2020
In this semester, I decided to develop a current topic not only for me but also for all of us. A topic that affects us directly and indirectly, the topic of a pandemic placed in bars. The main motivation for its emergence was to give this situation a face. A situation that we are not used to in our conditions and that all participants had to deal with: state-owners-employees in real time. This project is aimed at this last article, at employees in one of the most affected areas. Does not judge, does not evaluate.
The portraits of the employees of these companies, together with the untraditionally empty spaces, are the intellectual but also the visual skeleton of the whole project as such, while they are supplemented by the testimonies of still working employees who remained in their positions despite significant staff cuts. The selection of businesses you will see on the next page was based on my personal preferences, it is not a survey of the situation as such. These are places that were my favorite recreation zones from before the pandemic, just as they are notorious businesses for the vast majority of the capital's inhabitants.
As the winter semester lasts from September to the end of December, this project is set in a period when the pandemic peaks from a relatively mild summer period, while a certain part of the population looks forward to the following year, in anticipation of a vaccine that should bring gradual release. measures and thus the opening up of these enterprises.
1. How has the coronary crisis affected you personally at work, is your work less stressful and has your attitude towards it changed in the past year?
2. If you should evaluate the whole year: how much (if at all) did you feel the loss of customers and the associated decline in sales.
3. What do you personally perceive as the biggest problem in the issue of state assistance to you as a company whose operating conditions have changed constantly over the past year.
MATEJ
Baudelaire
1. The coronary crisis affected me a lot in my job. My job is much more stressful than it was before, because the regulations change every week and we have to constantly adapt to it. Unfortunately, some of my colleagues also lost their jobs, and the most stressful thing for me is that I don't lose her too. We are currently closed indefinitely, which is almost the same as if I lost my job. My attitude towards work has changed mainly in that I already know that working in gastronomy during a global pandemic is very endangered and risky, but as we know, no one can predict it and I hope that none will be repeated in the next 50 years. Lesson - don't work in a gastronomy, because you never know when a world pandemic will come.
2. I would evaluate the whole of the past year so that it has never been worse. The bar where I work had a great start at the beginning of the year and a very promising year. Unfortunately, the crown came and with it a huge drop in sales. We somehow managed the first wave thanks to the delivery and gradual release of measures and the subsequent flight almost completely without measures. The summer was great, the customers came back quickly and we had a full day every day, beautiful sales, nice tringelts and plenty of working time for everyone. Then came the second wave and it was already going very downhill. Strict measures, rapid decline in sales and profits. But we were still trying to come up with something to attract customers, even though they had to sit on the terrace in the winter.
3. I see the biggest problem in help from the state is that they do not help us at all. Financial assistance is zero. I personally did not receive even 1 euro from the government. They don't really help us in any way. They require us to follow strict regulations and at the same time make sure that customers also follow them, which is not easy at all, because in the eyes of customers I am just an ordinary waiter and I do not wear a police badge. So how do I force them to comply with the regulations in force? At the same time, since March 13, when the coronary crisis began in Slovakia, we have not had a single inspection, so the government requires us and our customers to comply with certain regulations, but it does not make sure that those regulations are complied with, which I also perceive as a major shortcoming. Just waiters, bartenders, saleswomen, etc. have become police officers who have to constantly warn people who are still unable to comply with current regulations, and that is why we are currently where we are.
LUKÁŠ
1. Very negative, definitely more stressful. Especially from the point of view that I felt like I was going to a new job every week with new rules, which have changed with each new regulation. At first, I often communicated with the police, even though we didn't do anything wrong and we kept everything. It was quite a stressful period. I always had to acclimatize for a while and constantly get used to things that I can / can't / have to do so that I don't do anything illegal. But it is so, such is the time, I personally had nothing against the regulations, I understood why it must be as it is, but sometimes they were very confusing and for a while we had to think about what could actually be.
2. He felt. I am paid from the hours (which were less because the closing hours were moved), the percentage of sales and tringelts (which were of course also lower). People walked less understandably due to curfews, restricted seats, maximum number of people at tables, spacings, prohibitions / restrictions on terraces and indoor space. I also spent the middle of December in quarantine and then I managed to work only 3 or 4 days until closing. But even so, there is not much where to spend money, I spend 95% of my time at home, so from a financial point of view, I stick quite well, considering that I had something saved in front of the crown.
3. Honestly, I know nothing about it as an employee, what kind of support (if any) the company received. Personally, I just followed the measures and what my superiors told me at work was how we can actually function.
Bukowski
YAROSLAV
1. For the whole year that was a coronary crisis, I personally definitely had more stress than before. The work itself was at times less stressful due to conditions that did not give the opportunity to fill the bar (terrace, window).
2. The whole year was to feel the decline of customers, and changes in opening hours. The period when we were closed was very difficult.
3. We should get some compensation just as long as it takes.
NIKOLETA
Steinplatz
SIMONA
1. I worked there during the crown. Every robot is stressful. But since fewer people, less robots and less stress.
2. Limited number of guests, limited opening hours, ie sales at least half as low.
3. Money (or part of the salary) that neither the owner nor anyone received was promised. No support. The material dose of aid that was to come did not come now even during the first wave. So maybe such help.
1. Since I work in gastronomy, our operation has undergone changes practically since March 2020, as we are still adapting to the regulations, which has also changed my job description. From the original company with Slovak wines, we had to become a wine shop-shop, a dispensing window for a while, we introduced delivery or delivery directly to the door. After the lockdown in March, we opened it as a spending window, and that's when I felt the biggest difference in my work. It was not a return to normal work or anything. At the beginning, I didn't take it well at all, but during the year my workload underwent so many changes that I got used to everything and I'm grateful that I still have a fixed salary.
2. In our case, it was not so much the loss of customers as the fact that by closing the interiors people were forced to stand on the terrace and the current situation is as it is, so we function only as an expense. It would be very easy for me to answer negative things here, and it is easiest to swear and look for the culprit elsewhere. However, it is more encouraging for me to see the positives and the beautiful things. So when I think about it and can evaluate the past year, I have to say that I have never experienced such a sincere interest from customers in our future operation. So far, I have not met so many nice wishes for success, health and well-being in another business. So far, we have practically not had so much time with customers just talking from behind the bar. Almost everyone who stops to buy something and support us always asks how I am personally, how they are, what experiences they have, what makes them happy, what makes them angry and so on. And just such a trifle gives me hope and a desire to do it further :)
3. It is very difficult for me to answer this, as I do not know how to come up with it better, so that it will help and satisfy everyone. But I will probably answer for many people that the biggest problem is communication and constantly changing regulations, which are often not contrived and are hastily, which in the end are a laugh at employees as well as customers.
Malewill
