Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

New York’s Restaurant Workers Grapple With the Crushing Mental and Physical Toll of COVID

Nikol Burgos Sevilla works as a server in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood. She says that, since going back to work, she makes approximately two-thirds what she did before the pandemic.

Nikol Burgos Sevilla works as a server in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood. She says that, since going back to work, she makes approximately two-thirds what she did before the pandemic.

The shifts, though, bring far more stress, as new concerns, new responsibilities, and new COVID rules have transformed the job into something entirely different.

"It's exhausting to use so much energy to be polite and nice to people who don't care," she says of customers who ignore the COVID regulations. "Everyone is burned out because we've now all become bouncers, weird nurses taking people's temperatures, and babysitters — 'Please don't stand up!' 'Please wear a mask.'"

Nikol Burgos Sevilla works as a server in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood. She says that, since going back to work, she makes approximately two-thirds what she did before the pandemic. The shifts, though, bring far more stress, as new concerns, new responsibilities, and new COVID rules have transformed the [...]




Comments