In a trending TikTok video, a server shares the litany of weather circumstances she’s expected to work under at her restaurant.
In the clip, Aaliya Seika (@aaliyaseika) says she works as a server at a restaurant that “literally never closes”—no matter how bad the weather conditions are.
“It don’t matter if it’s raining, snowing, sleeting, hurricane outside. That restaurant will not close. I have worked through some crazy circumstances, okay,” Seika says.
She explains that on one occasion it was snowing outside, and customers were nonchalantly eating their pizza and wings and asked her how she was going to manage to get home in the snow.
“I hope you live close to here,” they told her.
“Maybe if you finished up eating while it’s blizzarding outside I could go home,” Seika thought to herself.
@aaliyaseika Like I AM NOT AN ESSENTIAL WORKER making sure these people get their nuggies and fries is not worth my life #serverlife #serverproblems #serverrant ♬ original sound – Aaliya Seika
On another occasion, Seika says she hid in the walk-in freezer with her co-workers because there was a tornado outside. While they asked their boss if they could go home before the tornado hit or not come in at all since there were tornado warnings all day—their higher-up denied the request.
“Apparently, we’re essential workers. We’re not essential workers. This is a restaurant. People will not die if they don’t eat their chicken tenders,” Seika says.
She also shares that the restaurant has operated on the opposite weather extreme with temperatures in the triple digits and just a few box fans to cool the restaurant.
“And I cannot fathom how people are sitting there eating sushi rolls, having a good time while these box fans blow on them. And they’re paying hundreds of dollars to eat dinner. It’s blowing my mind,” Seika says, concluding the clip.
The video has over 2,500 views and over a dozen comments as of Tuesday afternoon.
“Like I AM NOT AN ESSENTIAL WORKER making sure these people get their nuggies and fries is not worth my life,” the caption read.
Several commenters shared their own work experiences.
“OH MY GOD YES I’ve had to spend the night on the booths with my closing crew because a storm flooded the roads,” a top comment read.
“Dude. My restaurant had an electrical fire in the basement and the seating room filled up w smoke. Ppl refused to evacuate without their plates,” a person shared.
“LMFAOO YESS. We had no power … and was still serving people. What the fuck,” another wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Seika for comment via email.
