On her second shift after Leunigs Bistro and Caf reopened in Burlington, Vermont, server Lyndsey Hobart asked a diner to wear a mask as he walked through the restaurant toward the restrooms. Leunigs, known locally for excellent steak frites and an early bird special thats popular with the theater set, had just reopened for indoor dining.

Hanging between Toulouse Lautrec posters and Parisian tchotchkes were signs asking patrons to wear masks when not seated. The customer, who was eating with his wife and small child, walked away, saying: This is fucking bullshit.

Hobart, on some level, agreed. She doesnt love being back at work. After the restaurant closed due to the pandemic in March, shed been paying her rent and buying groceries with income from unemployment insurance. She was extra careful about social distancing she needed to stay safe so she could offer support to her parents, both of whom are immunocompromised.

When restaurants across the state reopened for dining in June, Hobart and other employees were faced with a stark choice: Lose your unemployment income or report to work in a pandemic. Worried that it would be impossible to find another job, Hobart, who has worked as a server at Leunigs for seven years, came back in. She told her parents that shed have to stop her visits with them.

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans are yearning for the experience of eating in restaurants once again. Some have determined its worth it. But like so many decisions now, dining out has impacts that go well beyond individual risk-tolerance, because it also endangers servers and other staff.

For Stephanie Cohen, who worked at a server at Leunigs for six years, the restaurant question is, at its core, a problem of consent. Choosing between financial ruin and a risky work environment is no choice at all, Cohen said. Theres no way to know whether your server is reporting to work willingly, or out of fear of destitution. Facing a medical condition herself, she decided to stay home; shell apply for an exception from the unemployment cutoff, but knows the outcome is uncertain.