The Coronavirus Pandemic is something that none of us expected. As we are adjusting to the new way of life for the time being, places such as restaurants are being forced to have limited staff and shortened hours. Here is a list of seven things you can do in order to support food service workers during these difficult times.
1. Leave a tip if you can
Tipping isn't always possible, and you may not be able to tip as much as you want to especially during these times. However, food service workers are grateful for anything especially because for some this is their only form of income. With the shortage of hours going around and limited staff allowed to be on per shift, workers are putting in their best effort in order to ensure that each customer gets what they need.
2. Be honest with your arrival time
To be honest, when a customer says they are going to arrive at 3:00 and they barge in the door expecting their food at 2:30, it's pretty annoying. On regular days this might be manageable, but now is not the time to arrive earlier than expected. With the influx of orders we need everyone to be as specific with their timing as possible so that we don't get behind and more importantly the customer doesn't get upset.
3. Be specific with your orders
If you want extra dressing, say it. If you want extra toppings, say it. If you want two drinks instead of one, say it. If you want to upgrade to a larger size, say it. No food service worker wants to hand you over your order just to be told, "Oh can I add these 6 other things"...especially if there's a line of people in front of you. This puts us both in a pretty weird situation, so just be as specific as possible so we can save this little back and forth.
4. Don't use up all of our hand sanitizer
As courtesy, we have a bottle of hand sanitizer at the register for people to use when they come in. I know this stuff is like gold these days, but please do not take this as an invitation to take 7 pumps of sanitizer and bathe yourself with it in front of our counter. At that point you might as well just go wash your hands. Please understand that this is for every customer and every employee not just you.
5. If you can, pay with card
Let's face it, money is gross. A lot of stores have even switched to mobile orders which require you to pay before you get to the store. After you hand it to us we are told to sanitize or wash our hands immediately after just because of the amount of bacteria on cash. Cards are passed between less hands before they get to us so this option seems safer for the general public. Plus it's much easier to sanitize the card machines we use.
6. Please abide by the '6 feet away from others' suggestion
This ad for a beach applies to not only that situation, but every situation involving more people especially when it comes to waiting in lines. It is important to remember this rule because no matter how much you breathe down the person in front of you's neck, they won't move faster. Moreover, we workers can hear you, trust us, you don't need to get in our face to scream your order at us.
7. Please be patient
During times like these we truly are trying our best. Mistakes happen. We want to make every customer happy, but it needs to be understood that every customer needs to be served. There are going to be times when you're waiting a while, but so are other people. Please understand that no one has expected something like this to happen, so we are all adjusting as best as we can.
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