Restaurant jobs have always been difficult, but the mental stress has gotten worse during the pandemic as restaurants closed or cut hours — or became ground zero for the fight over mask-wearing.
"It is totally nerve-wracking sometimes because all of my tables I’m interacting with aren’t wearing their masks," said Nikki Perri, a server at French 75, a restaurant in downtown Denver. "I am within 6 feet of people who are maskless."
Perri is 23, a DJ, and a music producer. And she’s not just worrying about her own health.
"I’m more nervous about my partner. He’s disabled. He doesn’t have the greatest immune system," she said.
After the initial shutdown, French 75 was having problems finding employees when it reopened. So were other restaurants.
"We put a Survey Monkey out and pay was No. 3," said chef and owner Frank Bonanno. "Mental health was No. 1. Employees wanted security, and mental health, and then pay."
His company, Bonanno Concepts, runs 10 Denver restaurants including French 75, Mizuna, and Denver Milk Market. The survey went out to employees of all 10. Bonanno said these jobs offer competitive pay and good health insurance, but the mental health benefits aren’t very good.
"Most such psychologists and psychiatrists are out-of-pocket for people to go to. And we were looking for a way to make our employees happy," he said.
That, according to his wife and co-owner, Jacqueline, was when they had a revelation: Let’s hire a full-time mental health clinician.
"I know of no other restaurants that are doing this, groups or individual restaurants," she said. "It’s a pretty big leap of faith."
It took a little while to figure out what exactly employees wanted and what would be most helpful. Focus groups began in summer 2021 and they made a hire in October 2021.
Qiana Torres Flores, a licensed professional counselor, took on the new and unusual role. Her title is "wellness director." She’d previously worked one-on-one with clients and in community mental health. She said she jumped at the chance to carve out a profession within the restaurant world.
"Especially in the restaurant and hospitality industry, that stress bucket is really full a lot of the time. So I think having someone in this kind of capacity, just accessible and approachable, can be really useful," she said.
Traveling among the 10 restaurants, Flores has led group sessions and mediated conflicts between employees. She has taught the company’s 400 employees techniques to cope with stress, and put on Santa’s Mental Health Workshop to help with holiday-related sadness and grief. She has done one-on-one counseling and referred some employees to more specific types of therapy.
"Not only is there help, but it’s literally 5 feet away from you and it’s free and it’s confidential. And it’s only for you," Flores said.
The owners say her presence gives them a competitive advantage and hope it helps them retain their employees.
Restaurant staff members often work difficult hours and can be prone to substance use issues — a grind-it-out mentality is part of the job culture. Many workers either don’t ask for help or don’t always see mental self-care as important.
"It has been a really important option and a resource for our team right now," said Abby Hoffman, general manager of French 75. "I was just overjoyed when I found out that this program was starting."
She gives the effort high marks, and said it builds on earlier efforts to recognize the psychological toll of restaurant jobs.
"I think the conversation really started around the death of Anthony Bourdain, knowing how important mental health and caring for ourselves was," Hoffman said.
The death by suicide of the charismatic Bourdain, a celebrity chef who openly struggled with addiction and mental illness, resonated with many restaurant workers.
Bourdain died in mid-2018. Then, Hoffman said, came the pandemic, which helped relaunch tough conversations about the psychological impacts of their jobs: "We were, again, able to say, ‘This is so stressful and scary, and we need to be able to talk about this.’"
Voicing these concerns, she speaks for an entire industry. The Colorado Restaurant Association recently conducted a survey, and a spokesperson says more than 80% of its members reported an increase in the stress levels of their staff over the past year. A third of the restaurants fielded requests for mental health services or resources from employees in the past year. More than 3 in 4 restaurants reported a rise in customer aggression toward staff members.
Denise Mickelsen, a spokesperson for Colorado’s restaurant association, said she’s unaware of other restaurants or groups hiring a full-time staffer dedicated to health and wellness.
"It’s fair to call what they’re doing fairly unique and/or innovative," said Vanessa Sink, director of media relations for the National Restaurant Association. "It’s something that some of the larger chains have been trying but is not widespread."
