Anyone who’s ever waited tables knows how hard it is to transition from one restaurant job to another. To help make the process a little smoother I’ve compiled a list of warning signs to help waiters avoid working in dysfunctional shitholes.
1) They hire you the moment you say, “I’m looking for a job.”
2) You start working Friday and Saturday nights the first week. (That’s because waiters quit with alarming regularity.)
3) Your boss doesn’t ask you to fill out a W-2 or ask for ID of any kind.
4) Training consists of a cursory tour of the restaurant and the head waiter telling you “sink or swim.”
5) The restaurant doesn’t pay new hires a training wage. Trainees often get used as unpaid slave labor and are told after their “probationary period” that “things aren’t working out.”
6) There are porn screensavers on the owner’s computer.
7) There are porn screen savers on the POS computer.
8) The kitchen guys have names for the mice.
9) The employee bathroom is so gross it would just be better to just have a hole in the ground.
10) The toilet paper in the employee bathroom could double for sandpaper.
11) The owner’s banging the hostesses. (How déclassé)
12) There’s always too many waiters on the floor or not enough.
13) Employees threaten each other with physical violence.
14) The manager solicits bribes for good sections or Saturday night shifts.
15) Owner, GM, or chef screams at employees ALL THE TIME.
16) Owner, GM, or chef makes fun of a staff person’s significant others.
17) If a waiter makes a mistake the kitchen staff would rather go on a power trip and watch the server squirm instead of fixing the problem. Of course, the customer suffers.
18) The chef refuses to make reasonable substitutions.
19) You start drinking more.
20) The restaurant doesn’t provide aprons or dupe pads.
21) You have to bring your own bank. (Money to make change)
22) You have to pay the owner a percentage of the merchant fee on your credit card tips.
23) The manager expects a share of your tips. (ILLEGAL!!!!!!!!!)
24) They take money out of your check for staff meals but don’t feed you.
25) There aren’t enough teaspoons so you hoard them in your apron so you’ll have enough to do dessert service.
26) The manager makes you empty your pockets, looking for aforementioned hoarded teaspoons.
27) There’s never any soap or hand sanitizer around.
28) Your work schedule can change without notice.
29) The manager is constantly calling you to work extra shifts and threatening you with dismissal if you don’t “help out.”
30) You show up for work to find the manager cut you from the floor. No one bothered to call and tell you.
31) Management tells you to work sick. (Good evening, I’m Typhoid Mary and I’ll be your waitress tonight.)
32) If you lose a credit card slip the owner takes the check amount out of your compensation until the credit card company transmits the funds into his account. You lose the tip.
33) The restaurant makes you pay for breakage.
34) Management makes you pay if a customer skips on the bill. (Common)
35) Busboys take uneaten bread out of table’s breadbasket and use it for a new table.
36) You’re working a double and the manager laughs when you ask to take a break.
37) You’re asked seven times a day if you’re gay or lesbian.
38) The owner tells you that you’re part of a restaurant “family” and going “above and beyond” to “exceed customer expectations” is expected. After a couple of shifts you begin to realize The Manson Family had more on the ball than these guys.
39) The restaurant is dirty.
40) Heavy turnover of waiters, busboys, and dishwashers. The place is a meat grinder and you are the meat.
41) The salad guy doesn’t use gloves.
42) You see the Health Inspector snoozing in the back.
43) Fire exits are always blocked by extra chairs, tables, or pieces of equipment.
44) The waiters talk about the owner/chef in hushed tones usually reserved for people like Jim Jones and David Koresh. Don’t drink the Foodie Kool-Aid!
45) There’s no first aid kit.
46) The owner’s never around when you need him and always around when you don’t.
47) The restaurant has a video surveillance system. That in itself is not a bad thing. But if the owner uses the system to satisfy his voyeuristic control freakiness, it’s a bad thing.
48) On your first day all the waiters tell you how much the owner, kitchen staff, busboys, and the other servers suck.
49) Waiters surreptitiously drink themselves sober while working Sunday Brunch.
50) Waiters tender their resignations by screaming “Fuck this place!” in the middle of the dining room floor on Saturday night. Classy. Could be me real soon.
Feel free to list your own warning signs in the comments section!
Some other signs you might be working in a bad restaraunt:
The owner pays for prostitutes out of the register.
You unlock the door to set up in the morning and the owner is asleep, face-down on the floor.
The (male) owner gives you (female) a $30 tipout you are owed and asks in a lascivious voice “so what does this get me?”
The owner reaches around the beer tower to refill his pint glass so many times that this move is called the *owner’s name* reach around.
The owner drinks all the Guiness then yells at the bar manager for running out of Guiness.
The owner has a fight with the bouncer for “cock-blocking” him (from hitting on a waitress!!!)
The GM gets fired via text message.
You show up to work a shift one day and can’t get in because the doors are locked, the locks are changed and there is a “For Rent” sign on the window.
Oh my God that point about the owner reaching around the beer tower made my howl for 10 minutes! So classic!
I just got fired because the owner was drunk again. He takes our drops to gamble and drink and if we say no(his wife tells us not to) he threaten to fire us. Him and his wife are screaming at each day. He was so drunk today he threatened me and screamed and swore at me for no reason. When I left he called the police on me. They know him and confirmed to me he was drunk again and then threw the cops out. They sided with me no charges. Owner makes us pay for walk outs and to go orders that never came. I am not racist at all but he and his wife pick on me because I’m 62 have a lot of energy and because I’m the only white server their. How am I suppose to find a job when he gives me a bad reference? What a nightmare! This is Ihop in plantation Broward and 441. Don’t go there!!!
you know you are in a bad resturaunt if it called ihop
When a line cook is always making himself the center of attention, aggressive to everyone, treats everyone like he is the boss, is generally rude but hates being confronted.
When said line cook is confronted then tries to act big and bad by walking to you but when you don’t back down he hides his tail and walks away, goes on a hiearchy rant, threatens physical violence on you (despite you knowing man baby won’t do anything) then tries to act like he is the victim.
When said line cook then tries to get everyone on his despite everyone finally seeing the person he really is yet you are still the person asked to stay at home the next day.
If I had to pay for a to go order that never came then I would re-order the food at the end of my shift and bring it home with me. If I’m going to pay for food that wasn’t in my error, then I’m also going to eat it- freshly made of course.
I have the same problem here. They wanted us to bring the bank. That means they have no money to start their business. Oh we’ll just hire the servers and let them being the bank. At the end of the day pay us, minus tips, and back they started with. Ponze scheme. Huddle House in Crystal River on 44 and Turkey Oak. A normal place, would give you the bank to start with. That being in a busy club. Huddle House that’s been shut down for the years, is not a bar.
It’s common for this. I worked at. Now 2 defunct establishments (Damon’s and Chi Chi’s). Both did this
Being the bank that is
Chris? This Melissa….fb me….lol.
Lol!!!!
Don’t ever work at rain forest cafe. I wouldn’t ever eat there as a guest either. I worked there back in 2004 as a bus boy and hated the job. I made a lot of tips but the general manager treated me like dirt and was just a dick head. He said my pants were terrible.
Your pants were bad.
When a waitress asks another waitress,if she can borrow money,to pay her rent,although she has a substance abuse problem,and you know it,and she never gives the money back to the loaner,it’s a sign,to probably look for a new job.
>The owner acts like a mad scientist and your the assiant.
>The new “yuppie burgers” just got made after several disturbing disapearences of yuppies in the paper…
>The owner acts like a supervillian.
>The cook is the witch from “Hansel and Gretel”.
>The opening to an alternative universe is near the exit and is always stepped into by mistake.
-You almost always get sent home after two hours because they’re never busy
-When they are busy you have a three hour break in the middle of the day and only end up getting six hours total
-Half the managers are only a few years older than you (and you’re nineteen)
-You work for noodles and company
The one about making a waiter pay for a dine and dash happened to a friend of mine when we worked as waiters once. After we complained enough they made a concession- and took the money from the tips pot. Bastards.
If somebody must pay for a dine and dash, it should be the manager. Aren’t they the ones purposed to keep an eyeball over the whole place?
It’s ILLEGAL to have employees pay for walkouts or takeout no-shows. The only way they can make you pay for anything would be if it is proven that there was negligence on your part (i.e your till is short because you didn’t use a calculator, you punch a POS terminal and break it, you throw a glass… etc)
Wow, my old job hit a lot of those. Particularly ones where the GM is a prick or just bad at his job. Moral was real low there. Yet somehow I stayed for years and was the senior waiter there until ’06.
Here’s another:
You watch the Assistant Manager buy pot in the parking lot on the curb side take out monitor.
Just discovered and love the blog by the way. I will likely by the book.
Just wanted to mention 1 decent thing a restaurant from my past did. If we cut a table off from drinking cuz they were smashed and they stiffed us o the tip, the restaurant gave us an automatic 15%. (Bennigan’s)
jesus, my current job has a lot of those. especially the one about dine and dashes…the servers have to pay the entire bill. yeah people, think twice about running off – you’re not screwing the establishment and their high prices, you’re screwing over a hard working server making less than minimum wage that probably has textbooks to buy and residence to pay for at university! sorry, that was my own, personal, little, waitress rant.
oh and the one i add to this list:
not only are there cameras in every possible area a server could be standing, there are also MICROPHONES. yep, management actually does that.
That’s illegal, they (your work) can not make you pay for a walk out. END OF STORY, 100% ILLEGAL!!!
Having to pay for a dine and dash sounds like a great reason to break someone’s knee caps, wither the dashers’ or your boss’.
That’s quite unfortunate. I watch my girlfriend have to take a 3 hour shift after getting driven into town for 30 minutes and 30 back as well as not getting breaks when she works the Saturday 5-10 (which sucks because she either had to sign out early or miss a half hour pay because we deduct half hour every 5 hours for breaks) . I am particularly lucky tho, cuz at 17 I’m doing a 2-12, 11-9, or a 9-9 consistently with correct breaks.
To Jo: I guess thats why Bennigan’s filed bankrupcy. And they too are guilty of this “You show up to work a shift one day and can’t get in because the doors are locked, the locks are changed and there is a “For Rent” sign on the window.”
