Covid sucked for Alicia Rogers, bar manager at Jeremiah’s Tavern. Of course it did. The experience totally sucked for everybody in the industry.
But there was an interesting silver lining that came out of it for her and her team: their camaraderie increased because of the shitty experience they went through, and it's maintained ever since. In a sense, they trauma bonded.
Read on for how and why it happened.
Covid was so bad for so many reasons.
It was the regulations, the customers' reaction to them, the fact that everybody was chafing at not seeing their loved ones and feeling like there was no certainty or safety anymore. It was a thousand other things. Life was upended and it sucked.
It’s not like Alicia and her staff woke up every morning and thought “Well goodness gracious, I just can’t wait to police people today. I love telling them where they can sit, how close they can be to other guests, that we don't know when the patio will be open, and whether it's safe to go to the bathroom."
But they had to do stuff like that everyday, to every person they saw. And a lot of customers didn’t take it very well. They got angry and abusive. But that's not news to anyone reading this.
But the fact of going through that experience brought Alicia's team closer together. So while Covid was of course in no way a good thing, they managed to make some good out of it.
Check out the interview clip for more about Covid trauma bonding, staffing in general, and how having a great staff leads to loyal regulars.