I was quite surprised at how many F&B service workers during the first day of Raya, was in fact, working instead of spending time with family and friends.
Heading out to a nearby mall for dinner at a grilled chicken chain restaurant, I expected the place to be almost empty due to the festivities, with limited staff on support. Nonetheless, my family still needed our fill of dinner and was willing to wait if the food were to be served slower due to a lack of manpower.
Upon arriving at the outlet, the place was full of patrons. Guess everyone had the same feeling as my family, and didn't want to stay at home for dinner during such a long holiday.
After being seated and placing my family's order online, I headed to the counter to make payment. That was when I realized ALL of the restaurant's crew were Muslims - not in a bad way, but hey, what are they doing here on the first day of Raya?
Their choices are not mine to be questioned, as everyone has different reasons for the choices they make. Nonetheless, I believe a deep ‘THANK YOU’ is due to these amazing crew members, who are spending their weekend at our service, keeping the restaurants going at an exceptional level of customer service. They could be anywhere else but here, and this is where they chose to spend their first day of Raya.
From the cashiers, to the waitresses, and even those behind in the kitchen, every crew member was responsive and attentive. If it were me, I'd be so slacked off due to the festive season, but they never once did. Everything we needed, arrived to us in a timely manner.
So once again, THANK YOU to our Muslim F&B service workers who continue to dedicate their time and service in keeping the economy going - we truly appreciate your hard work, and hope that you'll be able to spend quality time with friends and family after your shifts!
Share your #RAYA2026 stories and stand a chance to win prizes worth up to RM3,000!
Find out how to join here. Don’t miss out! T&Cs apply.
C Chai (crystal.chaijeecheng@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.