I’m working at a privately owned steakhouse, where the GM has been taking or begging for tip-outs from the servers… Asshole!
Restaurant managers are all faggots and asswholes
Really dude? If there wasn’t a manager there wouldn’t be a restaurant. One team my friend.
Actually, in my experience, most restaurants would run better without the management.
LOL
My restaurant I work for doesn’t even have a general manager the boss is just there all the time micromanaging but doesn’t want to help physically
Agreed , I need a plan to revenge these assholes :/
Keep the homophobia to yourself.
Simply saying “faggot” isnt homophobia ya tard.
Wow,way to lump ALL managers as “faggots or assholes” maybe if all of your managers were assholes they weren’t the problem,you was,I’m actually a general manager of a very successful, busy restaurant and I treat ALL my staff very well,sorry you got stuck with all “assholes”
typical what a “manager” would say
So true! Standard textbook a -hole brain washed politically correct mgr answer with a passive aggressive stink to it
I am a restaurant manager and most restaurant managers are insane, it is rare to find a sane one…so yes, they are mostly assholes.
BOOM…in yo face sTaN.
A manager at a restaurant I once worked at was a very competent woman. And later became a good friend of mine. Not ALL managers are bad, you know that.
Really,not ALL MANAGERS are “assholes and faggots” I’m a manager and I’m ALWAYS on my employees side,like someone else said one team,asshole
This is so true. I work for a restaurant right now and the manager is literally gay and has purposely hired about 80% gay people then is an asshole to the one good looking guy he hired that isnt gay. Gives me the worst sections, hasnt moved me up to server like they promised, and is a massive douche. He plays the favorites game a lot. I let him know that im getting put in the worst section everyday, not making any money($6 an hour on a saturday), and would like to be made a server and he just gets work. Gays think they are the most righteous group in the world and in reality they are more fucked up than most people.
Worse**
Yep McDonald’s managers only hire Hispanics so the general managers can be Hispanic and keep their 50k jobs! Racist!
Dang, I was just talking about this this morning. Every Hispanic person at my local mcdonalds is rude as shit to me and I’m there every single morning. Everyone else is fairly nice but the Hispanic folks are rude, wont look me in the eyes, get mad if I ask for better chicken etc.
They probably see me as the stereotyped single white privileged male whose also probably racist for no identifiable reason.
I’ve seen a few of these where I’ve worked.
The chef owner will snap at servers for almost no reason if hes in the shits. One would think that any server worth their salt would be seasoned pros at handling this situation. Unfortunately, that never seems to be the case. Every time they lose their cool and in two sentences its a full blown argument.
Argue with a chef in his own kitchen? Gee, I wonder how that will end?
‘Don’t you have tables? Get the fuck out of my kitchen.’
The most infuriating thing, however, is that the GM, who is the owners wife, also takes tables. Even on average to slow nights. You’re getting profits from the restaurant and you get tipped out? That is just wrong.
god i swear i worked there!
where is it at??
Wow that was quick…
A small privately owned place in Arizona. Don’t really want to in to details as I’m still on good terms with the chef.
Doesn’t surprise me if any of the above sounds familiar. Anyone who has worked in a place where the husband runs one side of the house and the wife the other has probably seen it.
Its just another attempt to squeeze a little more out of a thin profit margin. Trouble is when one or both just aren’t up to the job. Anyone who has been in the business long enough has seen it.
Staff retention turns to shit and quality begins to suffer because of it. Customers dry up and then the business closes. Happens all the time.
Good place to pick up restaurant supplies on the cheap.
I’m working in an family owned restaurant just like this! Husband runs the books, wife runs the FOH staff, and takes tables whenever she wants. She also makes the server sections when she’s working the floor, so she can get the best sections. Did I mention she is a salaried manager too?! It gets better…..
The husband and wife are now going through a nasty divorce, and they are completely ignoring their responsibilities, having verbal arguments in the restaurant, in front of the staff, morale is going down faster than the quality of food. Now the husband “manages” the bar, splits tips with us, the other bartenders, and still makes salary! (Illegal?) Staff turnover is faster than I’ve ever seen! Time for me to look for a new job ASAP, because I refuse to go down with a sinking ship:(
Haha…. Sounds like Romeos
Ouch, repeat my self much?
I have LITERALLY had all of these except 6,7,22, & 32-34. What an industry.
humm like 40 out of 50 0f thesse occor regularly where I work now. I wonder exactly how bad that really is?
Another sign you work in a bad resutrant the waitresses and hostess are always willing to go to the walk-in to refill dressing so the GM won’t know he made them cry.
humm like 40 out of 50 0f these occur regularly where I work now. I wonder exactly how bad that really is?
Another sign you work in a bad restaurant the waitresses and hostess are always willing to go to the walk-in to refill dressing so the GM won’t know he made them cry.
*Re posted due to spelling errors*
To Sara–one of my fellow servers used to work at Bennigan’s, and found out he didn’t have a job by arriving at work one day only to find a sign that said, “Bennigan’s closed.”
The owner’s wife hosts and is a sourpuss and rude to customers. The owner blames the servers for declining business when it is actually his own wife and other old hostesses who are driving customers away.
I worked in a restaurant just like that, the wife’s owner, a truthful bitch. Customers complained to me about her for been rude and disrespectful and wanted to speak with the Manager about that, I just told them who she was.. Customers just never came back
geez, I Feel like all the restaurant Industry is f* up!
The chef’s wife is a complete freak screaming at costumers and being a maniac!
To Be fair to Bennigan’s, The managers couldn’t get in either. That also means they couldn’t access staff phone numbers to make calls. Still sucks, though.
I’ve lived through almost all of these though, and have some to add:
-3 of 4 members of management are banging 3 different servers. God help you if you aren’t friendly with those servers!
-the owners are in a battle with the landlords. Owner won’t pay rent unless xyz is fixed in the building, landlord won’t fix xyz until the rent is paid.
-the hole in the office ceiling routinely has rats fall through it onto waiting personnel.
-all members of management get fired because some kitchen guys stole some beer, but you keep the kitchen guys and hire a 20-year old to be the GM. (yes. Actually happened.)
-it’s a family restaurant that has some video games – including a Playboy pinball machine that flashes nude photographs at the player.
-It’s slow enough routinely that the servers can watch Nip/Tuck or LOST and give sufficient service to their customers during commercial breaks.
-a fight breaks out at the holiday party, including the summary smashing of a beer bottle over a guy’s head.
-massive server drama due to the HUGE waitstaff. More so than normal.
-you can work 12 out of 14 shifts in a week and STILL not pay your basic bills.
-the rental internet terminal at the front of the restaurant is routinely routed to goatse.cx by staff and left there to gross out customers.
-a busboy smashes out the brains of a mouse WITH A DRINK CUP on the floor in the middle of a restaurant with customers watching, then proceeds to dump mouse in trash and cup back on the counter for a server to grab!
ALL of the above was the same restaurant, by the way!
When a dead mouse has it’s leg sticking out of the ceiling tiles.
When the servers are all hired for their looks instead of their brains (too many dumb waitresses)!! And most of them are barely legal.
When the GM is banging multiple servers…and he’s married!
When you go in to open the kitchemn and you find used condoms on the food counters.
I was working at a restaurant that couldn’t afford dishwasher detergent. The problem for management, besides un-sanitized dishes, was that the machine would sound an alarm when it sensed there was nothing left in the detergent storage bucket. Well this beeping machine seemed to upset them more than the prospect of getting all their customers sick from eating off of dirty dishes. So, they would just fill up the buckets with water to trick the sensor into believing there was soap in it.
when the owner/head chef stands in the kitchen YELLING his lungs outi in disagreement at the health inspector during a surpise visit. for a good 10 minutes. with customers barely 10 feet away.
When the restaurant has a “no calling out for any reason or you’re fired” policy. I’m serious. The diner where I used to work would not let you call out for ANY reason, including, say, broken limbs, or getting hit by a car on the way to work. That place made me fantasize about jumping out into the street in front of a semi.
OMG LMFAO
I have a couple
– the whole kitchen/bar sewer system backs up in the middle of the dinner rush so servers & cooks have to walk threw slugde the whole night. (and one of the drains backing up was in the middle of the 2 dining rooms so we had to make a barrier)
– the wife of a manager who is sleeping with multiple servers goes to the restaurant and keys all the employees cars
– owner pays the cooks more than the managers
– manager forgets to order my liquor and blames the bar for running out
How about working sunday brunch while wading through human shit that has overflowed from the sewers into the kitchen, sloshed up onto the glass racks, splashed onto the salad prep area and sticking all over the poor waiters shoes who are being forced to wade through it. The idiot manager burned cinnamon sticks to keep the smell from wafting out into the dining room
Simolin
Being asked to go through the trash looking for silverware, rammickans, etc…Because management is too cheap to purchase metal magnet garbage can rim. The best is paying bartenders and hostesses $2.13 an hour plus a tip share from the servers. …And of couse the “manager tip out” policy, where one of the managers is being paid to sit at home and watch Sportscenter.
__________Welcome to the south.
Most silverware in restaurants is stainless steel, which, while ferrous, isn’t magnetic enough to get sucked all the way over to a magnet on the side of the can. How about you quit being one of the lazy ones, and pay attention when you scrape plates. Silverware and ramekins aren’t free. In fact, they are very expensive in the scheme of things.
Oh damn!
totally false. my dipshit manager purchased one of these so he didn’t have to babysit a particularly obstreperous, thieving, pilled-out bartender who threw everything away with abandon. that fucking magnet will pull the silicon out.of a hooter’s waitress’ chest, to say nothing of what it can do to a barely ferrous fork
I had a manager come into work sit at the end of the and order me to fix her a drink.She polished off half a bottle of expensive flavored Vodka.Then she stumbled to her office and hid the rest of the night,until closing time where she fixed herself a couple of white russians.Classy
*When the dishwasher is kicked out of the kitchen at the same time the kitchen closes.
*When the head cook/chef/kitchen manager doesn’t have the cajones to stand up to the GM.
*When the head chef is such an asshole, the immigrant workers who don’t speak English feel the need to reassure the new person that he’s just an asshole.