Other projects in a similar vein are springing up. One is called Fair Kitchens. It describes itself as a "movement fighting for a more resilient and sustainable foodservice and hospitality industry, calling for change by showing that a healthier culture makes for a healthier business." It cited research by Britain-based Unilever Food Solutions that found most chefs were "sleep deprived to the point of exhaustion" and "felt depressed."
Back in Denver, the server Perri said she’s grateful her employers see workers as more than anonymous, interchangeable vessels who bring the food and drinks "and actually do care about us and see us as humans. I think that’s great. And I think other places should catch up and follow on cue here."
And if that happens, she said, it could be a positive legacy from an otherwise tough time.
This story is part of a partnership that includes Colorado Public Radio, NPR and KHN.
Everyone will face insurmountable challenges in life. The price of longevity is heartache, opposition, failures, grief and life events that come out of nowhere. Life is filled with the death of loved ones, financial ups and downs, daily health challenges and world events that impact us whether we like them or not.
Russia is going to invade Ukraine. Most of us don’t like Russia anyway but we have to sit here and watch what they are doing to someone else while it negatively affects our energy, financial stability, our military, and our everyday lives. We don’t like it; we don’t want it but we will be impacted by the evil decisions of Russia’s leadership. Can you imagine how the people of Ukraine feel?
We despise what Covid-19 has done to all us. Mask wearing, vaccinations and the fear of gathering have tormented us. The loss of family and friends who went into Intensive Care Units and never came home haunts us. Can we begin to imagine how they felt as they struggled to breathe on respirators their last few days of life?
We have all faced news that a loved one was killed on the battlefield, or someone died suddenly of a heart attack, or received news of terminal cancer.
Typically, we ask why? We ask God, "Why has this happened?" or "Why me, God?" Often there is rarely a good answer. We can analyze and say, "This could have been prevented. Or, this is how he or she should have lived their lives." Sports fans making suggestions from their recliners while watching reruns always see how the play could have been run better.
Life is always in motion. We make decisions. We react to situations differently. We don’t always do the right thing and emotions often overturn commonsense.
The reality is that we all face and walk through fires. Most of the time we’re hopeful that everything will work out alright. Often, things do. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t always work out alright. If we manage to survive, that’s when we have to help others who are crushed in spirit, who can’t see the light of day for the darkness in their lives.
Ukraine needs their allies or they will never be the same. It can’t be all the United States. We can’t save everyone and have proved it over and again from Afghanistan to Iraq to Vietnam.
There are always those around you who need your emotional and spiritual support. If nothing else, friendship and a word of kindness and support are always meaningful.
Most of the time, we feel as if we face our greatest challenges alone. A lonely place of desperation is a dark place to be.
Don’t ever go there. Look to God. When money, friends, education, hospitals, doctors and the church can’t fix what you are facing God can see you through. He never leaves us or forsakes us. His hand is strong and nothing can pull us out of his mighty hand.
"If these trends continue, and we expect them to, then on Monday, February 28, we will lift the indoor mask requirements for the State of Illinois," Pritzker said at his 2pm press conference in Chicago. Currently, Illinois is one of nine states that still required masks inside public places.
After the 28th, masking will then be optional in grocery stores, bars and restaurants, public buildings, and non-scholastic sporting events - vaccinated or not.
There will be some indoor areas and venues where masks will still be required until further notice.
With 16 points to her credit, Taylor Henry dropped points in all four quarters of the Rockets home game against Monticello on Monday. The senior was also credited with six rebounds as Unity picked up the conference win, 37-34.
Raegen Stringer delivered three assists and racked up four steals as the team's second-leading scorer with eight points.
Producing just a single free throw, Katey Moore led the Rockets' rebounding effort with seven boards to break a three-game skid.
It didn't take long for first-year St. Joseph-Ogden head coach Drew Artega to notch his first 20-win season. The Spartan girls basketball team ended the conference season with a 50-28 win at home over Paxton-Buckley-Loda.
Draining four treys for SJO, Peyton Jones turned in a 16-point game-high performance on Monday. Addison Frick, who was 2-for-3 from the charity stripe, also finished in double-digits with 10 points. Senior Ella Armstrong chipped in another six.
Lorena Arnett spearheaded the Panthers' scoring effort with 8 points. The senior converted on all four trips to the free-throw line.
