My first job was as a host at Chili’s. More specifically, I found employment at one of the chain’s many strip mall locations, found between a froyo shop and a trampoline park. It was a dank, dismal place and one that held a lingering air of week-old vomit and stale cigarettes. I say with full confidence that, with the exception of one poem from award-winning poet Jameson Fitzpatrick, nothing good has ever come out of that restaurant. On my first day, I was met with a lawyer from corporate interviewing employees after (yet another) sex scandal. During my brief tenure at this multi-national institution, I faced down drunken hordes of veterans during our Memorial Day free-margaritas-for-servicemen sales promotion. I was offered private rides on yachts by women nearly four times my age. On the daily, I negotiated with waiting staff over tabling: an experience which, if you haven’t had the pleasure of partaking in, is similar in spirit to negotiating with terrorists. In short, I hated my job. Despite this, I would strongly encourage anyone to take a job in the service industry.
As UConn’s summer break begins, many of us are searching desperately for quick employment. Why not take the chance to try the service industry? In a market still recovering from pandemic-era job losses, many restaurants remain desperate to boost staff numbers. Whether hosting, waiting, or working in the kitchen, work is sure to be found. While these titles are not the most glamorous to be found on a resume, the skills and experiences they offer are necessary in learning the need to identify with the common worker.
Service jobs breed empathy: an ability that many of us can at times lack. In a nation facing a widening empathy gap, service industries offer a bridge towards understanding our peers. Restaurant work can often be incredibly demanding — even the simple task of standing with a cheery smile can quickly become herculean in spirit after hours on end. Understanding the strain behind these smiles is incredibly important when remembering to show grace. As of last year, over 75% of service workers reported facing severe workplace violence from customer abuse. Learning how you can put yourself in the shoes of these individuals is crucial to bringing this number down.
Furthermore, working in service can bestow a healthy understanding of the many politics that face our workers — from unions to tipping. Although I was lucky enough to be paid full wages as a host, many of my coworkers were forced to rely on tips for their income. Too often, I saw those around me forced to make incredible sacrifices in their daily lives because that week’s customers took no pity upon them. I saw conflicts between management and staff left unresolved and unsatisfied because of the lack of collective bargaining power. I saw a thinly veiled injustice, that too much of our society does not realize exists at all. In part because of my experiences in these roles, I can relate to others stuck in worse conditions, and why I will always throw my support behind unions and server-friendly policies.
In this regard, entering service is necessary in order to gain a full understanding of the lives that exist behind the curtains of society. Many face severe instability as a result of our nation’s heightened political partisanship. When the Trump administration began to crack down on immigration, it unleashed ICE raids across the country — raids that quickly tore entire families apart. In the face of the continued onslaught of these deportations, many of our nation’s workers — including several of my coworkers — feared for their livelihood. They faced a choice: go to work and risk deportation or be unable to provide for their families back home. Both were and still are incredibly inhumane options. Despite this, our nation’s politics forced these workers to choose. If more had been aware of the instability that these workers face, and had learned to sympathize with them, would such horrific tragedies have been allowed to occur?
Too often, we allow ourselves to forget the lives of those who work in the service industry. We back policies that at best ignore the needs of this invisible industry and at worst directly harm it. We allow ourselves to be lost in an illusion of happy smiles, choirs of “thank you for visiting,” “have a nice day” and corporate bribes of free chips and salsa. What we need is a reminder of what really happens behind the scenes, and why we should work to better these environments. We need a reminder that the people serving us are just that: people. In such divided times as these, we need a little more of that basic human empathy: because at the end of the day, we all live for the same reasons. So please, if you’re looking for a quick buck this summer: turn towards your local restaurants. You may regret it, but I promise you: that’s for the better.