*When the owner calls lidded drink glasses with straws “sippy cups”, forbids beverages from the kitchen, only allows 2 five minute breaks, and makes you pay half price for any drink other than coffee or water.
*When the GM forgets there’s a big local game the night after Valentine’s, and schedules the same people at reduced staff that night, then refuses to try calling staff and see if anyone would like to pick up an extra shift. The cooks leave the kitchen and turn off the lights because they’re too tired to realize the lone dishwasher is still cleaning.
*The first aid kit is at the hostess stand in the front, and kitchen staff aren’t allowed in the dining area during serving hours.
*The bakery cook puts strawberry tops complete with leaves on strawberry scones as decoration.
Drinks in the kitchen are a Health department violation, a critical one, in fact, period.
I don’t know about all states but in ours we are allowed closed platic containers like 20 ounce pops with caps. We can set them where ever food isn’t actually prepared. Shelves. Cooler. Make line. Ect .
No they are not. They must have a lid if they are in the kitchen…. Reread the code
What code? What state? What municipality? New york City? Ever see a kitchen staff that didn’t eat while cooking or a bartender who didn’t drink while serving? NO WATER FOR THE STAFF? WHAT EXACT LAW DECIMAL AND ALL ARE YOU TRYING TO REFER TO? JAGGASS…
When the dishwasher has locked himself in the storage closet because he’s drunk, again.
When the manager is doing lines of cocaine with the customers in the customer bathroom.
When management tells you getting the busboys to do their job, is your job.
When management then yells at you for telling the busboys to do their job.
When the busboys are swearing loudly in Spanish (or English) in full view of the customers.
When management micromanages you to death then complains that you can’t do anything by yourself.
When employees lockers and coats are vandalized by other employees during a shift and managment says it’s not their problem and does nothing about it.
When you are reluctantly given leave to go to a family funeral, after being told that you could be replaced while you’re gone.
When you return from said funeral to be told you now “owe the restaurant”.
When the wine steward and an amount of product and money suddenly disappear one day.
When the customer bathroom has more pornographic grafitti than a truck stop bathroom.
When the customer bathroom is technically not in the same building as the restaurant.
When underage and barely legal employees are drunk at the company holiday party.
When afformentioned employees are later known to have been in the managers hotel room, in the bathtub, with the manager.
When you find out management is getting rid of long term employees because their benefits are too expensive.
When you have an open kitchen, and the chef’s have frequent loud angry emotional breakdowns.
When chef positions change more than four times in a year.
When you are told you are permanently on call to come in to the restaurant.
When a twenty minute break between a full lunch shift and a full dinner shift is considered sufficient.
When you are told you have to serve a pregnant woman the three bottles of wine she wants to drink with her friend even though you would be responsible if anything happened.
When the employee toilet isn’t flushed.
When the employee toilet isn’t flushed because the waste is on the floor.
When you point out any problem to management you are accussed of causing it.
When a stale dinner roll is considered an employee meal.
When you find out you’ve been charged for employee meals without actually ever getting any.
When management considers it a chore to do the things you need them to do, that you can’t do yourself.
When managment refuses to do the afformentioned things.
By the way all the above items actually happened to me in the same restaurant. Which reminds me of one more.
When you finally leave the restaurant after many years and figure out you hadn’t left sooner because you were suffering from a form of Stockholm syndrome.
When the cooks, so embittered about their lives as failed rock stars that they resort to punishing customers by spitting in the food, dropping it to the floor purposely, rubbing it on their crotch.
does this actually happen? because I’ve been waiting tables for like 30 years, and I’ve never encountered anyone who even knew anyone who even briefly considered the ‘spit-food’ option, to say nothing of the ‘Waiting [the movie] scenario, where that sous chef performs the horrific filet crotch-rub.’ I call bullshit on this, and consider such supposed antics nothing more than urban myth. otherwise, the fos comments here have resonated with me hilariously…
Wow I experienced a lot of those!
What about:
You have 4 bosses who all tell you different things, and you get in trouble for listening to the “wrong one”
One of your managers frequently offers servers his car keys to have beer out of his trunk
Same manager always calls you pet names (in front of customers) and puts his arm around you in regular conversation
Take away bussers but then creates a new management position that will be responsible for wine service and gets tipped
30 minutes is deducted from hours for a break that most times we don’t receive
Human resources constantly changes the number of hours required for health insurance
I have a few.
Manager drinking a beer at the Mgmt shift change, but then goes to talk to a customer (with alcohol on his breath.)
Mgmt drinking so much beer and not accounting for it (more than a case of 24 a month), then yelling at the bartender for stealing beer.
Mgmt doing any sort of illegal hard drug.
Mgmt always unplugs the credit card router so he can access the internet on his Mac-book.
Mgmt forgets constantly to order. Anything. Paper stock, food, alcohol.
Servers who were fired multiple times are continuously rehired and given back their seniority, while the rest of the loyal and well behaved servers get screwed on shifts/sections.
Mgmt hiding from customers when mgmt is needed to diffuse a situation. (Hellooo, I’m only paid $2.13 an hour. And that’s not to argue. Get your salary or hourly arse out there.)
Mgmt changing “unwritten menu rules” daily, or even hourly. Lack of consistency.
I was “hired” at a local type restaurant and thank god I backed out today! The owner never took any type of id–well, he wrote down my social security number (i hope that’s safe) and then he asked me to come in (when I called back to ask a question he switched up the times–and acted like I was crazy when I said I thought I was supposed to come at the other time!) Of course, I work the first night without clocking in/getting paid anything.
He tells me (when I ask) to come in a few days after that at 10:45 in the morning…I arrive and ask if I should clock in/get paid–he said no we don’t pay for training…he also said that I’d probably be staying “through dinner” when I asked…which apparently meant 8 oclock at night or later! When I asked if I’d get a break, he looked at me like I was stupid and said, “What do you mean, break?” After a few more questions I told him it wasn’t going to work out…There’s no way I’m wasting my time working for free–running up the risk of being told “it’s not working out”. After all, why else wouldn’t he document me/fill out my tax forms?
Beware of restaurants like that! They want slave labor (9-10 hour days for free? At moment’s notice?) and then they’ll probably say, “Sorry”. Makes me so angry!!
Woahh you just described exactly what happened to me this week!
Ive been working in the industry for 10 years and have never witnessed any off this shit. Where the fuck have you all worked omfg LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I forward a resume to you to pass to your boss? I’ve worked in ten kitchens, always leaving one thinking that this shit can’t possibly be the norm. Now, twenty six years later, I’ve become numb and accepted that if one wants to work with the worst of humanity, it’s in the food biz hands down.
Seriously, like 80% of these I literally have Never seen and I have ten + years of serving experience. Lol. Maybe I’m just blind..
Had to have cooks walk you out to your car at night because of the crime rate and the possibilty of getting mugged was good.(Detroit)
Line cooks threatens to kill you!
One of the Managers grabs your tits at an employee party(after party)(and pictures taken of so said grab).
Dishwasher takes your hand and sticks it on his junk then asks if you like that baby.
Love the blog!
I don’t know which of those things happened first but either one would be enough for me to quit. Sorry…
This list made me laugh. A few of those definitely apply to the restaurant where I work.
Also want to add:
The manager calls his employees “stupid” to their coworkers and constantly insults their intelligence, but keeps hiring 19 year old girls and recent immigrants who don’t speak much English.
some stuff I have to add to the list is
– manager tells you “its not working out” one day before the 3 month probation (in my area)
one thing i hate aboout my resteraunt is i work in a very rich town, resteraunt has highest profit margins yet still has the nerve to charge for meals at a so/so discount and pay just over minimum wage
some more furies I have are the resteraunt charges employees for the uniform and then if you have a small stain which could even be hidden by the apron you have to by a new one and it comes out of the tips (point of view of kitchen worker)
they tell you “we teach here, we look for people with minimal xp” then they keep a person with minimal xp washing dishes for a year but then the guy with a year xp of flipping burgers at mcdonalds gets on to cook right away
It’s just you(server) and the cook all day, every day.
The cook, manager/owner dont speak English and demand you learn Spanish.
You have to demand to get paid and even after that get paid every 3 weeks or month.
FML I still work thereDX
I had to close alone, my first week of working. I also did have any training on the register, so when I would mess up I was yelled that EVEN THOUGH I WAS NOT TRAINED!!!
1. When the GM is so cheap, he doesn’t pay the servers for the “MANDATORY MEETINGS” he holds.
2. When you win a contest (such as selling the most promotions) your prize is not having to do extra backhouse work at the end of the shift.
3. When you are fired for refusing to wear pajamas on “pajama night.”
4. When your best manager is fired for drinking on the job, but the worst manager continues to succeed, even though she is the biggest drunk in the restaurant.
5. When the restaurant is notorious for making fake write-ups that the server “refused to sign” in order to avoid paying unemployment.
6. When your managers are white trash and whore themselves out.
I work in two resturants. Alot of the above happens… 2,12,13,20,21,28,31 and 46.
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and I love it. :] Sorry I hadn’t found it before.
making wait staff bring their own bank because the owner is sick of getting ripped off is no crime! Im so sick of employees ripping me off they make more than I do He probably can’t afford a first aid kit with all the wait staff ripping him off all the time
If your hiring people that rip you off… Maybe you shouldn’t be doing the hiring
I’m pretty sure Every restaurant I’ve worked at I had to keep a bank. And I have served at a Lot of restaurants. I thought that was general server protocol??
In my state we were just informed by the Labor Board that this is highly illegal. You can’t make your waitstaff start the day in the negative. The fine is like $1500 a person.
long time in bizz
as for the servers who drink on the job….they should all be fired ,and you all should be so lucky people like restaurant owners give you all jobs at all! ungreatful these people create jobs in a world where they arn’t making much at all but they stay in business trying to create jobs for people who complain about them! Its a job isn’t it?
