Stingy Boss Mistreats Server

January 20, 2017

in Kitchen & Chef & Boss Stories

Alright kids, get ready for this joy ride.

Back in 2015 I was laid off from the best serving job ever. Unfortunately there were some investor issues and parties not getting along, so we had to close (another story for another day). Anyways, I had talked to a co-worker to see if her family was hiring at her parent’s breakfast diner. She said yes, I interviewed, and pretty much worked the following weekend. I’m not even sure where to begin with this. I worked there for five months and I can’t say I ever had a really good day.

First off, I had to pay FULL PRICE for my meal… no discount like nice owners typically give, but full price. Not to mention I was not allowed to bring my own food, and when you work 8am – 2pm you’re gonna want to eat.

Secondly, my boss was frugal with a capital F. The things he tried to make us do were not sanitary. Luckily their daughter thought he was ridiculous most of the time, so we often ignored him. He had us doing things like re-using toast if we had accidentally made too much. Toast is not something you throw back in the toaster once it’s been toasted and buttered once already. We had one occurrence where one of our cooks thought the soup might be a lil too ripe, but good-ol-bosso made us serve it anyway.

When it came to coffee it would be grossly watered down; his orders. Once I accidentally forgot to write down our overpriced, watered down coffee. I figured writing the food was more important and I accidentally forgot to ring up those coffees. My boss made me pay him for them. If someone didn’t like their meal he would make customers pay for both. I had a guy who managed to get a bad batch of biscuits and wanted something new. I had to sneak the plate away and secretly get the cook to cook me something new. I managed to sneak it to him without any questions asked and tried to erase any trace of those biscuits.

Here’s one particular story where I constantly question why I didn’t just quit right there and then. Two days prior to one of my shifts I managed to get a concussion from skiing. I had gotten a call from a co-worker asking if I could cover a shift for her. I complied and asked if she could cover my shift in two days. She accepted, talked to bosso about it, badda boom badda bing, I thought that was taken care of. Well that coming Saturday we were busy, like most Saturdays in a college town with cheap breakfast. My boss decided to scold me on how, “I screwed everyone today because a co-worker asked me to cover her shift for today,” and accused me of how I didn’t talk to him about getting my shift covered DESPITE my co-worker telling him in person about it. I worked five more months after that. I’m too good for my own being.

This is what really tipped me to the edge. I had ended up picking up an additional job because bosso decided to cut my hours. My second job definitely did not get in the way. I respected that they were my first employer, therefore worked around that schedule with my second job. So I got scheduled on days that I couldn’t work. Being respectful I told my boss that I couldn’t work those days because of my other job. “Well I guess we are going to have to look for someone else,” he said. I kinda brushed this off thinking he was joking.

I go back to doing my job and bosso comes and, in front of the restaurant, in front of some of the customers, says, “You’re going to have to decide which job is more important. We have to fill for each other and share the load.” I was just kinda shook and sheepishly let out an OK. But boy, was I boiling.

Trying to calm myself down didn’t work. I went up to my boss and said, “You know, I feel really disrespected right now. I picked up another job because you cut my hours. I was just letting you know I can’t work those days. I don’t think this is going to work out. I’m going to have my last day be Monday,” which was just a three day notice. I didn’t think he deserved to get a formal two week notice from me. He just said OK. I finished up my shift, ended up working one more weekend because they needed me, and I’m too nice and drank a lot on the night of my final shift.

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