Unfiltered Story #312627

This story happened right at the beginning of the pandemic.

I was working at a local-ish restaurant (it’s in the next town over, roughly a half-hour to 45-minute drive) as a server. It was my first server job, but I felt like I was doing well. Well we’d all been told, about a week after I started, that there’d be renovations happening soon-ish and the name would change, and, the best part, all of us would still have jobs. Keep that last part in mind.

I started in later July, early August, still during tourist season. Made out pretty good with the job. Lots of tables, lots of tips. Then Covid happened. We were getting ready to close for renovations anyway, so the owners took the opportunity, and we were all told to stay at home for the foreseeable future.

Around comes March, when we’re told restaurants could re-open with takeout/outdoor seating only. We are all needing to pay bills and once-monthly payments from Unemployment aren’t cutting it anymore. One of my coworkers who lived closer to the area noticed that there were people sitting on the outside patio as she drove by. She sent a message to the group chat about it and asked if anyone knew anything. None of us did.

I messaged my boss directly only to get the reply of this: I was told not to hire any of the people who worked under the old name.

Needless to say, none of us have set foot in that restaurant since.