You forget one thing..ILLEGAL conditions…holiday pays NOT paid out, being told to come in for a shift, sitting there for an hour or more waiting to start, and being sent back home. Working for a salary that works out to well below minimum wage. IF these sort of conditions become the norm, you will see crime rates rise, tax dollars climb, addictions centers exceed their numbers, and on and on. I’ll tell you what…you come clean my house once a week..I’ll give you 5.00. Fuck your travel time and your gas money. And if you eat anything out of my fridge, you work for free that day. Wake up you peon.
nIcely, you need to know how the landlord decides the particular lease…. Do you know that the landlord has got to are accountable to the national renter affirmation agency about the lease How to Report a Landlord
1. You have to buy soap to wash your hands because the owner wont buy any.
2. The basement overflows with water because the pipes leak and the owner is too cheap to replace them.
3. Owner expects dishwasher to sweep, mop, and finish up dishes within 1/2 hour.
4. Your manager expects you to be out right on the nose at closing time so you have to do a half ass job.
5. Plumbing over flows.
6. Mice turds on dishes in back kitchen.
7. Lazy ass coworkers who dont do there job then you have to cover for them.
8. spaghetti sauce stains on the wall.
9. The owner is too cheap to replace the dishwashing machine so the dishes come out crappy and YOU get blamed for it.
I think every restaurant should have a custodian or two to clean up after hours, not the dishwasher and expect the dishwasher to clean every thing up within a 1/2 hour.
A few more to add from my persoanl experience:
1. The GM tells u ur a diner waitress and calls you a fucking idiot literally 3 feet away from a table.
2. The GM drinks Johnny Walker blue label and fucks prostitues every night, then wonders why is wife sits at the bar reading the Bible every Friday and Saturday for 3 months…DUH! She found out!
3. Staff meetings are a random occurrance…who cares if waiters dont know about menu changes?
4. Waiters have to fight with the dessert chef to get special arrangements that the customer asked for (ie. anniversaries/ bdays).
5. The GM tortures the you, yelling at you for anything that goes wrong within a 20 foot radius of you, even when he knows for sure that it is not ur fault/ wasnt u.
6. The GM says constantly that the restaurant is broke and can barely make payroll, yet they are opening up another restaurant.
6. You can barely make your tuition payments, yet the manager can pay full tuition for three kids at 3 ivy league schools….glad to know that ur hardearned money is paying for at least someone’s education, even if not ur own.
7. The manager doesnt have any idea how the food on the menu is prepared or what it is served with…just says “oh yes, its very good, thats what I am having for dinner tonite.”
8.The managers are not only in the tip pool, but at the end of the night, they sit down for a full dinner from the menu, have a bottle of wine, while the lowly waitstaff is doing sidework (polishing glasses and silverware).
9. When it rains, plants have to be re-arranged right in the middle of the dining room floor.
10. The cat earns his keep by leaving dead mice at the entrance door.
11. When even ur customers recognize that the GM is a douchbag.
I work at a very well known and very successful restaraunt on the Jersey shore in the summertime. I have waited on people such as John ( from John and Kate plus 8), Paula Deen, and Pierce Brosnan. I must say this is by far the most disfunctional, dirty, and disorganized place I have ever worked at.This place covers 42 of the 50 listed. It is unreal how people can be sucked into payiing high prices for terrible food and half ass service, all for the location and atmosphere. Yet, they keep coming back and people keep working there because the money is very good.
1-GM walks over to me drunk one evening when my shift is up in front of the bar and in the middle of the restaurant and tells me he likes and does cocaine.
2-Waiters tell me how much most of the other waiters “won’t make it” and how much they suck.
3-Bartender and GM will make ANY member of the staff multiple cocktails or bottles of booze, all night long, even the underage ones.
4-People get hired based only on looks, how much shit they can put up with, and if they’re into above and beyond for “the family”.
5-You get hit on all of the time.
6-At least half the staff is dating the other half of the staff.
7-Affairs, one night stands, and sexual harassment are the daily norms.
8-You commute to work for an hour and a half only to be told not to work that night and to maybe call tomorrow.
9-On your first day everyone tells you the GM is a cheapskate, asshole, bi-polar, sleeping with 2 of the staff-members mothers, micro-managing, but he can be “a nice guy”—yea right.
10-You’re in recovery for alcoholism & drinks are constantly forced & offered to you even though you’ve told them repeatedly that you don’t drink & they go so far as to get you a soda & put whiskey in it & you just learn to smell your drinks before you drink them.
All one restaurant and it’s a f***ing corporate franchise!
Work in an office or something even a warehouse—avoid restaurants! Any other low-level manual labor is better than this. It gets old—quick.
You nailed it. I went after a corporate store after I’d quit there..on behalf of the staff who still depend on the hole. I went to my local member of parliament..the whole system sucks. Unless a staff member comes forward (a process wherein they have to reveal their identity, and must still be working there) then nothing is done. Of course nobody speaks out..they will get blacklisted in the business. I went ahead and wrote a ton of letters to the editor about the place..many of them were published..I couldn’t name the hole (Crabby Joes/Obsidian Group Canada) but I worded the article carefully so that people knew immediately (Crabby servers…what’s Joe up to now? that sort of thing. This industry breaks my heart. How people can think it’s okay to abuse others for their own gain is something we just shouldn’t see in a “free” country.
Oh my god that Jim Jones reference made me howl, good job!
I worked at a bar where the owner had a policy not to let him in the door after 6pm. Yes, he had barred himself from his own bar because of his notorious alcoholic rages.
This same bar had no paychecks, no W-2s, no 10-99s, and they never asked to see my license or social security card. I was paid $25 a shift out of the register and could drink all I wanted (it was the highest base pay I ever got at a bar/ restaurant).
I work at a popular chain restaurant where busy servers will take dishes out of dirty bus tubs, rinse them off, and use them.
Managers steal servers’ tips.
Abuse is common.
There are times when I look at where I work and rue the series of poor decisions that led to what I call a night at work.
God Bless You All!!!!! I can say I have experienced a few things on the list and I’m practically begging and screaming to leave the restaurant industry. This blog has given me the courage to leave my current place of employment despite good benefits. If I stay an keep taking the abuse, I’ll become an alcoholic.
I totally agree with you. I’m in year 26 of this god forsaken service industry. I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how much you know, how much you care, etc etc…the lazy little puke that’s related to the boss will always have the good spots and pay. The server that steals drinks and pockets money from the till will still be the boss’s favorite. You will almost always work for one reason..to line the boss’s pockets. I’m heading to my new year’s eve shift shortly. The kitchen manager will have returned from his paid vacation, and be yelling and carrying on like a two year old tonight. The servers will be barking about their meal times, while raking in an easy 300.00 each. A chain reaction will occur and I will go home and try not to drown myself in alcohol.
Yep, this is one of the comments that resonated with me the most for sure. Sounds exactly like restaurant work, especially the staff sleeping with each other. Also being a 30 something waiting tables (with 10+ years experience) with a bunch of kids who think they’re above you because they’ve worked at the Podunk Tavern for a year and a half. .
THE POLITICS!!
We have to stand up and protest.I have worked in kitchens all my I have seen good people turned into a pile of wasted human life.People do not tip and if a person has no money to go out to eat they will do any trick to get that meal for free. I feel we don’t need restaurants because of low wages, and abuse right along with working conditions in the restaurant it is stressful,and non stop work.So think twice when you go out to eat at any restaurant that includes shitty process food from fast food restaurants.You should also budget your time in the day to cook your own food.
I hate my life . Forget you for being right
.
yep,
i’ve experienced pretty much all of these in various places i’ve worked.
One to add- I got a third degree burn on the inside of my thumb by lifting a plate off the hotplate-the skin was melted right off-did they call me a taxi to A&E?? NO- i was told to sit with it in a bowl of water and come back to the floor in 15mins.
Safe to say i walked out, shaken and in tears and never went back…I swore I’d never work in hospitality again, and yet a year later I end up back at it again-life’s a bitch
Black mold is found on all of the cutting boards during a health inspection and you return a day after to discover that they have not been replaced.
experienced all this and more, worked at a nightclub and the owner kept taking money out of the register all night to buy coke, then screamed at me at the end of the shift that the drawer was short
You just got 2 tables and its not even an hour away from close, and the chefs are no where to be found. You walk out back and they’re all getting stoned.
Your table ordered pasta and a salad and its been 30 minutes and no salad . You ask the chef about it and he yells at you for breaking his concentration.
Head chef calls his ex- wife a n***** lover.
The bartender is frequently not behind the bar, so you resort to making the drinks yourself but then get yelled at by the GM because you’re not allowed behind the bar.
The bartender forces you to stay until she is “ready” to give you your tips. I.e. wait until midnight for her to clean the bar.
Manager yells at you for standing around, and is always standing around texting/ on a long cigarette break.
A table has an allergy to any oil besides olive oil. You ask the chef if he can fix her just a bowl of pasta with olive oil. He proceeds to tell and start banging things with his fists in the open kitchen, so loud the customers can hear. This has happened multiple times.
Server obtains write up for dine and dash while owner is too busy drinking on shift to realize either they should hire supervisors or support their servers on shift.
The GM cheated on his wife with the bartender. Now his bad life is taken out on the staff.
The GM tells you that they don’t have a problem with you but then tells someone else they haven’t liked you for months now.
The GM was prosecuted of tax fraud at his prior manager position and his brother was convicted.
You can google you GM and find more than one mug shot.
The GM gives out free drinks that the owner has to pay for.
Your GM has never waited on a table, EVER!!
Your GM can’t answer general knowledge questions about the food.
Your GM yells at a table and tells them to leave.
There is so much more but I don’t have the time right now.
The owner doesnt trust the kitchen manager in food ordering, drains are clogged up in the dish room for a few months, staff doesnt know the menu completly.
I really need to get even with my GM at the restaurant I just started working at. First He said I will be trainig about 3-4 days I was like ok then This mother**** madee work 3 days said its train then after 3 days he said they dont pay for training and told me he is sorry … Its not about the money anymore I dont really need this job to servive i just want to get these fkers back witout going to jail. HELP
They have to pay you!
Report them. I’m not sure who to, but I’m pretty sure this ⬆ is right. It is illegal.
