Meet 3 people who quit food-service jobs during the labor shortage: ‘Every day that I went to work, there was this significant dread’

Meet 3 people who quit food-service jobs during the labor shortage: ‘Every day that I went to work, there was this significant dread’

Cristian Cardona was a shift manager at a corporate-owned McDonald's in Orlando, Florida, until he left the fast-food chain a few months ago. He was one of restaurant and hotel workers who quit in June, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the highest quit level for these workers during the pandemic and the second-highest level since December 2000, the first month the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey series was tracked. Openings in the industry continue to increase and were over 1.4 million in June, according to the bureau. "I believe workers are sick and tired of being underpaid, overworked, underappreciated by these companies, not being protected, having to risk their lives," Cardona told Insider. He and two other former food-service workers told Insider why they quit and what needed to change for them to come back. The food-service employees we talked to all said that customers didn't always treat them with respect, even though they put their health at risk during the pandemic. "Especially now, no one goes to Starbucks to sit for an hour to relax," said a former Starbucks barista to whom we granted anonymity and whose employment has been verified by Insider. "People