I have received comments in regards to the length of this post. If you have an issue, please consult the TLDR at the bottom -- it's fine if you don't want to read it, but I included as many details as I have to get the best answer on what can be done. I'm aware that it's long, no need for a reminder.
CITY: Fairburn, Georgia, United States COUNTY: Fulton County
This is a long one, guys, but I just wanted to make sure as much details were in this as possible to get the best idea of what can be done here.
I have been a waitress for corporate casual-dining restaurant chain for two months now. I can easily say that this has been the worst job that I have ever had, and the environment is so difficult to work in that I'll have to quit in two days. It's not your typical "Wow, I hate my boss because he's a insert political party here" sorta deal, but a "I am going home with glass shards in my arms after being verbally abused by higher-ups and being kept at work for unreasonable hours after I was supposed to get off" sort of deal. I remember my mom telling me she had a lawsuit against an employer when she was pregnant with me and walked away with 10k. The restaurant has a ranking system, which has four levels. My serving supervisors (your title when you reach Level 4 -- you're still a server, but you can basically kind of guide the severs on the serving floor with you, but you're NOT a manager, and pretty much a server just like everyone else) have been noted to bully those that are beginners in our locations all over the district. My managers have admitted to this during conversations in our office (I had every conversation with my managers recorded using my phone -- totally legal because of the One-Party consent law) and nothing is being done about it. Basically, what I'm looking to do here is quit on Sunday or Monday (particularly before I get fired or something, since that'll have to go on my resume), because I have been clinically diagnosed with PTSD, and being yelled at/harrassed daily, coming home with aching feet and tiny shards of fiber glass in my forearms and hands, being emotionally distraught all while making less than minimum wage each night because despite my hard work and following all the rules at my job, tips just aren't coming, I wanted to see if I'd have some kind of a case here. I'll just go ahead and list the situations that have occurred:
1.) Abuse from Level 4s : Two situations have occurred with Level 4 servers, one involving me having to make a harassment report. Again, these guys are NOT managers, but they have some modicrum of responsibility, because some are in charge of training newbies as well as being servers. They have to be great examples of what we're SUPPOSED to be doing, and at this particular store location, it's already been discussed with my managers that they're not, and that they pretty much do whatever they want, despite the fact that they're held to EXACTLY the same rules that EVERY server is (or they're supposed to be, at least).
-Lets call the first Level 4 "Joe". Joe and I had an amicable relationship until he came into work in a bad mood one day. We have a general rule in our establishment that when you leave out to the dining area, you need to always bring out a tray of someone's food, even if it's not a table in your section -- we all have established sections of tables, with guests that we're responsible for -- and that when you're coming back in, you should be bringing back some dishes from a table, even if it's not yours (bussing tables, basically). In kitchen, we have a little bar we can walk up to and leave our dishes at so the person on the other side can wash them. I brought a tray with glass bottles of condiments to the bar and instead of sorting the silverware and the plates out like we're supposed to, I had to leave my tray on the bar since I had an order to put in. If you don't put an order into our system, the cooks will not know to start making it. It's priority number one to get an order in and drop everything you're doing, including dirty dishes, to do that first. I've been told this is fine by managers.
Anyway, Joe comes into work in a bad mood and demands that me leaving my unsorted tray on the bar was a firecode violation and that I needed to remove it immediately. He and several other servers do this on a regular, more often than not deciding to not even clean it up, having one of the lower levels do this for them (again, being a lower level doesn't mean you do a higher-level's work. They're pretty much on the same scale as you and not really a superior. It's protocol for us to do things on our own). I told him that I had an order to put in. He spoke to me aggressively and told me that I needed to do it NOW, which caused me to violate protocol and do that first. Okay. I let it slide that time.
I forgot to go ahead and put up the bottles of condiments brought back from my tray on our condiment shelf. Again, we have a rule that even if a tray of food isn't for your table, or even if dishes outside aren't yours, that we should all just be doing our part and cleaning it anyway. It clears more tables, which means people get seated faster, which means we all get tips, which means we all get more money. Therefore, when I had a very heavy tray of food in my hands and Joe shouts across the kitchen, loud enough for everyone that was there to hear that I should drop what I was doing and put away those condiments, all I could tell him was that I'd do it when I got back into the kitchen. He yelled after me that I needed to do it and almost followed me out onto the serving floor with that foolishness. Our customer's food is supposed to be paramount to anything else, so what he was supposed to do is just put the condiments up himself. Again, I think he was making that firecode violation thing up, because I talked to a manager about it later and he said he had no clue what he was talking about, but instead, he walks up to me while talking to a married couple at their table that were already ticked off about cold food, slams the condiments on their table, and leaves. The wife looks at me, appalled, and says "Did he just SLAM those condiments on my table? Get me your manager right now." I get no tip. I was not re-imbursed. My manager is pissed at ME. It was extremely unprofessional. I reported him to my Level 4 trainer, the guy who trained me, and who is still responsible for me while I'm at my level -- his job is to report this to the managers. According to him, that guy has had several incidents like this and still isn't fired. There were witnesses to what he did.
