Restaurant workers face added hurdles
“With the pandemic there were layoffs. Some people moved on to other things. Other opportunities with remote work opened up, and suddenly there were more avenues for professional advancement.”
A 15-foot-long “now hiring” banner covers a dark metal fence separating the Pat and Gracie’s patio from its parking lot in Downtown
Columbus.
It’s an unsubtle message that the tavern on East Gay Street needs help. And it is not an exaggeration.
As of last week, the restaurant had just seven staff members.
On a recent Friday evening, dine-in customers faced long wait times, and drivers for third-party services such as Ubereats crowded the parking lot as exhausted staff members struggled to
“Most people want to be seated right away,” said Alexxandria Lee, a Pat and Gracie’s host. “They’re like, ‘We don’t really care if there is a wait, and we don’t care how busy or slow you are, we want to sit now.’”
The evening went smoothly, all things considered, despite some grumbles from customers and drivers. But some nights are much worse, according to the staff. Customers and delivery drivers have shouted at the hosts and waitstaff and thrown fits about mask requirements, they said.
“One employee got a lamp thrown at them,” Lee said.
“I was threatened by an Ubereats driver just last week,” said Tamara Brady, a bartender and server. “She came back (after her delivery) to tell me she was going to beat me up.”
Those incidents are now so frequent that Pat and Gracie’s hires an off-duty Columbus police officer to provide security on busy nights.
‘I would love to keep it open if I could find people’
Owner Matt Rootes, who also owns Matt and Tony’s in the Brewery District and Moran’s in the Arena District, cut hours at his restaurants, but still must ask his employees to take on additional responsibilities and extra shifts.
And Pat and Gracie’s is hardly alone. About 80% of Ohio restaurants are short staffed, according to a recent survey from the Ohio Restaurant Association.
“Labor is a tremendous problem,” association CEO John Barker said.
A short-staffed restaurant serves fewer customers, limiting revenue at a time when the hospitality industry is struggling to recover from a global pandemic.
The applicant shortage has reached the crisis level for the restaurant industry. A handful of Greater Columbus restaurateurs who shuttered their establishments in recent months said the demand was there, but employees were not.
When the Lewis Center Kitchen and Bar in Polaris closed on Oct. 15, a note was posted on the door attributing the closure to a lack of workers.
“I would love to keep it open if I could find people,” co-owner Justin Chaung said at the time. The restaurateur said he paid between $200 and $300 for ad space on social media and online forums, but received too few applicants.
Why did so many people leave?
Restaurant workers left their jobs in droves during the coronavirus pandemic, and many did not return. Former servers, bartenders, cooks, and hosts have told The Dispatch that they are disillusioned with low-paying work, tired of rude customers, and concerned about catching COVID and spreading it to vulnerable friends and relatives.
And child care options are still limited thanks to the pandemic, keeping many parents on the sidelines.
“With the pandemic there were layoffs,” said Stephanie Wapner, a senior lecturer in Ohio State University’s department of management and human resources. “Some people moved on to other things. Other opportunities with remote work opened up, and suddenly there were more avenues for professional advancement.”
Jamie Grisdale left a Dublin chain restaurant in January and now works as a freelance brand ambassador. She’s looking for full-time work, but she says conditions would need to drastically change before she’d return to restaurant work.
“There’s just no way I could stress over somebody’s mayonnaise and Diet Coke,” Grisdale said. “It beats you down.”
Lizzie Bukala left a manager job at a Cleveland area chain restaurant earlier this month to work for a food services company.
“The industry is a train wreck,” she said. Managers must take time away from customers to work in the kitchen or wash dishes, and Bukala said she’d work entire shifts without seeing the dining room floor.
The chain extended her store’s hours earlier this fall, despite being shortstaffed, she said.
“The limited staff I have are exhausted,” Bukala said.
To make matters worse, COVID accelerated trends that were already leaving restaurants short on workers, experts said.
“The number of people under 22 is declining precipitously in most regions of the United States (including Ohio),” said Michael Levin, a professor of economics at Otterbein University.
Included in that age group are the college students who make up a significant portion of the staff at many Greater Columbus restaurants, he said.
Those younger workers are in a transitional period, working in restaurants to pay the bills before moving to the next step in their careers, said Jenny Hawkins, an assistant professor of economics at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.
“It forced some to make these transition decisions sooner than they would have,” Hawkins said.
And then there is the lack of immigrant labor, Levin said.
“The quiet part said out loud is (restaurants) depend a lot on immigrants,” he said. “People (are) here on temporary visas, and that’s slowed tremendously over the last four years.”
‘I pretty much do everything’
“It’s the massive amount of carryout orders. (Drivers are) stressed because they’re trying to make money and get
The mass departure of kitchen workers and waitstaff weighs heavily on those who remain.
Brady said she works at Pat and Gracie’s every day the diner is open.
“There are seven of us that are working all the time,” she said.
And those who are left take on a greater share of tasks.
“I expo, I’m a supervisor, I bartend, I serve,” Brady said. “I pretty much do everything.”
Workers at Pat and Gracie’s stressed that they like their jobs and their coworkers, and most customers are patient and understanding. But disagreeable patrons markedly increased during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I would never abandon anyone who works here,” said Sarah Truitt, a Pat and Gracie’s employee who works a number jobs for the restaurant. “We are a very tight-knit community,”
The biggest frustration is “not our customers,” Truitt said. “It’s the massive amount of carryout orders.”
Takeout and delivery surged when the first cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in Ohio in the spring of 2020, and well over half of Pat and Gracie’s business is still carryout, most of which goes to third-party delivery drivers, Truitt said.
“They’re stressed because they’re trying to make money and get back on the road” and often disregard the Pat and Gracie’s staff, she said.
A third-party delivery driver knocked over a pole in the parking lot earlier this month as they rushed to deliver an order, she said.
“They don’t really care about us, and we make zero dollars on them” because customer tips go to drivers, not the restaurant, Truitt said.
Gratuity in general is hit or miss for some employees during the pandemic, because customers who order takeout aren’t used to leaving a tip.
“The last time I worked I made $1.75 (in tips), and that’s it,” Lee said.
Conditions are not likely to improve in the near future, and restaurants owners need to adjust, Wapner said.
“They’re going to have to give employees more flexibility and control over hours, and they’re also going to have to stay open to candidates with nontraditional backgrounds,” she said. pcooley@dispatch.com @Patrickacooley
back on the road. They don’t really care about us, and we make zero dollars on them” because customer tips go to drivers, not the restaurant.
Sarah Truitt A Pat and Gracie’s employee