It has long been a complaint of service workers everywhere. A bad job plus no sick pay equals coming to work sick! That gets the spotlight often enough that some semblance of awareness circulates somewhere. What doesn’t get the spotlight so much are the injuries employees suffer from and still have to work through.
We visited family in Southern California for the holidays and had a lovely time. However, when we decided to visit the mall to explore, shop, and have dinner, we encountered a very injured employee that broke my heart.
At [Pizza Cookhouse], we encountered a young lady who was bustling about to the best of her abilities but walking with a very pronounced limp. Our request for a booth was granted, as Dad explained that Mom needed one due to pain from health issues related to a car accident.
The young lady was soon in quite a conversation with Mom, and it came out that the Friday before our visit, the young lady had been in a car accident, too. The recent rains had flooded the street, and her attempt to turn a corner had resulted in a terrible accident with another car that had hydroplaned and smashed into her. Her car had been totaled, and she had been hospitalized with internal bleeding.
The fact that she was working meant that the day after she had been released from the hospital, she was back on the floor, injuries and all. She was still on antibiotics to prevent an infection from her injuries (and, no doubt, a pain pill or two).
Mom, ever the empath, gave her specific advice on ways to manage her pain.
Our server did her absolute best throughout the time we were there, and she even retrieved some bread from a nearby restaurant when the kitchen had run out. Her limp slowly became more pronounced, but she stayed friendly and positive sounding — a herculean effort if ever I saw one — the entire time we were there.
My aunt is very well-to-do and generally kind, but she has no concept of the problems endured by people who struggle to make ends meet.
She could not understand why our server had come to work while injured.
I told her that many restaurants don’t offer sick pay and that the server we had probably just couldn’t afford to take injury time off. Since her accident didn’t happen in the restaurant, the company was under no obligation to give her any sort of compensation or time off. I pointed out the names of several restaurants that were under fire for exposing their guests to sick employees due to lack of sick pay.
My aunt chided me for “thinking negatively.”
I bit my tongue until it bled in an effort to not make a scene.
She did leave a generous tip before wandering out, but I was left with the feeling that no lessons had been learned. I wished there was something more I could have done for the poor server.
