by Rebecca Weis, reporter
OMAHA – Spring 2020 it a trying time for businesses everywhere, as local and national restaurants were being shut down. Over 100,000 restaurants closed due to the pandemic.
This has not only effected the business owners but also their employees. Morgan Short, who has been a waitress at Brewskys bar grill for over six years and makes her income purely on that, experienced unsettling nerves last spring.
“It was crazy! I didn’t even know what to think because it was just so crazy. I remember I was like how am I going to pay my bills, how am I going to pay my rent,” Short said.
With restaurants practicing social distancing and having restrictions in place, it does affect the wait staff in the way they make their money.
“So, when you take out half your tables that means half of your section is gone, so your obviously not going to make as much money. Cause you don’t see the two dollars an hour, you don’t see it,” Short said.
However, with restaurants already losing sales and revenue Assistant General Manager Jake Gallu at Breskys bar grill and his team weren’t going to let that affect their staff.
“We kind of started a fund for the employees. Basically whatever tips we made on to-go orders, and maybe people coming in we put in a fund for the employees. What we could do is help employees that needed money, coach them through the unemployment process. Steer them in the direction they needed to go to get their maximum benefits,” Gallu said.
For employees like Short this was extremely helpful. “I did get benefits from unemployment, and I was one of the first people like within a week and half to two weeks of applying I was already getting all of my payments,” Short said.
It is Jake and Morgan’s hope that things get back to normal in the future. For more information regarding the social distancing protocols for restaurants in Nebraska’s please visit dhhs.ne.gov.