They give u a choice of Thanksgiving or Christmas to work with other one off & then try yo make u work both not caring u have a family
The owner talks to staff ABOUT OTHER STAFF, the owner goes up to the weekly schedule, to keep the oppressive spirit in the kitchen alive and well, and announces “Dee had a shit attitude last week. I’ll show her” and slashes an employee’s hours to nearly nothing. You make an off-handed comment about the job to one of the servers, and the next day your boss hauls you into the office (or does it out in the open) and tears a strip off of you (the house mouse plague)
you’ve been told to use only one ticket per table so separate checks isn’t a literal thing because all is done at the register. when the owners son makes a mistake separating a ticket , you’re yelled at for not giving separate checks.
You’re accused of being drunk when calling in sick with the stomach flu
Racist comments are told to you because you’re the only white waitress in the restaurant and expected to laugh at them
Your spoken to in Spanish and are expected to understand it and are lectured because you don’t, all because the owners english sucks
Owner is doing coke with other waitresses and giving them ‘bonuses’ and wonders why his wife is such a b**** to them
Waitresses ask you to cover their shifts because their cousins wedding came up and they didn’t want to ask for the day because the boss is a dick, only to find out their cousins wedding was last week.
Bust boys slit their thumbs open on dirty silver wear, only to duct tape the wound and continue hand washing dishes
You’re expected to work late after your shift unpaid
Cockroaches are found crawling over food bar and floor by customers feet and waitresses are ordered to grab/sweep them up wothout being noticed
Air conditioning/heater are not run all year long because boss doesn’t want to pay for it even in 110 degree weather and customers are walking out because of it
Leaking roof isn’t properly fixed and half of the restaurant has about an inch and a half – inch of water on the floor
im working in a hotel and the dishwasher is using dirty water to wash dishes and the sink has been blocked for over 3 weeks and the owner has doe nothing bout it am walking out because I have also seen 5 fully grown cockroaches inside the kitchen and I personally feel that the hygiene in the kitchen is completely inappropriate and disgusting and they need to sort it as I wouldn’t eat there my self and I am coming close to phone the food and hygiene agency my self so they have to sort it out.
The credit card machine is configured to allow no more than 99% of the initial total for a tip. Because the boss spends most days at the ‘club’, and those girls perform ‘extra services’ for tips of $50 or more on a $7 beer. And he keeps hiring them to work in our family oriented facility. Where we get to train them, and they steal from the drawer during training shifts, so the trainer gets to pay it back from THEIR pocket. AND once they realize he expects them to WORK, not get a cake ‘job’, they quit – no notice. Half of them are doing side work in the parking lot after their shift.
– Theft from customers (padding tabs, pouring well, charging for goose) is not a big deal, especially if a portion of the proceeds make it into the drawer.
– Arbitrary rules. If you are a twinkie, they don’t apply. If he needs a spot for a new twinkie, fired on a technicality.
– Telling me to fire someone, reason being insufficient sales on slow days. Saying in the next breath the only time their sales were up to par was when they had to cover a good shift. SERIOUSLY?!?
When you are constantly sexually harassed by male customers and employees…and you’re a lesbian! Don’t even say you are though, then they are ten times worse. Disgusting people.
When a manager tells you that “it’s not the manager’s responsibility to make sure the servers get a meal break” (this happened while working a 10-12 hour shift) & that if I get really hungry “to just go hide in the bathroom to eat a snack.”
When the owner offers you to try some Molly during your shift & you say no, but yet, they keep insisting.
When the owner blames the staff aggressively for the current fruit fly and/or vermin problem.
When an owner sends you an email like this:
“Every single one of you needs to plan to be at the restaurant/bar at 10am this SATURDAY. I do not care if you closed the night before. That is no excuse to come in late for a deep clean.”
Now, mind you, I close the bar every FRIDAY night at 4am. Come in at 10am the next day? COME ON! Also, this “deep clean” is an unpaid commitment. Everything about it is illegal!
When the owner knows that one of her main employees (her “wing-man” outside of the restaurant) is constantly on the move to sleep with all of the new female hires & she encourages it. But if a female employee shows dating interest in a patron, there is a great chance the female employee will be fired. (the owner is a woman too)
When an owner constantly scares away regular paying customers from the bar because she doesn’t like them but, will bring in her clique of celebrity guests that drink for free, very RARELY tip, & they hang for an extra hour or 2 after the business has closed for the day. Guess who cleans the mess up?
When the kitchen staff only offers either cheese burger & fries or pasta as a family meal & you only have 5 minutes to shovel it down your throat while standing.
When the kitchen staff just blatantly stares at you as you eat your disappointing family meal for those 5 minutes that you’re allowed during your 10-12 hour shift.
When one of the kitchen staff members ask you almost everyday “Ay mamí! Where is my kiss?”
When you inform the owner that a kitchen staff member has frequently saying lewd things to you that make you feel uncomfortable.( ie: checking out my ass, making it a spectacle to the other staff members, & then laughing about it to his comrades just as you leave the kitchen). The owner’s response: “that’s not sexual harassment” & “you really have to learn how to have thick skin to work here”.
I could go on & on & on……
New owners who have never owned or been in a bar are watching too much bar rescue, and acting like Hitler in the bar, and hire a manager who has no experience and just put her two weeks notice In at walmart to run the bar
-When you don’t have a manager for 6 months and the owner just comes in to eat/drink/pick up female guest
-The bartender orders over $1000 in alcohol for emergency’s and no one finds out until its way too late
-When the owner comes in to eat, he gives the server a tip out of the safe.
-The owner pays for his car off the books.
-The owner donates $2000 a year to his bicycle club.
-The owner has NEVER worked in a restaurant.
-The owner fucks up seating at brunch, so the college girls have a place to sit. Takes shots to them(we are white linen/fine dining), spills on one of the girls, runs off and tells the host to comp her meal. She continues to bitch so she gets a $100 gift cert.
-The owner is 47, never married and no prospects.
-The owner shorts staff on pay checks so nothing will bounce.
-The electricity gets cut off once a year, due to none pay.
-The owner is afraid of me, because I tell him the truth about some of these issues.
-When ‘pretty’ girls come in, he runs back to the office so he can watch them on cam while they dine.
Basically the guy is a perverted piece of crap. The restaurant is his personal pick up place. he has hired women to work as hostess or server. They can never work the hours they are needed and never clock in. We see them once maybe twice and then they just stop showing up.. I stay because I love what I do. I am a pastry chef. I can hone my skills so I can move on. Every one has an agenda. Some are just not as perverted…lol
It is sad how most wait staff hate their managers. I am sorry you all had such bad experiences with your managers. I am a manager. I am lucky enough to be a manager at a privately owned restaurant, not at a chain. I couldn’t say every wait staff in my team likes me. I’m a fair and equal manager and not everybody likes it. But I read all of the comments and I think I only did one “no-no” among all these; I made a newly trained employee work on a weekend once because one server was on vacation, another one had flu. Many restaurant businesses lost business lately, but my sales are higher then ever.I make myself clear when I bring a rule, I make sure everybody follows it. But I look after my servers, I care about them. When I notice they are burnt out, I demand paid vacation from my boss for them. I got raise for my servers twice in three years when I haven’t request one for myself. They know I am the woman of her words, both ways. If you follow the rules I’ll make this place heaven for you, if you are subordinate, as I always say “don’t let me fire you, bring me your resignation notice.” I throw them parties, I surprise them with foods and drinks and small gifts, I work on holidays so they can spend time with their families. All I am asking for are, no gossiping, no drama, treat your co-workers right, give the best customer service possible to our guest. Not too much to ask I think. But they still call me “Psycho”. They gave me that name when our computer system crashed down 2 years ago. The boss was out of country for vacation. They thought (because of the volume of our sales) I was going to close. They thought there was no way we could pull this off. We did! I slept on booths many nights during that two weeks of “we are still fixing your motherboard” period but we did it! I surprise them with a picnic party, out of my pocket. I am psycho because I do my job right! Instead of whining about bad managers and owners, how about “YOU BECOME TO CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE”! I am a single mother with three kids. Struggling financially and time-wise. But I am still looking for a restaurant to start my own. I will have the same management attitude when I become an owner. Restaurant industry needs better managers, better owners; managers and owners who will understand the needs of restaurant staff, because it is not an easy job. So stop whining, get up and become one!
Well, Sarah, aren’t you just special. Restaurant owners are notorious for being exactly as described herein. Whining about not being paid properly; being given a break while working a 10 hour shift, and/or being harassed by other staff members IS NOT WHINING. Come down off your high-horse.
You have worked a double shift and you ask for 5 minutes break. Apparently that is having an attitude problem and you don’t deserve a break as you were seen laughing with another employee during your shift!
Also, when you are expected to hold a section, man the bar and keep on top of back bar, they demand to know why your work is not perfect.
Bees in the bar and the bartender is expected to keep pouring. Management would rather make as much profit as possible than take care of a bee problem which could potentially be a huge health risk to the employee.
Bees!
Some real ones:
-The GM takes money out of the tips for cocaine
-The GM sells the DJ equipment for cocaine
-The owner has the security cameras synced to his home laptop and frequently calls to say things like ¨I can see you taking a smoke break¨
-You get ¨paid¨ less than half the minimum wage, and you are given said ¨pay¨ out of the till in cash at the end of each shift.
-Nightly stocktakes! You have to count every single bottle of beer on the premises every single night, and if there are any missing, it comes out of the tips.
-Someone complains that there is a dead cockroach in their coffee, and none of the staff are surprised.
-The storage cupboard is frequently occupied by a crying staff member.
-The security guards allow underage entry to girls who give them blowjobs in the carpark.
-A bartender once arrives to his shift, bleeding profusely from an un-bandaged cut on his hand, and the managers allow him to serve people.
-The GM brings a 14 year old girl into the bar and yells at you when you refuse to participate in getting her drunk.
-You see the head chef ¨rescue¨ a mornay lobster from the floor, brush it off and serve it.
-Your staff meal is a can of Red Bull.
