I managed a restaurant. Calling in sick, simply wasn't an option. The one time I did in 6 years was when I got shingles. Suffered for a couple days with a rash, went to the walk-in clinic on my day off, doctor told me I needed to be out of work 3 days, I was terrified I was going to loose my job. I made sure the doctors note said when I'd been seen, what I had, and how long I was to be out. The owners/other managers gave me shit about it for years. (You going to call out again?, you sure you aren't going to get shingles again?, etc.)

I was expected to hold my staff to the same standards. If you called out without a doctors note it was a write up (immediate termination if we had enough staff to cover your shifts, very rare we had enough staff for that), 3 write ups was termination, didn't matter if you were with the company for 5 years. Most of my staff were in there mid 20s-30s, most didn't have insurance and no savings. A doctors visit, medications, plus the loss of income from missing the shift were out of the question.

If they were lucky a coworker would trade a shift. If the day was slow I'd try my best to send them home early. I didn't have insurance either & the idea of the cost of a doctors visit was crazy to me.

The moral of the story, lots of sick people in the restaurant industry. The chef was even more strict. We had an extremely tight staff. One missing person anywhere in the restaurant caused havok.

I'm sure there are places that are better, but the experience I've had is that it's fairly universal in the industry. Something has to change so service industry folks are taken better care of.

Please tip at least 20% and in cash whenever possible.

Left my management job after 6 years recently. Hopefully done with it forever.