owners out there and there's a lot of terrible ones I've worked for all of them know, take advantage of this moment where you can look for a new one if you need to.

Brian Lehrer: Derek thanks. Great point and great advice to those of you who work in that is that maybe you can use this to your advantage to some degree and Carla in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Carla.

Carla: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. I just want to start by saying, I love restaurants. I worked in restaurants for a really long time. If you're not tipping 20% minimum right now double think whether you should be at a restaurant, but my real comment is about the city. The city has made it a mandate for restaurants to have to check vaccines in order for people to dine and indoors and restaurants are in the hospitality business. Their job is to like welcome you that their job is to make you feel like you're in their home. Their job is not to become a healthcare expert and verify the validity of vaccines or could be card vaccines, photos of vaccines.

It's just not fair. I think that restaurants have been treated unfairly this whole time by having to figure out a million different things about how to operate safely for their customers and for their staff. This is just an idea, but I think that the city should provide if the restaurants want it, take the people who are the schools, safety cops take the people who give out parking tickets, train those people to verify vaccines, and offered to the restaurant.

You can have this person essentially working as a vaccine bouncer so that once the gatekeeping has gone, the restaurant can do with the restaurant's do best, which is to feed you and to welcome you, and to provide a great meal for you. That's just my idea.

Brian Lehrer: I understand the impulse, but I imagine it'd be extremely difficult since those people are still needed to do school safety and traffic control and stuff like that. There are so many thousands of in New York City, not everyone can have a city worker posted to check the vaccine cards.

Carla: I understand that. Maybe it's something that people who volunteer to be poll workers. I don't know the schools aren't open yet for another five weeks. Do we really need people giving out parking tickets? It's just not fair.

Brian Lehrer: It is certainly something that's going to be daunting as this universal vaccine to eat indoors mandate takes a fact the person at the door at every little restaurant in New York City is now deputized as a vaccine bouncer. That takes certain, certain skills for one thing, as well as having to put up with all kinds of rudeness yet to come.

Carla: I just think that's where a lot of that anger comes from and people feeling that the restaurant tour is now their boss and it creates resentment and I just think it's unfair to the restaurant.

Brian Lehrer: Carla, thank you. Hopefully, good solutions to that will be emerging as this takes effect, I guess. Let's see. I think I have the dates here. It's supposed to take effect officially on one day soon this month and then the enforcement itself begins in early September. It's on you as people at the door at restaurants, the way things are structured right now. Well, that's all the time we have for the call.

Thanks for sharing your stories. We hear how difficult it is out there. Hopefully, by sharing some of these stories, things will get a little better because people will hear people will at least be nice to those of you who work in restaurants, and hopefully things will go a little smoother. Hang in there. We'll keep trying to support you with ways in different ways.

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