You know you need to get out when…. the owner is one of two chefs in a restaurant that is charging $30 a plate. In small town PA. When you have to not only bus your tables because there is never enough bussers on the floor. But also even seat them! When you make 3 out of 4 courses yourself. There is never a schedule. You work everyday. Because the restaurant runs on bare minimal staff at all times! The owner will say remarks about how easy it is to serve tables… While he asks you to make him a dinner salad for someone else’s table.(can’t handle his own job) if something goes wrong with a table the owner says racial and unmentionable comments. And that’s it. You deal with it. I love serving. I’ve been doing it for 14 years. I make good money at this restaurant and that’s why I stay. But it’s abuse. I’ve been here 8 years and I’m just about over it. I’m on my last straw. Meditation is my key to dealing. Also medicating with lots of organic medicine…
I worked at a little place that would charge servers a percentage of the credit-card processing fee’s if the tip was left on the card. They also made us pay for our own table condiments – I would come to work with 5 little condiment baskets every shift, although we could buy the condiments at a discount from the restaurant owner. We had to pay for all breakage, walk-outs, miss-orders (even if the customer fucked up their order), and we had to tip out 20% because they paid the kitchen staff so little – and the 20% was not deducted when determining minimum wage. And the two best sections at the restaurant were always staffed with the hot girls the owner wanted to bang, and I heard he rarely made them pay for their condiments either. God I hated working there.
now i don’t think this is a legal way to handle this but here is the story–my boss sent out a note to everyone if you are not at the 10:45 or 4:45 unpaid pre shift meetings in full uniform if you are one minute late you will be skipped 2 rounds of seating which might mean you won’t get one table for an hr or 2, anyone know the HR laws on this?
My name is Steve. I have been in the restaurant buisness for over 30 years (started as a dishwasher). During this time, I have worked for several different restaurant concepts, both corporate and independent. I currently own a small neighborhood sports bar, and am in the process of opening a second location. As I was surfing the web for restaurant ideas, trends, etc. I stumbled across this site. I read posts and comments about bad owners, managers, employees, etc., and decided to post my comments, not defending others bad behavior (and in some instances criminal) but instead I wanted to share another view of this business from an owners perspective. During my career in the restaurant buisness I’ve seen my share of craziness. From child birth in the bathroom, to a heart attack in the kitchen, I think I’ve seen it all. ( until the next day when something Ive never seen before happens) That being said, part of what drew me into the restaurant buisness is that unique craziness. Shift to shift, day to day, month to month, and year to year, i have a job that is anything but boring. Do I get cranky and irritated after my 10th 12 hour day in a row, hell yes. Have I yelled at an employee for not washing their hands after smoking, yes. Do I get irritated when Susie server calls in sick 5 minutes before her scheduled shift when I’m already short handed, yes. Have I punched a wall (or two) when Walter waiter put an ice cream cake on top of the hot cook line that a customer brought in to celebrate a birthday, yes. Admittedly, all these situations could have been handled in a better way. That being said, “It’s hard to remember your objective is to drain the swamp when your asshole deep in snakes and alligators”. In the heat of the moment we sometimes react before we think things through. Are there bad managers, owners, fellow employees, etc.? Of course there are. Like any profession, there are bad people doing bad things. People that should be in jail, or at a minimum in a different line of work. But from my expierince, those people are the exception not the rule. Some of us care about our employees. And as Sara wrote, we treat them better than we do ourselves. I’ve loaned money, bailed employees out of jail, payed for rehab, and at other times, just been there to help an employee get through a tough time. I guess what I’m trying to say is that every restaurant has a unique personality, go find one that fits yours.
I am the owner of several restaurants and have worked as the GM of fine dining restaurants for both corporate and independent concerns. If you can’t handle the hours in this business, do something else. If you can’t handle the stress of this business, do something else. Your being tired and stressed out doesn’t come close to excusing treating other people poorly for any reason. If you are punching walls, you need therapy not a restaurant to run. You don’t sound like a bad guy so quit making excuses for bad behavior.
I am taking my owner to court. Lawyer emailed my coworker and I that he filed with the Labor board on Wednesday! She made me pay for a computer that broke ($300), took 4% of credit card tips, took 1/2 hour out of paycheck for break I did not get, I did not get break, I did not get 10 min rest period, my last paycheck is being counted as 30 days late (lawyer decided) other illegal fees…..totalling $17,786.37. I can’t wait till she gets the notice of her hearing in court! She even slapped me on my wrist once (not going after tgat cuz too hard, no monetary). She is evil! The cooks quit and so I was forced to cook. She wouldn’t let me throw away green pastrami. ..green!!!!! She told me to cook it on the grill longer! What if the person eating this sandwich had low immune system, was pregnant, had cancer…..even a healthy person should not be served bad (spoiled) food!!!! I worked at this bar under her for 3.5 years while in school. She has single handedly run this sports bar into the ground! !! She refills alcohol bottles (ABC violation). Once we get our money I’m sharing all my pics (spider in the ranch dressing tgat she scooped out with her hand and had us put the container back in the holder to keep using (besides picture I have a cocktail server as witness)!, cockroaches on the bread, all over food counter tops, her ABC violations to name a few). If you keep records , evidence, check stubs, pictures, audio recordings on your phone you can go to labor board and get your money back. We chose to use a lawyer who instead of paying him $350 an hour he will get 1/3 of my winnings. I’m fine with that. I actually was going to be lazy and not even sue! !! I just want this lady to know, you are in America, this is illegal and you will never forget my name, lol!!!
I work at brio its a tuscan restaurant
I hear the servers pain i truely do what i noticed is that no one responds about how bad the dishwashers truely have it. If you think its bad being a server you are the 1st on the list of things to get done you are somewhat of importance so your problems get heard first. When it comes to dishwashers you are a slave for almost nothing most dishwashers only make 14,000 a year talk about the always the odd ball out. With that said 51 percent of americans make 20,000 dollars a year still poverty but realize dishwashers make 6 grand less than that on average. Its not the pay its the treatment. In my case i told them i can work nights because i cant walk home after a shift at 1 in the am plus thats pass the time of any bus running also no one give a fuck about a dishwasher. The servers atleast make out with enough money to buy a car. If you work at a restaurant ask your dishwasher if he as a car the answer is no because who the fuck can afford a car with a yearly income of under 15k shit is crazy. On top of the poor treatment dishwashers are pushed to the absolute breaking point its either work a shit job and hope for a better opportunity thatll never come or just give up in my case i decided to throw in the towel because who the fuck wants to live off of 15k i rather die life is pointless at that. Last thing ill say is if you think a server got it bad you know for a fact the dishwasher is living in hell. Its retarded logic that the hardest working person in the restaurant gets paid the least who came up with this idea??? Makes no fucking sense
When the manager calls to scream at you because you didn’t tell him about your cash tables so he could comp everything off and pocket the money from your register and name. Piece of shit it was my first job I was 18 and naive. I didn’t know why he wanted to know about all of my cash tables.
Oh yea and when the owners ask you if you value your job because they need a bartender tomorrow for their thanksgiving day party and the restaurant is closed. So someone has to do it. (Didn’t have a choice)
Or when your boss hits on you and touches you at work constantly only to fire you because you didn’t go anywhere with that.
Or when your drunk manager screams at you for pouring a shot in the wrong glass (it was measured pour in the rocks glass because the shot glasses were nowhere to be found) in front of everyone then tells you to miss a shift because of your actions. (I have been cut off from shifts for the craziest things. )
Or when your managers name is “coupon don” because of he steals from cash tables with coupons.
You get fired for something
Crazy like the above ^^ not taking part in illegal activities or bullshit and can’t get a job down the road because they will not put in a good word for you.
Mamas boy in soon ct , the past owner thought she was on vanderpump rules. She would steal tips, take tips , scream, act like a loser..
Worked at a very well known family owned restaurant right out of high school…the owner (God rest his soul) at that time owned one of the the most famous fine dining seafood restaurants in Boston PLUS 4 other locations around the greater metro area, he was a wonderful man and a wonderful boss. All his places were classy with top notch employees a a huge loyal customer base…flash forward 20 years…a company I had worked at for 7 years was closing down, looked in the paper saw that 1 of the 2 remaining restaurants out of the 5 owned by my former boss was hiring servers…I go in and find that the 3 sons are now in charge and as soon as I told them about my experience working with dear old Dad I was in! Loved it there, loved my co-workers, my managers, my customers, pretty much everyone. I caught on quick and found that the money was great & the pace of a busy restaurant was just what I needed after 7 years behind a desk. Sounds like a dream right? WRONG! Found out I had a tumor in my arm & was soon on chemo…yet still I never complained and hardly ever missed a shift except for maybe one or two right at the beginning of my treatment. Thinking they would see the smile on my face regardless of my struggle of which they were well aware of would keep them happy I was in my own little blissful bubble. Then it happened, my doctor called & without going into detail said I would need to see him immediately, so I asked NOT to miss my shift but to get a co-worker to cover for me by switching a shift with one another…thats when everything went South. I came in the next day and nothing was ever the same, they asked me if I could handle my job or they’d make little comments about how pale I was & thought it would be best if I didn’t take a section but instead a table or two in our tavern section (which btw only seats 2 at a time & the turn around is horrible because people sit in the tavern section to drink eat off the cheaper bar menu & lounge for hours! Needless to say each day it became more and more apparent they were trying to force my to quit knowing it would be illegal to fire my for having Cancer! After about a month and a rent imminently due I decided enough was enough & staying quiet would do nothing to help my situation. Now mind you I went in calm & collected to simply ask if something was wrong with my performance or to maybe explain to them I needed no kid glove treatment due to my illness which was apparent because my duties were never lacking. Thats when one of the Owners…not my managers…but one of the sons told me to shut up! I was absolutely stunned silent not quite believing my own ears…so I said excuse me? And he said it again!! Only this time he added in a question…he asked me if I had something “wrong” with me and he didn’t mean physically he meant mentally! When tears started welling up in my eyes he called my useless and stupid! Worse of all he did this right on the floor in the middle of the dinner rush! I knew there was no point in arguing so I simply swallowed hard said excuse me I’m sorry and run out back to compose myself then quickly returned to my table…to my embarrassment several diners came up to me to ask if I was alright, I just said I was fine and that was that I finished my shift went home and balled my eyes out…then the anger set in, here I am dealing with a disease that could potentially kill me and now I had to deal with a very uppity, egotistical boss with an obvious superiority complex! Knowing I couldn’t tell him where to go and who to get there without jeopardizing my job any further I simply vented a little on my private facebook account using no names nor explaining my ordeal in any detail…I only posted what any other person would about how work is killing me and how unfair this was after all my hard work and dedication and added that my boss was being very mean to me unnecessarily and I didn’t know what I should do, expecting maybe some friendly advice from my fellow facebookers. Now comes the next day, I go in all seems well and blown over for the moment, that is until I check the schedule that was due out that day and see no hours at all next to my name! I asked the managers to tell me what was going on but they all seemed just as perplexed, they told me it was probably just to find out if I needed any time off for appointments and stuff and would probably be filled in that night. I told them I had nothing scheduled & if I did they would’ve received a prior request for time off. They said not to worry and to just work my shift & they’d call me that night. Well they called me alright, to tell me I was being let go and it was the owner who decided it…I asked why, they said they had a printout of my facebook post and unfortunately talking bad about my boss and my work was grounds for termination I asked how they even saw my post on my private account & the managers being my friends told me that one of my co-workers was sleeping with that owner & decided to show him what I wrote!!! I couldn’t believe it! I was floored! I kept thinking to myself can they really do that? I mentioned no names no restaurant names either, nor did I even so much as curse in that post & had actually deleted it that very next morning after sleeping on it and calming down! Just goes to show you the restaurant biz is a cruel and harsh environment to work in…eating humble pie while some man told me to shut my mouth and then called me stupid and mentally challenged took all I had in me…he’s lucky I didn’t tell him to go eff himself and call some of my guy friends to run into him after work one day! Yet now that I’m gone I see there’s really no point we are all just bodies…and with 7 billion bodies in the world we are ALL very replaceable. I don’t know about you guys but no job security and no respect for the employees who help you run your business seems like a dead end place to be anyways! Good riddance! Now I can write anything I want about him and his disgustingly run business…yet blessing him with space in my mind seems too generous for the likes of him! Life is too short to waste on garbage! The good news is I’m in remission and will live another day at a better workplace! Reading all these posts makes me wonder just how many of you have thrown your self-respect and dignity out the window to stay at these awful places!? Maybe its time to ask yourself if it’s really worth it. Thanks for letting me vent…good luck to all you hard working servers…you’re gonna need it! Oh and P.S. keep the venting here and not on Facebook cuz you never know who is stalking your pages!