-My other Level 4 incident -- lets call her "Nancy" -- constantly follows me around the kitchen and belittles me and/or speaks loudly when I do something wrong. I have no issue with being called to the side and told that I'm not doing something right; It makes me a better server and gets me more money. It's what all my managers and Level 4s do, and are supposed to do. It's help. But she does it loudly, and has done it in front of customers and my coworkers alike. And again, instead of pulling me to the side, she'll insist upon lecturing me while i'm trying to take a customer's food out and expect me to pause and listen to a lecture while the hot food in my hands gets cold. One day, I got tired of it; I picked up a tray of biscuits with a napkin instead of a towel because our linen closet was locked and it was Sunday, the busiest day of the week. I've seen managers do this, even, when there's no towels. She's behind me, in a bit too close in proximity for my comfort, telling me, loudly and condescendingly, "We have things for that, y'know" (referring to the towels). I told her "Okay, Nancy.", just really feeling like moving on and tending to my tables. "
"Yeah, and you really need to start using those, because store policy states that --" I sighed, and said "Yes, Nancy, I know." in a low voice, not having the time to explain. She continues to go on and on, and I tell her "I don't have time for this, i'm sorry" and walk the food in my tray to the serving floor. If my customers get cold food, I get no tips, and I live on tips I'm a 19-year-old abuse victim who has been homeless since I was 17 with no supporting family. I could not sit there and listen to her nag. When I come back into the kitchen, though, she confronts me loudly, and every one of my coworkers and managers back there saw this and stopped to pay attention. She demanded in a shrill voice that I learn to respect her and starts putting her hands up and gesturing and is getting in my face. I can promise that if she would have put her hands on me that she would have been fed through a feeding tube right now. I tell her "Nancy, I do not have time for this" in a low voice and walk past her. She says "FINE. I'LL JUST FOLLOW YOU AND TALK THEN" and is VERY VERY CLOSE to my body and practically pushing up on me. A manager watching the whole thing had to yell at her multiple times to get away from me. This is a 30-year-old woman.
I almost broke down on shift because of that, and had to talk to the manager that got her away from me about how the Level 4s are constantly doing this and telling me different rules than what I'm being taught, and how I get in trouble with the managers for listening to them and getting yelled at either way. I told her that I felt like I was being harassed by Nancy in particular and that I demanded an apology and that something be done or that I'd quit. She apologized and explained that our store was at a 30% approval rating and that this was happening all over the district. She thanked me for being able to continue to work despite dealing with her, and Nancy was made to apologize later, though she was actually DEFENDED. I was told that I "maybe saw all of this in another way and that I was misreading her intentions" -- this was another manager that explained it this way. I told him that another manager literally had to stop her from yelling at me, and that everyone saw it go down, and that 12+ people couldn'tve all seen the wrong thing. I've also heard from other coworkers that she'd had these types of incidents before and has anger management issues.
2.) Figberglass in our trays : I was told that our trays are made of fiberglass, and possibly coated in some kind of paint. I have spoken to multiple fellow-employees and they all explain experiencing the same feeling of tiny cuts or shards of glass in their forearms or on their hands (where we carry trays). Our trays are worn and beaten and cracked, and they recently ordered some new ones to be mixed in with the old ones. The difference between the two is obvious -- my theory is that the paint has chipped off so much on the old ones that the fiberglass now easily gets into our skin. I have a picture of the two trays side-by-side that I'll post in a bit. I don't think this next bit is terribly worth mentioning, but my best friend insists that it's illegal -- I'm not sure if it's normal for servers to have to do this -- but when we put plates down on tables, it feels like I'm actually touching the face of a hot iron. Not "Fresh off the grill hot" but "actually-TOUCHING-the-grill-hot". I have never held something as hot as some of our plates prior to working at this location. I do think it a little odd that we don't get towels to touch these, but again, I'm not sure what's normal at other restaurants.
