“Now I’m a food delivery driver, my income is similar to the previous director’s salary and I have much more flexible working hours,” the former director shared.
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*The article is the story of Michael Urbach (51 years old), a food delivery driver of Uber Eats in Los Angeles.
I have served as a manager for many restaurants over the past three decades. However, after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, I left the industry and have no intention of returning.
I’m now an Uber Eats driver, earning the same salary as a restaurant manager before, and have much more flexible working hours. I have more time with my children, and my overall quality of life is much better than before.
I’ve worked as a waitress since high school and started managing a restaurant at the age of 23. Since then, I’ve been the general manager of a variety of restaurants, including several well-known restaurant chains. in America.
But when the pandemic hit in March 2020, the place I managed had to close and the restaurant industry fell into disarray: everywhere lay off employees or reduced working hours. Since nowhere was hiring new people, I couldn’t get a job.
Therefore, I decided to be a food delivery driver for Uber Eats in September 2020 at the suggestion of a friend. I was amazed at how quickly I could make money even though my income was not fixed but changed from week to week.
I earned about 3,600 USD in February 2020 working in the restaurant industry. Meanwhile, as an Uber Eats driver, I earned an average of $1,250/week in April 2021 (that month in total I earned nearly $5,000), and $900/week in October 2021 ( totaling $3,600 for that month).
My ex-wife and I are taking care of our 2 children together. Before, I could only take care of them about 1-2 times a week, but now, with more flexible working hours, I can spend more time with them. I usually take weekends off and only work 5-6 hours when they are at school. When I’m not looking after the kids, I work from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.
My phone also doesn’t ring continuously on weekends to arrange restaurant business. Now, I can fully spend time with my children. When I work in the restaurant industry, I rarely work less than 45 hours a week. I usually work until 11-12 o’clock at night.
Some of the restaurants I worked at didn’t stay open late, but that meant a pay cut. As a director, I am responsible for almost everything 24 hours a day. My least stressful days are Christmas and Thanksgiving, when restaurants are usually closed.
Restaurant staffing has always been a problem in my nearly 30 years of working in the industry. This is an industry with a much higher turnover rate because most people only see it as a short-term job. The pandemic has made staff shortages much worse. More and more people are reluctant to return to the industry, in part because they realize that they are underpaid and often treated poorly.
I believe what is happening is a major change in the industry that should have happened many years ago. In the near future, it seems that many restaurants will have to change the way they do business to adapt to the new situation or close completely.
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