My husband is a chef and he is still going to work (just). It's all well and good people saying avoid restaurants and pubs but he relies on customers walking through the door to pay his wages. As it is all staff are down on hours as there are way less customers than usual. Unless they are told they have to close he has no option but to hope they continue to come in. I'm a SAHM so we rely on his income to survive and tbh we only just get by as it is. Believe me if he could stay at home he would but the reality is he needs to work for as long as possible. Please think about this from our point of view
This is exactly why we need a lock down or at least official closure of public spaces like this and measures in place to help staff working in the industry to get by until they find something else. But we're the lowest of the low and totally unimportant and it's never been so apparent from where I'm standing. Our place is open, and being used and has functions booked that the organisers won't postpone, while there's a job to go to, I have to go because I'm not going to get any help from anywhere else if I 'voluntarily quit' my job.
I've got around 30 job applications live at the moment, and we're praying for a lock down because the business will likely go bust if this continues, because although we're being used, no where near as much as is needed to cover costs, so then there won't even be a job to go back to when all this is over.
The advice to avoid these places is good for public health, but no one thought of the concequences for people like me and the above poster just hung out to dry.
I have care experience so praying I get a fast track application and can have as little disruption to my earnings as possible. Some aren't lucky enough to have a fall back like I do.
When this is all over you'll all be wanting places to collect and eat and celebrate, you want to hope there's some left and that there's staff for them and we're not all living in cardboard boxes under bridges.