3.) Kept to unreasonable hours and being held to a higher standard than others : We all have "side work" that we have to do before we leave the restaurant. One big task like cleaning a refrigerator or sweeping out the kitchen, and rolling silverware. It takes quite some time to do these things, and though we may be off the serving floor and done with our tables at 5:00PM, for example, I'm often stuck there until 7:00PM, sometimes 7:30, and my hourly wage is 2.13. During that time, you're not even making tips -- you're just cleaning for the restaurant. Now, I know this is a part of the job, most people only spend an hour after working on their side work and get to go home. Managers always ask me to bring trays out for them, even though I don't have any customers out there, or have me help them clean something that isn't in my assigned duties. They DON'T make Level 4s do this, and when they try to, the Level 4s snap at our managers, will down-right say things like "I am NOT rolling silverware today. Nope!" and don't get in trouble. If I did that, it would be highly insubordinate, and I'd probably lose my job. As a result, I'm unable to roll silverware and do my own sidework for quite some time, and yet, managers will get on my case about staying late and not getting my work done in a timely manner.
What I have noticed is that the louder/more rude a person is, the less-likely it is that they'll be asked to do anything. It's like managers know that that person will be super difficult to deal with, so they just don't, and they know that Level 0s (like myself) are so scared of losing our positions that we won't say no. Any time I refuse to do something just like the Level 4s do, not even doing anything rude, simply saying "Sorry, sir, I can't do that, I'm rolling silverware right now", I'm yelled at for not doing my job. The Level 4s do their side work (or don't -- they skip out on it alot) and just go home. They sometimes clock out without permission from a manager (they have to sign us out), and my tables will go completely un-bussed for ten to fifteen minutes at a time (should only be about 5), meaning I get alot less in tips than they do, because my managers want me bringing trays to THEIR tables, and cleaning THEIR stuff up. I notice that the people that make money at this restaurant take care of themselves only, which actually stops up the flow of the restaurant. If the kitchen is taking their time on a fast-paced day, the servers get their food slower, and that pisses off customers, which get us less tips. If a server isn't regularly checking on their tables, a sever NOT in charge of a section will be flagged down by a customer to get it for them, which means that I'm not able to take care of my own section, which pisses MY customers off, and means that the OTHER server gets tipped, and I don't.
4.) My manager talks to me and other coworkers like trash like trash (Final incident) : Our store has gone through 5-8 general managers in the course of 2 years because of how poor of a quality this store location has gotten. People keep quitting and/or asking to be relocated because this place is a mess. We have a new manager who was rumored to be at the best location in our district, and a total hardass. "Okay," I think. "I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, so I have nothing to worry about. Maybe he'll turn this place around, even, and things will get better." Nope. It turns out that he's extremely ruthless and doesn't treat our staff as if we're putting money in the store's, and therefore his pocket (he gets bonuses based on high sales in food and retail, which is the hostess and the servers' doing). Two incidents have occurred with him -- one has to do with me, but I'll mention this other one in the case that someone else has to testify to this guy being an asshole (my coworker in question has agreed to speak if the situation arises): One of my coworkers was crying a few days ago, and I tried to ask her what was wrong; As I was doing this, My manager (We'll call him "Asshole", because he is) walks up and asks her if he can bring some drinks out to some tables for him. Even though this girl was clearly crying, I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't notice, and attempted to bring it to his attention. "Ah, sir? She's crying. I can go bring the drinks for you." He grimaces and says that he doesn't see why she can't. I'm in shock and don't know what to say. He taps her on the shoulder. "Hello?" he says. "The drinks? What's wrong with you?" He doesn't even bat an eye. Our managers can be insensitive alot, but at the very least, they'll ask us if we want a breather if we've had a run-in with a particularly harsh customer and ask us to go to the back to sort ourselves out. It looks bad on the restaurant if your waitress comes out to you in tears. She says that she can't, unable to really talk much more through her tears. I kept telling him I could run the drinks for him since I was just about to clock out anyway, and he insists that SHE can bring them, because it's "Just a few drinks. I don't see what the big deal is." He was willing to send a crying girl out to our customers. Asshole is actually the manager that was defending Nancy earlier.