Andrea, I read your post with interest. And, I am so happy you are in remission. And, out of that place. We are just another bog in their money making machine. One of the posters hit it right on the nose: Stockholm Syndrome. I worked for 5 years in a bad situation but was afraid to leave. I would sometimes find myself defending the management’s bad behavior to newer employees. I finally had a run in with the owner and I didn’t back down I walked out. We have to thank our enemies, they get us to where we are meant to be. They did me a favor getting me angry enough to walk out. It took 6 months for me to get back to normal. They had beaten me down to the point that I doubted my own competence; and I’m pretty swift and a hard worker. I hope you find your way to a glorious future. Watch for angel numbers: repeating numbers. If you see repeating numbers regularly your guardian angel is sending you messages. Google the numbers and you’ll discover the message. Now you think I’m a nut. But I’m not. I’ve become open to new and different avenues. My life is good, I work for myself and started with very little money. Just lots of encouragement. Be well and remember creating a happy life is revenge. They are still in those dreadful jobs. And they are not happy — just have a lot of money.
What a horrible story – but not surprising. The restaurant business can be an evil place. I do hope you are all right. – Steve
when you deposit your check from applebees which was owned by John Bifone of Calabees 2 days later you get charged for insufficient funds and do not get paid. Then Mr. Bifone informs GM he will make good, never does sells the company to AppleAmerica takes a vacation in Puerto Rico and buys a new house. Go to labor board to be told he can file bankruptcy day before hearing and likely no one will be paid, cannot sew him because Calabees was incorporated. New ownership doesn’t care that so many got shafted hundreds and some thousand dollars.
Owner yells at us in an abusive way when we make mistakes and we are told not to take it personally. But of course he makes mistakes so we should do the same right?! Of course not, he would be pissed off if we treated him the same way he treats us. He has anger management issues but its embarassing when we get hollored at.
when the fat manager using the same excuses over and over, but obviously he just going to different restaurant to eat. But in bright side it is okay when the manager is not around because of the service are going to be good.
1 manager steals from from bartenders & waiters for years different hotels & bars tell staff there 20.00 short in cash deposit every week
times 15 staff also stole the tip pool for the month. yea somebody got in the office and stole the tip pool bullcrap.
Had a friend from revenue canada do a audit ha ha 8 years later revenge is sweet. he lost his job as well oh his boss got a audit as well
had to sell his bar
2 manager add water to vodka rum gin at banquet party pocket money pocket money on solf drink sales
Died of cancer now off my revenge list
The kitchen makes you make your own salads when they aren’t busy
-One of the chefs (owners son) CONSISTENTLY asks if you have a boyfriend, smacks your ass, or makes assumptions with his wife that you’re a lesbian and thats why you don’t date anyone
-SAME chef assumes that you’re inn a bad mood because “you don’t have a boyfriend” AKA can’t get laid
-Next chef constantly follows you into the basement when fetching supplies so he can “give you a hug” with his hands a bit too low for comfort levels.
-Food-prep woman is always crying in the freezer because of mistreatment from the owner and her children.
-Constantly being blamed that the restaurant is failing because of you.
-Being manipulated into thinking they “love you like family” But then scream in your face and criticize everything you say and do. (playing with emotions)
-you resign with a letter and literally NO ONE calls or tries to get ahold of you to see whats going on
-owner blows her nose on her apron then continues to make pierogies…. by hand…
-chefs never wear gloves
-always being called in on your days off, then being treated badly or differently if you tell them you can’t come in
-wait staff ALWAYS talks shit on eachother
-customers grab you, make sexual remarks towards you, ask you suggestive things or makes comments on your over all appearance.
-being stalked by customers (mainly older, sad/creepy gentlemen.)
-you have consistent nightmares. anxiety filled dreams about the restaurant… even months after you quit
-manager spreads lies and gossip about past co-workers to not only current employees but customers as well
-manager gives out free food then blames you when they’re losing money
-Bosses talk to you like drill sergeants
-Bosses yell at you/scold you in front of customers
-customers laugh at that ^
-restaurant interrupts your college education because they’re short staffed and too cheap to hire anyone else
–
When you have to serve 8 tables, expo food, do the dishes, bus your table all at once. Oh and get cut 3 hours before your shift ends to do cut work!
Work at a country club. The GM( female) is always yelling at us for some reason. One of the manerges. (male) is alway drinking and asking me to makeout with him. What do I do??
My last waiting job I quit on Mother’s Day. That’ll teach ’em.
-When you call in to check your schedule, you’re told to come pick up your paycheck instead. The only explanation you get is: “We hired you and we fired you”, and upon further investigation you’re told that you “asked too many questions” (and the questions were things like “where do you keep this and that” asked ON YOUR FIRST DAY OF WORK).
– The owner does not permit you to serve fresh dessert to the customers since there’s a piece of a 3-day old stale and gross dessert still left over.
– The owner tells the busgirl she can have any meal on the menu for free, and when she orders meat, he subtracts the cost from her paycheck and then tells her: “What did you expect? Meat is expensive!”
(All three things come from the same restaurant. Last time I checked, there was a “for lease” sign on it, hehehe)
Did we work in the same place?
Integrity is in very short supply nowadays. One of the dictionary definitions of integrity is that whatever you would say whilst someone isn’t present is indistinguishable from what you would say to that person’s face. I hope that everyone on this thread is able to get away from bad bosses who are genuinely evil. Those people will never change and serve only to suck the life out of you. On the other hand this business is filled with decent, energetic managers who really just want to do the right thing but often don’t know how their behavior or management style affects their employees. Here’s a test to tell which situation you are in: If you have a problem with what is going on in your restaurant, say something. Be respectful and solution oriented but say something to either your direct boss or the owner. If they act as if they want to correct the problem, chances are they in fact do. If they act like petulant children, psychopathic lunatics or just ignore you then start looking for a better place to work. The reality is that great restaurant employees are about as common as great restaurant managers and they like to work with other great people and managers. If you are able to find the perfect place and get a job there you might actually have to treat the business seriously i.e,
-show up on time
-act like you want to be there
-come to work neatly attired
-show up sober
-know your product
-selflessly help other people out
-be positive
-speak professionally
-have pride in your work
-be coachable
-put the customers first 100% of the time
-don’t gossip
And don’t do anything else that so incredibly bugs the shit out of you when other people do those same things. If you can make those things part of your woek ethic you will find a great place to work, eventually. But it is a two way street. Your employer needs to genuinely appreciate what you bring to the table with both words and deeds but you too need to actually bring something to the table that’s worth appreciating. Try to remember that these businesses are hard to make profitable and are extremely risky. A good manager/owner will recognize how important their staff is but they will also not allow bad employees to stay long.
Wow, I have to supply my own check pad but apron provided. No roaches, bathrooms excellent, very large restaurant, clean kitchen. Do feel for the dishwashers. They are neglected…but they usually are really young, just starting out. We have bussers some nights…tip them 1%. Today my total tip out for them was $6.50. I have chaffing on my thighs, have a sinus infection (allergies), and I didn’t get a break during my 7 hours shift…but thankful my managers are mostly understanding/nice. Have to really screw up to anger them. Had a 30 top today. Was rough (very needy, no reservation, split checks 20 ways…at the end). Had to bus the table afterwards (extra hour with the closing duties). Don’t have any of the issues described except the bringing own till/change. Previous restaurants I worked in had a lot of those listed. Makes me cringe thinking about it. Key is to not settle (if location permits). May seem behavior/conditions are inevitable but there are larger/privately owned restaurants that commit very few of these delinqencies. High turnover is a bad sign if the restaurant is over 2 years old.
