Message From A Texas Chili’s Server To Customers During COVID: Please Be Respectful

Like millions of people throughout the United States, Andrew Neeley, 23, was watching the Sept. 29 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, except he was at work. Neeley, a server at Chili’s in Edinburg, Texas, and his coworkers were closely gathered around an iPhone bickering about which candidate said what well and stating their personal opinions. His shift eventually ended, and he headed home.

That next day, Neeley received a text from a coworker who he happened to be standing beside during the debate. His coworker had woken up with a fever of 106. They were on their way to get tested for COVID-19.

By Thursday night, Neeley was informed that his coworker tested positive for coronavirus. By Friday, his coworker developed pneumonia.

“This was the first time where somebody very, very close to me — someone who I consider to be one of my best friends — got it, and it’s not good. And it made me really scared.”

The fear of contracting the virus and bringing it home to his mother and sister, who both have pre-existing health conditions, made Neeley question whether working at Chili’s during a global pandemic was “worth it in the end.”

But the stakes are high.

Neeley’s income as a server not only funds his ability to return to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2021, but it is also one-third of his family’s total income. His mother and sister are both receptionists at a spay and neuter clinic. Despite the elevated risk of infection, the fear of not being able to pay bills — especially after getting furloughed in mid-March from his position as a food server at Chili’s when Texas businesses shut down — has put Neeley in a position where he feels that he doesn’t have a choice.

In April, two weeks after being furloughed, an opportunity arrived for Neeley to return to Chili’s through To Go, the restaurant’s curbside delivery program, for $7.25 an hour. During those first few months, Chili’s did not provide their employees with personal protective equipment. Each employee was responsible for buying their own masks and gloves.

On May 5, Governor Abbott signed an executive order that allowed restaurant dine-in at 25% capacity, made effective immediately. At this point in time, the Rio Grande Valley had a total of 353 confirmed cases, seven fatalities and three patients hospitalized in intensive care.

Neeley was excited return to dine-in but also wary: “Things felt like they were starting to go back to normal, but the reality of it goes back to that feeling of being an employee and you kind of feeling like a cog in this big machine.”

Those first few weeks after dine-in reopened were quite slow, but as guests eventually increased, so did the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the region. By July, the Rio Grande Valley had become a national COVID-19 hotspot. Despite the growing risk of infection, the number of guests dining in at Chili’s did not decrease. Neeley said, “Since early July, it’s basically like we never closed down.”

As a server, Neeley comes into contact with a lot of people on a daily basis. On any of the five to six shifts he works each week, he serves between five and twenty tables with each table ranging from one to eight people. “Yes, I have a mask. Yes, I have gloves, but at some point when you’re dealing with that much contact with people it almost makes me questions, ‘I know this is helping, but how much is this actually helping?’”

In addition to the compounding fears and stresses brought about by the virus, Neeley believes the blatant disrespect from guests is what makes working in customer service during a pandemic so challenging.

“Pre-COVID it used to be, ‘Oh, my French fries are cold. I need the number to corporate.’ It used to just be that, and you would kind of roll your eyes and be like, ‘Ok, ma’am. No problem.’ Now, it’s just completely rude.”

Neeley and his coworkers are having to deal with stubborn guests multiple times a shift every shift. It ranges from customers who question the health status of employees to the use of explicit language when refusing to wear a mask.

“We are doing the best we can. I, as an employee, am doing the best I can, and it’s very frustrating and insulting when you have a guest during a pandemic that not only comes to the restaurant and doesn’t do their part, which we see a lot, but is arrogant about it.”

But the mental strain of these incidents build up. Recently, a group of middle aged women came into the restaurant to have drinks at the bar. After two to three hours, the group was very rowdy and drunk. After showing signs of visible intoxication, Neeley was required by law to stop serving them alcohol.

At being cut-off, one of the women at the table got in Neeley’s face, without a mask, and began yelling, “How dare you! You need to get a real f••••• job!” Afterwards, while taking orders at another table, she approached him again and repeated the same profanity in his face, still not wearing a mask.

Although Neeley believes himself to have a thick skin, that guest’s words — on top of everything happening in the world and in his personal life — really affected him. His drive home that night was tense.

As someone who has been dealing with depression and anxiety since his teens, this incident left Neeley feeling deeply alone. Although not suicidal, he called the National Suicide Hotline explaining to the operator, “I’m not suicidal, but I need to talk to somebody. I feel very alone right now. It’s two in the morning, everyone’s asleep and I need help.”

Fortunately for Neeley, his operator connected him with a local therapist that night. He considers this to be one of the silver linings of his COVID experience.

Neeley knows that this experience is not unique to him alone. Many employees in the restaurant business are dealing with these challenges and fears. Neeley also feels that guests are dining in at restaurants to attain some form of normalcy, but he wants customers to know this:

“Hey, if you want to come to the restaurant — do it. I want you to. I want to serve you. I want it to feel as normal as possible given the circumstances. Please understand that you are going through a stressful situation, and I’m here to help. But, also, understand that I am going through a stressful situation, and try to see the world through my eyes like I’m trying to do for you.”