My situation was a few days ago as well. I was all done with my tables for the night, and was just wiping them off and sweeping around them so I could start my closing duties and go home. Now, the kitchen is a really loud place; The clang of cooking utensils behind the serving window, the hissing and whirring sounds of our industrial-level appliances, talking, shouting, footsteps, the AC, noise from the restaurant outside, music that they play on the radio to keep morale up, ice being shoveled, glasses clinking, random beeping sounds signaling that food is ready... If you're not close enough, someone will NOT be able to hear you, and we often have to shout just to communicate if someone isn't right next to you or in front of you. When I came back from the serving floor, Asshole gestures to me to come speak to him, looking VERY pissed and from what I was doing at the moment, I really couldn't stop -- I had an important phone call and I was off the floor, so I should have been able to take it. I explained this to him and he angrily gestures and says that I need to stand right there and listen to him. "A few minutes ago, you blatantly disrespected my orders." I asked what he meant, and he said that I walked out onto the serving floor when he "looked me dead in the eyes and asked for a tray to be brought out to some customers". Now Reddit, lying is only going to fuck up my case here, so I have no reason to: This did not happen. Again, he was far away from me, and when you're on your feet for 8 hours straight, you're barely even seeing what's in front of you anymore and are kind of in your own head. I didn't hear him say ANYTHING to me, and I certainly didn't make eye contact -- I feel like maybe we made eye contact for a nanosecond and that he's exaggerating or something, but the exchange he claimed happened definitely didn't. I calmly explained that I didn't hear him, and that I don't remember this occurring. He gets more belligerent and starts pointing a finger in my face and telling me that I'm playing him for a fool and that I clearly heard him tell me to do something, and outright ignored him. Again, Level 4s constantly outright say they REFUSE to do something and do not get this treatment. We have been told over and over again by superiors that we're all the same, pretty much, and that a Level 4 does NOT get to opt out of the duties that we have. Now, being an abuse victim of 7 years, I don't do too kindly to having anyone yell at me aggressively, or putting their hands anywhere near my case. In the two years of being away from home, I've just barely learned how to not flinch when someone raises their hand. I felt VERY threatened. I kept telling him that he may have perceived that that's what happened, and that I was ignoring him, but that I definitely was not, and had no intention of making him feel that way. He told me that he would give me the benefit of the doubt that time but that he "was not stupid" and that if I "valued my career" that I would start shaping up and listening to him and never ignore him again. This gives me a huge amount of anxiety, because I can basically be walking down the hall and he tells me something that I don't hear because it wasn't shouted to me and I get fired. Also... Serving is not going to be my carreer :P I've been accepted into the 10th best animation program in the country after attending the first performing arts high school in the country (same school as Beyonce) and start in January. That was extremely condescending and insulting, and a coworker saw the whole thing and claims that she wanted to kick his ass for the way he was getting in my face and yelling at me, so there was a witness. He has a really, really bad temper, it seems.
To wrap all this up,* This job has taxed me emotionally, flared up my PTSD (I put in my application that I have a disability) and I have recordings and eye-witnesses of plenty of this stuff. I've been treated like shit, and I can't stand the fact that this restaurant has supposedly been running like this for years. I'm not quitter, because I have supported myself from a young age, and fully understand that jobs can be difficult, and that often, the jobs we work while paying for school are going to be kind of shitty. You don't have to like it, but you have to be able to tolerate it and go home. But in this case, I hate that I have to leave and work to find a new job and be at risk of living on the streets again because an entire establishment can't get their shit in order. Almost all of the servers have years of pent up disdain for management and hate how things are as well, and have all had incidents with multiple managers and Level 4s. I know plenty of people can say that they're going to speak, and end up not doing that, but with the info that I have, (recordings, pictures, a handful of eyewitness accounts), what can I do? Would I have a good case in court? Could I win? Would I have better chances if it were a class-action law-suit and I had plenty of people speak on my behalf? What kind of charges would this case be filed under? How do I find a lawyer that will pay on contingency?
My last question is that in a hypothetical situation, if the day that a person were to quit and, say, in a respectful manner, tell all of their managers what's wrong with their restaurant while in the privacy of an office, and have the douchiest manager of them all who has a bad temper blow up on said hypothetical employee, said employee recording the entire thing, would that help their case, proving even further that said douchey manager is a douchebag? And would it also help for said employee to ask questions in such a way that the managers confirm all of the occurrences making that employee's job difficult are true? Asshole is also white, and I am black -- so is the crying employee mentioned earlier, and almost all of our staff. This chain in particular has had to undergo MAJOR revision to training and PR to distinguish itself as a restaurant that is NOT racist, given their extensive history with racist practices and policies (back in the day, they're serve black patrons food from the trash -- plenty of articles, and at this point, you all may just be able to Google which chain this is). Please and thank you, you guys :(
TL,DR -- I am disabled and black. Fiberglass in trays at work gets in arms, verbal and almost physical abuse from supervisors and fellow co-workers, belligerent, condescending manager white, public embarrassment, interference with tips, false accusations and harassment all occur at job, causing me to quit. Have several voice recordings and eye-witness accounts of all of this happening. Can I sue?
Submitted July 23, 2016 at 11:00PM by TheEyeOfANeedle http://ift.tt/2a3iEQs legaladvice
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