You’ve had over 300 employees in 24 months and are on the 26th manager in 24 months
Youre the dishwasher and the server same restaurat, same shift
Mine fired me through text message
I served at a restaurant in college where the GM was sleeping with underage girls who worked there as well as girls who were of legal age. My roommate at the time served there and got me the job, and then I found out a month later that the GM was paying her to do things to him. She even brought him to our apartment (thank God we had our own bedrooms). I thought I knew her well and I obviously didn’t. Oh, and GM was married by the way. He would take my roommate and other female coworkers who were under 21 out to bars and buy them alcohol because he knew the bartender. I went out with them once (but was old enough to drink) and got a super creepy vibe from him, so I never did it again. The last straw was when I got asked to have a threesome with my roommate and the GM for money. I was completely shocked, said no, and quit the next day, and also moved out of that apartment faster than road runner. The restaurant is now permanently closed because the GM went to jail. Probably my sketchiest serving job ever
Now, granted, I DIDN’T fill out a W-2 or get paid a training wage. And, the owner DID use mutual Facebook friends to source references on me. Also, we had a person quit, then come in the next day for work, only to be reminded she quit, then she said “Fuck this place!” and left.
Honestly? Compared to the 4 other restaurants I’ve worked at, all of which were at least Kona Grill’s standard, this family-owned place is, without a doubt, the best place compared to the rest of them. The owner is willing to jump in the trenches with the rest of us, no questions asked. The crew members are real chill and it’s always fun and upbeat in that kitchen. Hell, the owner even officiated one employee’s wedding, bought all the alcohol, and shut down the restaurant for the weekend.
So, while this list is definitely filled with things I wouldn’t wish on many people, a couple of these things here are fairly forgivable if the people are genuinely working to make it a great environment where the employees are truly valued. I guess I lucked out. Sometimes, we gotta suffer to truly know what’s worth the effort.
Definitely some good points.All of the above signs are not always 100 % indicative of a bad job- it has to be judged on a per-case basis and there are often trade- offs.I was hired immediately, given no training at all ( but I am a diner waitress with over 30 ys.experience in diners),worked Friday and Saturday in a super busy station the very first week, ( inexperienced people don’t get paid for being trained,but if they get through their training & are assigned a station,they can make more in one Saturday night than a Burger King/ Blockbuster -minimum wage job- employee makes in a 40 hr. week! ) Some of the cooks& managers have no people skills and can be downright abusive (there’s a lot of this in many jobs today- it has taught me how to handle myself !) Now on the upside- I am a 54 year old diner waitress,with absolutely no higher education whatsoever ; I make around $45,000 per year( and could do much better if I had the energy to pick up extra shifts), I eat at work for free, I have enough money to live , study, enjoy life and put aside substantial money in my savings account every week.I still have those days of complete disgust where I entertain the idea of quitting – then I look at all of the positives and decide that I am doing just fine,right where I am. Don’t turn a job down immediately if there are some bad aspects; Stay around long enough to see if, perhaps,the trade- offs make it worth sticking around.
I work at a restaurant and make an hourly wage of $8.50 even though I’ve worked there for over a year and a half as a server, and I don’t get tips (the owner keeps all of it, whether it be from the tip jar or left on the credit card receipt), so I have 0 motivation to be polite to customers.
also, there have been times that I’ve finished my shift and I sit at one of the tables and unwind before I go home, and then people on yelp complain that “one of the servers was just sitting at the tables” when they needed something
honestly sometimes I wish I could see some of the difficult customers I’ve had in the past outside of the restaurant and just bitch slap them and tell them how shitty they are
This is all of famous Daves in woodbridge Virginia…. I advice you not to work there
Second serving job in my life, second grave decision involving restaurant employment. I’ve been here a little over three months.
The assistant manager putting herself on the floor to take the largest table, then after the reservation leaves, she sits at the bar to drink in uniform leaving the giant mess for the closing server who has had two 2tops and one 4top to her 14top and 4top. It’s also forbidden that workers drink at the establishment if they work there that day, we cannot clock out, go home for three hours and change to come back for dinner and drinks without getting belittled. Out of the last 10 of the assistant managers closing shifts (that she scheduled herself) she’s probably closed 3 of them without pulling herself off the floor and going to do, whatever.
The assistant manager consistently forgets to schedule a server for coverage on lunch days and in a panic texts everyone to “Come into work, a half hour ago to help out!”
We also had sewage bubbling into the kitchen, the staff had bar towels as face masks and the GM refused to close the kitchen. Half the servers were holding their breath, the other half was attempting to not throw up all over the kitchen.
We now must pay for anything to drink other than water because, “The owner can save 200$ on the insurance he offers us” which is shitty terrible insurance anyway. We also get belittled if we work more than 30 hours so they actually have to offer it to us. The week before this announcement was made to the FOH staff, he took the Su chef, GM, AM, and Head chef to the strip club and dropped 3xx on booze and dances.
I’ve worked solo in a private room for open seating. I was scheduled a 10top, 8top and 5top all at the same exact time. The POS is broken in the PR room, so I had to run into the extremely busy bar, or all the way to the kitchen to ring in anything. I got screamed at for the food taking too long to be made from both my GM (who was bartending because we’ve lost three bartenders in two months), and the customer. The customer later decided it was the kitchens fault, instead of the manager for allowing reservations larger than the allowed sections for servers with full menu.
For St paddys day we were allowed to drink to make the day, sort of, enjoyable. All of the bar room servers were too drunk to hold a conversation, and the managers were “being servers” for the owners private party. By “being servers” I mean, getting wasted with the owner upstairs until we lost power for a moment breaking down the POS for an unforeseeable amount of time. The new assistant manager to be, asked the GM and AM what to do about the POS and the GM said they would look at it asap. 40 minutes later the GM was still no where to be found and customers were walking out on their tabs because they couldn’t even pay them. As I closed the dining room I made my rounds to check in on coworkers, I saw one near a POS looking off into the distance. “Hey bud, you need help?” I said to the overly sweaty bar room server who turns to me, strangely animated like a goomba to say, “MURRICCAA!” Before clocking out I looked at my other coworker who was buzzed like myself, yet still with a functioning brain to “run, run while you still can.”
I make 3.25$ an hour and almost always have it comp’d to minimum wage for a tiny paycheck. After I get my degree and work in my field, I’ll open a restaurant/bar and put these fucking morons to shame.
-There’s only one hostess (who is also the busboy) so if they just don’t show up or call in management shrugs their shoulders and says to deal with it.
-If you don’t ask for your tips when you go negative (They owe you more than you made in cash) they just keep it for themselves.
-They dock your hours without telling you because they decided the hours you worked weren’t in their eyes worth payment.
-They employ staff based on how they’re all related and won’t fire them when they suck.
-They pay you by cheque (in Canada).
-They only grant one week of time off (unpaid at that) if you’ve worked there for over a year.
– They give you 2 hours of closing tasks but want you out 30 minutes after close, they dock your pay if it takes 31 minutes or more to do.
-They only have 7 staff for the dining room so you haven’t had a weekend off in 3 years.
-They only give you 1 shirt, so when it falls apart they refuse to give you another because you should have taken better care of it. Ummm.. hello ?! I work in a restaurant ! I wash that thing daily.
-You’re not aloud breaks but your shifts are 12 hours long.
All of this is at my current restaurant!
Only one sign needed:
1 You work in a restaurant…
Here’s one for you…You’re not allowed to tell people the restaurant closes at 9pm even if it’s 8:55pm. The cameras are watching so the boss is gonna call you if she sees you tell a customer you’re closing. The cook goes home at 9:15pm so you as a young woman are there all alone possibly til 10 with a customer in an empty restaurant…all so the boss can make an extra 10 dollars at your expense. And you don’t get paid past 9 o clock even though you’re instructed to not start closing tasks until after 9 o clock (including mopping all the floors)
The GM is sleeping and getting drunk with the servers. Some get their schedule changed because of it. His girlfriend that used to work there ( got fired for passing out in the bathroom ) still comes in drunk when he’s off. Yes, they still live together and have terrible fights because they are both alcoholics. The GM steals booze from the restaurant to supply their habit….
The general manager and assistant manager are sleeping together. While on the clock. In the building. While its extremely busy and customers are angry because they’ve been waiting half an hour for the keg change.
Assistant manager is always either drinking or pilled out on the job.
Assistant manager is highly insecure because you’re way better looking than her and you can do your job while running circles around her own job and it makes her feel inferior, so you always get snide passive aggressive insults thrown at you
Assistant manager claims to be a Billy badass but doesnt do anything when you tell her that underage kids are trying to drink in the bathroom. She just stands there in her tight pants that show off her cottage cheese ass and stares at the wall because she’s pilled out.
General manager is too much of a pussy to do anything about the assistant managers abbhorant behavior bc he knows if he does his wife will find out hes a cheating dirt bag.
Whilst I was a chef. Anytime I did not like a customer’s attitude or race would add a bit of something to their meal. Also sometimes would cough, sneeze or spit into their meal. Cold salad would stir it with my dick. Also wiped my arse on a lettuce leaf that went into their salad.
Sometimes these dumb customers would send compliments on their meal to me via staff at the restaurant.
bon appétit
Your manager says “kill them, kill them” to the host about the servers at a RR Restaurant in Whittier, Ca. U.S.A. Basically means slam them to the point they can’t think straight and give good service. When I said when is too much too much that same manager said….”sounds like you’ve forgotten what it’s like to work night shifts” no I haven’t. It’s feels the same.
What a bitter waste of time. You ever notice how these blogs only ever talk about servers? That’s because you pussies have TIME and ENERGY to write and comment on these fuckin things. WE DON’T. Come finish up an 18-hour prep shift or dish shift in the back with us, see what real heartache is. Only reason I’m able to type here is because my foot’s broken and can’t work today. Otherwise, I’d be spending my time off doing NOTHING but sleeping. Count your fucking blessings retards.
Your restaurant has been through 6 Dishwashers, 6 Servers, 6 Cashiers, and a GM all in one year.
I have never worked in a good restaurant . This industry destroys your mental and physic health. I am happy i put an end to that part of my life. People ,please be respectful and nice to the servers . You dont know how hard is their job!