COVID-19 may not be as serious of a problem as it once was but the Treasure Valley is still experiencing the effects of the pandemic – especially among restaurant workers. Many of us have experienced longer wait times and other issues that are attributed to being short-staffed. A manager of a fast-food restaurant in the Boise Bench, Taylor C. gave us permission to share the post she shared with the Facebook group Boise Bench Dwellers. The post gives the community a peek behind the curtain as to what short-staffed restaurants and drive-thru employees are experiencing.

“Hey benchies! Just one of your local restaurant managers here to give a lil PSA:)

 

The reason we are not 24 hours anymore is because we only have about a dozen employees in total:( I close 4 nights of the week and I usually run a crew of 2-3 people most nights and that includes myself. A lot of the times Friday and Saturday nights we are doing enough sales that we actually should have 6-7 people working, so we truly appreciate your patience and kindness!

 

The other thing I wanted to mention is that if you come thru the drive thru after close and you’re not sure if we’re closed, but then don’t get an answer at the speaker, please don’t sit at the window waiting for someone to come up and notice you!! There’s usually only 2 of us there to clean the entire store before we can go home, and that already takes us 2+ hours to do depending on the night, and we actually aren’t supposed to interact with you at the window after closing as it’s a safety issue. At a different store I’ve worked at, I’ve literally had to call the police and had people ended up getting arrested in my parking lot for felony charges, which is why we aren’t allowed to interact at the window after close!

 

Again, we all appreciate your patience and kindness while we try to get our store fully staffed and back to 24 hours again:)”

The post received a tremendous amount of praise from the community with many commending Taylor’s authenticity and humanizing her employees.

“That’s pretty cool to hear from a manager to explain the situation,” one user commented, “Sorry you’re dealing with that, and thank you.”

I’ll admit – this post opened even my eyes! I’m not one to be rude to any employees but I would be lying if I said I never got impatient. I wanted to learn more about what these employees are going through and caught up with Taylor to get more insight into the issues her team encounters.

RODNAUE Productions/Pexels via Canva
RODNAUE Productions/Pexels via Canva
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“We constantly have people sitting just at our window after we close,” Taylor shared in a voice memo with us, “It’s not their fault that they didn’t know that we close cause we did recently update our hours.”

Patience is a Virtue

As she said in her post to Boise Bench Dwellers, their new hours are 6 AM to 10 PM from Sunday through Thursday while they’re open Friday and Saturday from 6 AM to midnight. Unfortunately, a few customers aren’t taking the news of the new hours very well.

“A lot of them get nasty or aggressive and I actually had one lady scream at the drive-thru speaker last night: ‘F--- [the restaurant she manages].’”

Getty Images via Canva
Getty Images via Canva
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It’s kind of sad to think about because ultimately, these employees are PEOPLE. Some are even in school, working to make ends meet and they are on the receiving end of verbal abuse for things they can’t control.

“We’re busting our tails day in and day out to serve these people their food just for them to be rude and degrading and abusive back to us,” said Taylor, “That’s not what we’re there for.”

Hopefully, Taylor’s post can remind all of us to be kind and patient with the employees who are showing up to do their job during the staffing shortage.

“We’re there to serve you food and have a kind interaction with you and that’s what we aim to do,” Taylor said as she wrapped up her voice message.

“All I want to do is make people’s day a little better with a meal.”

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