I was recently penning a post on the recurrent violence over face masks in our polarized America, Violence in the Workplace (August 2021). The nation seems in many ways to persist in drifting apart. There are many who express grievance in various forms. Our present seems attuned to the struggles of some, with voices being heard. Progress is perceived on some fronts with the conviction of some predator and a fall from grace or the exposure of some celebrity whose behavior affronted, and was allegedly despicable.
There are a great many causes for the great polarization of our society. Not the least of which is the ability for the low and slow to slink about in the shadows of social media pouncing upon the innocent. I watched so many instances of cyber-bullying and ad hominem attacks that I eventually left most social media platforms. It has become impractical to have a conversation in that setting of hypocrisy and sniping, among the many trolls who hide behind their keyboards and relative anonymity spewing venom. Too many elect to call names, label, categorize, and insult rather than engage ideas. Perhaps that is true beyond social media.
In the midst of drafting that missive, and researching various recent instances of workplace violence related to masks, I discovered a different thread of mental health concern that is worthy of mention. First, however, I note that small businesses are struggling to find workers in the post-pandemic world. Reports on this come from CNBC ("Small Businesses Struggle to Find Workers as Pandemic Eases," May 6, 2021), the Wall Street Journal ("Millions are Unemployed, Why Can't Companies Find Workers?" May 6, 2021), and Grubstreet ("Restaurants Are Struggling to Find Workers, Here's Why," June 16, 2021).
If you have been isolating or quarantining, you may not have noticed. However, there is a labor shortage in America. I noted some of this in Work Hours are Deadly? (June 2021). I recounted difficulty obtaining a particular pizza, which for me has become an increasingly difficult find in this world. That particular restaurant had taken to closing certain days due to short staff. A carry-out restaurant in my neighborhood for a while had a sign posted that said "Be nice to our employee," and it was not a typo; one, singular, "employee." The evidence supports that staffing shortages are real and troublesome.
The Grubstreet article is written by a waiter with 14 year's experience. I waited tables a few times, never as a primary job. It is a tough job in a stressful environment. The customer blames the waiter when the kitchen is slow, the manager has under-scheduled, the supplier has not made a delivery, and for everything else in the dining experience. This is not an intentional displacement of blame but merely results from the wait staff being the one we customers meet and interact with. When the customer is disappointed that there are no chicken wings (national crisis, not the wait staff's fault), the tip is likely to suffer.
The Grubstreet author says that waitstaff are remaining away because "the industry never treated them with respect." Well, never is a long time. I know in my days as a line cook I worked in some places that showed a great deal of respect for wait staff and others. But, I am getting long in the tooth and my experience was longer ago than this particular waiter's 14-year perspective. I trust he knows more of today's environment than I could. This author alleges that there is intentional mistreatment, and that "racism and sexism, both from guests to staff and among employees, are rampant." That is not new. In my days of restaurant management, I worked on such perceptions and complaints among the staff.
In the research on masks, I was surprised to find stories of sexual harassment in the pandemic era. I have not witnessed such instances in person so find the volume of related instances both informative and surprising. But, just because you are not a perpetrator, and have not witnessed it first-hand does not mean it is not out there. One instance that has received significant news coverage was a wait staff with about 10 years of experience being asked by a customer to "pull down her face mask so he could base his tip on the attractiveness of her smile." The wait staff declined and the customer's behavior deteriorated further. This is recounted in a CBS News story from March 2021. It is not clear whether management was apprised of this, or should have been aware of it.
The CBS article notes that harassment claims are more common in the restaurant business, roughly double "the rate of the general workforce." An eye-opening "three-quarters of tipped workers who receive subminimum wages said they had been sexually harassed." For clarity, some states allow "subminimum," a lower mandatory wage, for employees who are in tip-earning roles. I have wondered in recent years if that is being relied upon in each business that has the ubiquitous "tip jar" at the checkout. Those seem to have proliferated and we are asked to tip individuals in broader categories today than I recall in the past. Is this a benefit for their hard work, or a methodology for a business to pay a lower wage? Is the tipping-asking increasing in our world or am I just noticing it more?
