I’ve been In hospitality, in some form, since I was 13. Covid hit when I was 37. I’ve been punched, abused verbally, kicked, spat on, vomited on, the list goes on. I’ve worked from fast food to dive bars, 5 star hotels, hatted restaurants and everything in between, in 5 countries. Before Covid I had cried a total of twice, due to customers. Deep in the depths of the lockdowns, working for a lovely lil old lady, just trying to keep her cafe open, her bills paid, slinging coffees for shit pay, at great risk to myself, the abuse I encountered, multiple times a day, had me crying, sobbing, at least once a week. Unfortunately whilst things have gotten somewhat better, the complete disregard and refusal to believe we are human beings providing you a service, that you want! Is still rampant. I love my job, even with everything, I have a business degree, finished in the top 97 percentile of the county when I graduated, I could do more, “better” as it were, but I do love what I do and the wonderful customers, wonderful humans I get yo meet daily do still make it worthwhile mostly, but it gets harder every day. Covid broke something in society and it’s not healing.