I am willing to bet that a majority of Ontarians are rejoicing with the news of Doug Ford’s recent announcement pertaining to the gradual reopening of businesses here in the province. It’s been a long time coming, and it is safe to say the patience of the public in Ontario has been wearing thin as of late as the COVID-19 situation here hasn’t been great.
It is arguable that we would happily take any news regarding how to go about regaining normalcy right now.
While Ford’s announcement has its stages and some things will begin to resume operations sooner than others, one of the biggest components of his latest announcement is granting permission to businesses to resume use of their outdoor patios. And, while I am thrilled about this information for the sake of socializing and for the sake of businesses that have been ransacked by COVID restrictions, I’m also a little leery as I work in customer service, and the first few days of patio season will likely be an absolute shit show.
I’ve already seen a few posts about things starting to reopen via social media reminding the public to be patient, kind, and understanding for the first little while as businesses try to grapple with new rules in place in order for them to open. I wanted to write a post addressing the topic because the people working when we visit patios as soon as this weekend are going to be overwhelmed while simultaneously trying to do their best, and being rude, impatient, disrespectful and condescending is not a great way to go about treating them. It may take staff and establishments a bit of time to work out some kinks and determine the best way to proceed with the newest reopening rules, and our understanding is so, so vital for workers in the meantime.
We are all excited to be able to go out and start doing some things once again, but please keep in mind how you treat people working in customer service, and try to sympathize with the probable chaos they’re going to be facing.
ontheedgeofeverything 