While waiting for my local Subway sandwich artist to pile on the topping for my delicious Italian BMT, I heard the customer idling at the drive-up for one whole minute go into a profanity-laced tirade over the taxing experience of having to do the very thing I was doing — wait. I guess the idea an employee wasn’t waiting with girded loins to take her order was the straw that broke her impatient back-end. My sandwich artist conferred with her abused co-worker as they lamented how lame the would-be customer was after being told “one moment.”

My high school gig was concessions at the Tinseltown movie theater in Layton. Pressure was low, the popcorn and soda plentiful, and the free movies made any negatives, especially the $5.15 an hour, worth the toil. The most attitude I endured was patrons unhappy about no refills or how exorbitant popcorn prices were — $4.25 for a large … those were the days. No one ever used profanity. More often than not, these are teenagers running the show and it’s not just work experience they’re garnering, but life experience too. Why not make it good?

Throughout the pandemic, restaurants, fast food joints and cafes did what they could to remain open, to keep people working so they could pay their bills. This meant places hand-delivered food to waiting cars, DoorDash was the No. 1 app and virtual orders far outpaced in-person dining. The workforce juggled the numerous ways to get out food, giving the world some semblance of normalcy. The weight of the economy often rested on the shoulders of a very young workforce. In early May, President Joe Biden and the World Health Organization declared the pandemic essentially over, yet many remnants remain, no more evident than signs in a restaurant parking lot declaring which stalls are for food pick-up.

While options of how food is ordered or delivered has grown, the number of employees willing to sign on for these types of jobs continues to dwindle. When I stopped into that Subway, I saw orders were coming in online, drive thru, in person and DoorDash, yet it was just two employees holding down the fort. I watched as they determined which order took precedence. I think we’ve all been in an establishment when the virtual order superseded the living person standing at the counter. This is not the fault of the worker. It appears to me the options are overwhelming.

While tip jars still adorn those counters, it’s often paired with signage explaining another remnant of COVID, the “Work shortage, please be patient” plea. I find them inside fast-food restaurants, a bakery on Ogden’s 25th Street, even on the desks at my doctor’s office. Evidently, the workforce is low and the patience of consumers even more so.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows median pay at $11.63 per hour. It isn’t enough to keep a staff inside the once-convenient food stops. While I will admit to a late-night craving of a Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich, the staff shortage has made that quick fix impossible. On multiple occasions, I’ve found a sole worker trying to keep the posted hours, only to have a long line of irritated, hungry customers. I envision the jack-of-all-trades employee engulfed in anxiety as the mass of hungry zombies surround her brick fortress. I know, even now at 39-year-old, I would be incapable of handling the pressure, multitasking and nasty customers. As a teen, I would have walked out and found a job where I didn’t have to interact with the public — something like a writer.

If we want to go back to the days when one could eat inside the restaurant during business hours, or get the food while it’s still hot, both businesses and the public are going to need to make it more appetizing for the teenage workforce. Statistics from the BLS show that teens are going back to work, with a hiring surge expected throughout the summer, and this could help keep the economy out of a recession. It could also get me back in line for a late-night Wendy’s run. Everything that was once quick now takes a lot more time and, as customers, we need to accept this. We need to stop the abuse, pressure and complaints aimed at workers doing the best with the resources offered in an overwhelmed system. Yes, this includes those moments when you breathlessly unwrap that fresh Sausage Egg McMuffin only to find it’s got ham … and when you go to get the correct sandwich, they do it again because an employee was wrapping the ham sandwiches in sausage wrappers. Even then.

A national survey of 1,000 workers found 87% had endured some form of abuse, including being verbally accosted, spit on or threatened. Introduce inflation into an equation fraught with issues and the debasement only escalates.

While I firmly believe “hangry” should be recognized by the American Psychiatric Association and entered into the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it’s not an excuse to lose your mind. The Twinkie defense failed. This may be news to the red-faced patron hollering into the intercom: The worker didn’t raise the price of your food, the worker didn’t make you hungry, the worker isn’t sitting in the back knitting a sweater and the worker isn’t paid enough to put up with your mental breakdown. Everything is going to take more time than it did just three years ago, so instead of the theatrics, try out a smile. Your food will find you eventually. Until then, let’s make this next generation believe that people can be nice, even though it’s a mirage.

Meg Sanders worked in broadcast journalism for over a decade but has since turned her life around to stay closer to home in Ogden. Her three children keep her indentured as a taxi driver, stylist and sanitation worker. In her free time, she likes to read, write, lift weights and go to concerts with her husband of 17 years.

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