As Restrictions End
Mandates are ending — a note about things to remember when eating out.— Nonfiction
The service industry is often messy.
Servers run at top speed, balancing plates, figures and professional attitude atop a teetering tray. Hot food delivered, used dishes whisked away. Plates, utensils and cups, bearing your saliva, handled barehanded, passed to dishwashers who dig into scrubbing. A puddle of vomit, a questionable streak, any long-timer will tell you tales not suited for your dinner table. Your service workers will handle it all and scour the toilet, too!
Two years of shutdowns and uncertainty have taken a toll. Bills piled, and sometimes fortunes lost. Announcements for re-openings and slackening restrictions brought joy to the service industry, and smiles to the starved. We, the patrons, are eager to eat, drink and merry-make.
However, these businesses still need our help. The service industry needs respect, compassion, and consideration. We need to come to the table with more than empty bellies.
Restaffing, retraining and new protocols are underway. That harried girl doesn’t need your admonishments to hurry. She needs to be treated with the respect you too would expect in a new situation. It may take a little longer, but just remember how happy you are to be out.
Under the weather? Throat a touch ticklish? Stay home! Keep your contagions and saliva to your own flatware. Your server needs to be working, not home with your bug in a few days. Dinner and drinks can come another night, besides you will probably enjoy it more with full health.
Finally, if an establishment requires you to be vaccinated, keep in my mind, they do so in an effort to protect themselves and their hardworking staff. Choice or circumstance may demand you dine elsewhere, that is okay. However, harassment and snide comments, be it online or in-person are unneeded. You may disagree, it may annoy you, but it is their right to act on their beliefs, just as you can act on yours.
Together we can make the return to normal also a return to respect.
Now let’s head out to dinner.
Not my normal Medium content but on my mind and in my ears as we transition.
Now back to fiction, because reality has to many rules.