Before we get too deep into that disturbing "three-quarters" statistic, it turns out that fully 50% "of nontipped workers" have been harassed, "according to One Fair Wages report" noted in the article. One might find either of these two disturbing and might struggle with how we should address such a preponderant challenge. These are disturbing volumes. Notably, any volume of harassment is inappropriate, but these numbers suggest a serious and systemic problem. If half of all workers in an occupation were suffering some physical work injury, it would certainly drive some manner of safety reform; consider the innovations of equipment, training, and practice that you have seen in recent years to reduce the volume and severity of lifting accidents for example.
Is management engaged in trying to observe/prevent such harassment? Are conversations being had when this occurs, or are staff under the impression they must suffer in silence? Can, or will, management be proactive in addressing this customer behavior?
So, things are threatening in the restaurant business. It is perhaps fair to say that the description, "restaurant," is being used for a broader category that includes bars, nightclubs, and other gathering spots, though that is not specified in these articles. It appears that, during the pandemic, wages dropped in such venues due to constraints on restaurant customer volume. The decrease in income made workers feel less stable. One person highlighted in the CBS News report "felt disposable before the pandemic, and extremely disposable after." She has moved on to filmmaking as a new career and is not likely to return to waiting tables. How many others changed their path similarly?
NPR noted similar conclusions regarding harassment in a July 22, 2021 piece: "Tips And 'Service With A Smile' Rules Fuel Sex Harassment In Restaurants, Study Says." It stresses that the dependence upon tips is part of the challenge. However, it says that there are many "job requirements to appear friendly and pleasant." A study concluded that "dependency on tips and a requirement to appear emotionally pleasant on the job work together to increase an employee's risk of being sexually harassed." Might the same be true for commission sales? Are these risks limited to non-salaried roles? Doubtful. There is, therefore, an apparent impact on the service industry from the pandemic, economic structure (wage/tip), and management awareness/willingness regarding the issues. To be fair, any employer should be discussing with staff whether, when, and how such perceptions of harassment are occurring. Those discussions may be critical to recruitment and retention alike.
To put a broader perspective on the pandemic effect, The Lily reports that harassment in general "actually got worse during the pandemic, according to some." This article recounts examples of people battered, "groped" in the streets, followed by persons in vehicles, and being yelled at (cat-calling and worse). This article is broad but does not exclude the workplace, with one interviewee stressing the occurrences at work. However, the problem is far broader than the workplace. Another individual interviewed recounted multiple instances of harassment and her conclusion that "safety is an illusion." This is seemingly specific to the prediction of some that masks would somehow make women safer; an official of a nonprofit that studies harassment noted that a mask ultimately has not been demonstrated to make a difference in preventing harassment.
There is, therefore, much threat and danger in the world. There will be work upon that in our current age, but will it be enough? Will harassment end? In the wide spectrum of our world, there seems much in need of attention and consideration.
In the business context (this blog is about workers' compensation), however, this seems part and parcel of the idea of a safe workplace. Employers have an obligation to create and maintain a safe workplace whether the threats are internal (coworkers) or external (customers), verbal or physical, patent or subversive. That the workplace threat is a substrate of a broader social, economic, and societal issue is troubling. In both circumstances, there is likely much more that all of us can do to recognize and oppose such treatment. But, in the workplace perhaps there is the immediate chance of significant and immediate progress.
In the category of work, we see an employee shortage. This may be from fear of COVID in a highly interactive setting, perceptions of disposability, angst from harassment, fear of harassment, the inappropriateness of co-worker behavior, the callousness of clientele, and a raft of other potentials. Workplace managers will undoubtedly strive to attract and retain staff. In that process, there may be a focus on pay scale, benefits, work hours, and more. But, will there be a focus on the underlying challenges of harassment? Will there be a consideration in the analysis of pay scale regarding whether subminimum wages might be fueling a safety concern? Will employers make the mental well-being of workers as important as they have striven to make physical safety?
In the (perhaps only somewhat) enlightened age in which we are emerging from COVID constraints, will there be a focus on the emotional toll of harassment in the workplace and methodologies to mitigate those impacts? May an employee asked to lower a mask count on management to be 100% supportive? May an employee anticipate her/his employer will enforce a zero-tolerance environment of customer and coworker hostility, insult, or injury? May an employer rationally expect employees to return and remain for anything less?
Join us Thursday for the Hot Seat: Beating Workplace Violence in the Era of COVID. Let's talk about what workers are facing and the implications for workers' compensation.
