New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Pandemic takes mental health toll on restaurant workers
In March, Claude Mann was working as a cook at Bistro on Main in Manchester
Then the pandemic hit. As restaurants across the state were shut down for on-site dining, Mann was one of thousands who were laid off. “I was shocked that something like that can just be so quick,” the East Hartford resident says. “I was definitely scared.”
Unemployment checks only carried him so far and he had to get a job at a Family Dollar store before working his way back into dining with a cooking job at MofonGo at Parkville Market food hall in Hartford.
With the continued spread of the virus and restrictions on restaurants, the future of that job and the industry he loves as a whole are uncertain. But Mann, 34, is optimistic he and others in the restaurant business, who have weathered the storm of 2020, will be able to hold on for whatever 2021 has in store.
“People working in the industry are tough. Period. They’re some of the most resilient people I’ve ever met,” he says. “It’s definitely difficult and the uncertainty is up in the air just lingering right over your head; it’s not a good feeling. I just have to keep pushing and work as long as I can and just hope for the best.”
Mann and others in the industry have needed every bit of mental toughness to endure 2020, and the new year doesn’t look like it’s getting easier. As of late November, more than 600 Connecticut restaurants have either closed permanently or haven’t set a reopening date, says Scott Dolch, the executive director of the Connecticut Restaurant Association.
“My fear is that number is only going to grow in the winter,” Dolch says. He adds that acclaimed Connecticut restaurants are reporting far lower revenue than in past years and hiring fewer staff members. At Union League Cafe in New Haven and Max Downtown in Hartford, business is down more than 80 percent and 70 percent, respectively, Dolch says.
Those who continue to work at restaurants are experiencing challenges unlike any they’ve encountered before.
“It’s just been eight months of stress for everyone associated with our industry,” Dolch says.
Justin Morales, managing partner of Marlborough Tavern, says, “I’ve been in the restaurant business for about 27 years and this has literally been the hardest challenge that I’ve had.”
Beyond the uncertainty about the future of his restaurant and its up-and-down finances, there are new stresses from dealing with customers and enforcing safety guidelines. Morales says that while nine out of 10 customers are great, you get that one who complains about the limited menu, who wants to just order drinks even though restaurants currently need to serve food in order to serve alcohol, and most frequent of all, those customers who don’t want to wear masks while moving about the restaurant.
“I’m the first one to get there, the last one to leave, and with a mask on my face the entire time,” he says. “So when somebody shows up and they get angry because they have to wear their mask from the door to the table, it’s like, it’s not my rule, I didn’t invent it. I’m just trying to stay open so
we can serve you food and drink. So those one out of 10 make it hard and it really kind of weighs on you. The nine out of 10 make it great because they’re so fantastic.”
It’s also hard to staff because business is so unpredictable, and planning food and drink orders for the future from suppliers is a nightmare with uncertainty around shutdowns and other restrictions.
“The unknown is the worst, honestly,” says Sam Dziecol, a bartender at Marlborough Tavern and co-host, along with Morales and others, of A Zeros Journey, a podcast about the restaurant world. “You can’t plan.”
The tips are not as consistent and crowds are hard to predict, she says. Even on a good night when the restaurant is relatively busy and free of angry customers, it’s still not the same as it was prior to the coronavirus.
“The biggest thing I miss is the interaction with the guests that we can’t do any
more,” Dziecol says. She adds that, while wearing a mask, “you lose 50 percent of your facial expression and that’s how you connect with people. When I can’t smile at my regular who I see for the first time, and he just sees me staring at him awkwardly, you lose a lot of that personal connection.”
There are also the dangers and stress surrounding potentially catching the virus, especially from guests who won’t abide by safety guidelines.
Michell Dooley, a Connecticut cook, went on unemployment back in March and was worried about returning to work because she is a cancer survivor with other conditions that compromise her immune system.
“Just catching a common cold is like catching the flu to me,” she says. “For a while I was just home out of fear of getting sick.”
But money from unemployment wasn’t enough for
her bills and she had to take the risk of going back to work.
“I had to make the big decision of OK, do I stay inside in fear or do I say, I’m going to take every precaution I need to but I’m going to get back out in the world,” she says.
A few months ago she got a job at HartFood, which is the ideal situation for her because it’s a delivery-only establishment, or ghost kitchen, in the Hartford area. “It’s really just me and one other person in the kitchen all night and all we have to do is deal with the drivers who come,” she says.
Long before the anxieties and stress brought on by the pandemic, the restaurant industry had its fair share of mental health issues. Phil Barnett, a partner and cofounder of the Hartford Restaurant Group, is a proponent of supporting better mental health. Barnett’s restaurant group owns multiple Wood-n-Tap restaurants in Connecticut as well as Que Whiskey Kitchen in Southington. He lost the general manager of one of his restaurants to suicide last year.
The restaurant world is very accepting, he says, so people don’t have to “be so open about their past and they can suppress it, and they can move around and they can hide from it.” He adds, “a lot of times when that does happen it comes at a head at some point.”
Barnett’s restaurant group organizes training to help staff recognize mental illness in coworkers who might be having a problem. This has been more important than ever this past year. For those restaurant employees who are struggling, Barnett’s message is simple: “Reach out. Reach out to a friend, talk about it. Don’t push it down. Talk to somebody.”
Barnett is worried about the fallout from future shutdowns and restrictions as well as consumer confidence in dining out. But he believes that brighter days are ahead.
“I’m hoping that by next summer we’ll get enough vaccine into the market and get people so they can socialize again,” he says. “We will get through this as a country. We’ll get through this as individuals, but not without a lot of faith, not without a lot of strife and not without a lot of love for each other and just taking care of each other.”
This article originally appeared in Connecticut Magazine. You can subscribe here, or find the current issue on sale here. Sign up for the newsletter to get the latest and greatest content from Connecticut Magazine delivered right to your inbox. On Facebook and Instagram @connecticutmagazine and Twitter @connecticutmag.