But since restaurants in the state were allowed to fully reopen on May 29, the treatment of the Apt Cape Cod’s 24 employees, many of whom are young and who include the couple’s two children, had gotten worse.
“It’s like abuse,” she said. “It’s things that people are saying that wouldn’t be allowed to be on TV because they would be bleeped. People are always rude to restaurant workers, but this far exceeds anything I’ve seen in my 20 years.”
Felt Castellano, 39, said that some customers had assumed that it would be business as usual, but had not grasped that restaurants were still grappling with staffing and supply shortages. That can mean that wait times are longer and that some items on the menu are not available, which she said has been a source of some of the verbal abuse toward the restaurant’s employees. When a group of diners didn’t get the table that they had requested, she said, they threatened to sue.
“I would say that it is its own epidemic,” she said.
The restaurant’s Facebook post resonated with many people online, who condemned the boorish behavior.
The meanness that some express toward people in service and in leadership has become ridiculous. The way we can talk to and treat one another when it is rude, entitled, complaining, and mean needs to stop. We are in desperate need of kindness. What a sad and important story here. https://t.co/ezud3Ro1B1
— Alan Cross (@AlanLCross) July 14, 2021