Table 6 Summary of Themes in Focus Group 3 on the Long-Term Impact of COVID-19
Long Term Impact of COVID-19 | ||
|---|---|---|
Theme | Description | Quote |
Health Impact | ||
Long COVID symptoms | Participants described the Long COVID symptoms that workers in the food service industry experienced and how those impacted their lives. Most commonly discussed symptoms include breathing problems, loss of taste and smell, and weakened immune system. | “I know people who have breathing problems after getting covid that they didn’t have before. And one person actually got asthma.” “I have a friend, a server who said that she can’t taste wine anymore. She lost the flavor profile so she can taste that something is alcohol but not the kind of taste. She said she can’t pick up any nuances anymore. The idea of not being able to taste wine is deeply troubling to me. I can see that really affecting someone’s career and finances.” “I have had covid twice and since then I feel like covid weakened my immune system. I am more susceptible to being sick now.” |
Reinfections | Participants notice and express concern for contracting COVID-19 more than once. | “I’ve noticed that people are getting reinfected multiple times. I worked with a young lady who got covid for the fourth time and was still coming to work.” |
Role of employer support | Participants have positive experiences when supported by their employers (i.e., tip pooling, health insurance, sick days), but also describe there can be a “lack of safety net” for their health without this support. | “We decided to tip pool. We take all of our tips and put them all together, and we all get paid the same wage and have five sick days a year. The way that works for us is that if we need a sick day, we’re a part of the tip pull for that day. Then we will get paid whatever everyone else does for that day.” “I started working somewhere that had been offering the employees health insurance since the pandemic.” “We still lack health care insurance and sick days. All these mean that we don’t have some sort of safety net.” |
Financial/Career Impact | ||
Repercussions of larger economic stress | Participants noticed the negative economic impacts, such as inflation and shortages of food, creating negative financial stress for those in the food service industry. | “The restaurant I worked at during the worst of covid was located in the convention center. But there was no convention. I think for people who work in certain sectors of downtown, you’re pretty reliant on the tourism industry, and it was just gone.” “The inflation and shortages of food are horrible. Now it’s like how do you make a profit?” “Working at places where other service industry people hang out, we’ve seen the effects of all of us not making any money. Service workers don’t spend at those places anymore and they were the best tippers to other service industry people. So we’ve lost a big chunk of our income from us.” |
Changing career plans | Participants described changes in their career plans due to financial necessity such as returning to school for further education or finding a new position. | “The pandemic accelerated me to wanting to get out of the service industry. If it wasn’t for the pandemic, I would be comfortable making that money and doing things that I wanted to do for awhile, but when covid happened, I thought I should go to school and figure something out. This is not stable.” “I just started a new job myself, and almost every single person that I’ve spoken to in the last couple of weeks were in the process of their next career jump.” |
Extra income sources | Participants described ways to diversify their income sources during the pandemic including finding a side job or taking more shifts. | “I think one of the things that people have realized in the service industry is to branch out and diversify the income streams.” “I’ve been working more, picking up more shifts.” |
Changes in employer financial strategy | Participants described feeling supported by many of the financial strategies implemented by their institutions during the pandemic (i.e., tip pooling, connecting on social media). | “At my restaurant, they instituted an auto-gratuity during the pandemic. I know that there’s a lot of pros and cons but it actually makes me a better server because I’m not worried about whether I’m going to make my money.” “It seems like pooled houses work really well in terms of teamwork because all staff work together for the same amount of money.” “Pooling tips gets rid of the power dynamic between the kitchen workers and people at front of the house as well as a customer.” “I saw a restaurant on Facebook that made a post asking people to please come eat with them because they were not doing well. As a restaurant owner, I know it’s a lot of pride to put that on Facebook.” |