Restaurants’ staffing crises were not created by former employees opting to collect unemployment benefits rather than return to work, as some people have argued. Rather, many restaurant employees have discovered that having time to care for family members, engage in self-improvement projects or participate more in parenting and household chores improved their well being. They have reflected on the abuse, exploitation and lack of safety they endured in kitchens and dining rooms, and questioned whether or not to return.

There’s little to reassure workers that returning to restaurants now is a safe or wise choice. Although many corporations are delaying return to work requirements until later in the fall or even next year to protect the health of all their employees, restaurants that survived the pandemic — and many didn’t — are welcoming customers back out of necessity. Workplace safety remains a real concern. In this ongoing pandemic fueled now by the Delta variant, restaurants cannot easily adapt to social distancing or staggered work schedules. By design, kitchens are tight spaces, and restaurant work involves closely interacting with an ever-changing cast of strangers. Working from home is not an option. And as diners return to restaurants, some seem to have forgotten their manners. Reports of rude and abusive customers have proliferated.