Is an industry wide problem found locally?

Is there a city where this isn’t a problem?

22 years in the industry, 12 here in Richmond. It's a problem here there and everywhere. The article is sugar-coated honestly with how bad the industry can be.

This is the whole industry.

Never again. I make significantly less than I did during my time in the industry. I’m struggling.

But never again.

I’m a felon.

It hasn’t been 5 years since my conviction so even most second chance minded companies that pay decently such as Amazon, FedEx, UPS won’t take me.

I worked at two restaurants in Richmond, one being Papi’s, where they told me if they had enough people there post-grand-opening I could work for one of the numerous other restaurants the owners owned in the area.

Instead, I work for a weekend, not just being a bar back, bartender, dishwasher, and server all at once, but trying to hide the fact that literal shit water was coming up from the basement and leaking into the bar and dance floor, troubleshooting random issues, and being the honorary dishwasher. I never signed a W2 for them, I explained I was a felon and what the charges were, which they allegedly respected my honesty for.

So on pay day they tell me there’s not a check written out for me. And also there was a Covid scare. So I spend the next 3 days trying to get my check after getting tested. One of the last things the owner said to me was “Let your girlfriend know she has a job if she comes here” because he had been drunkenly harassing and hitting on her, gave her shots, and mistakenly called my girlfriend’s friend “Bambi,” who was allegedly someone who looked just like the friend, that had worked for him for a day. He would not leave my girl and “Bambi” alone that whole night. He also routinely slapped the posteriors of the servers, and would touch guests like they were his concubines.

Basically after picking up the check, which I was in very bad need of financially (still haven’t recovered from this) they removed me from all the group chats, immediate superiors, managers and even the co-owner wouldn’t answer my texts or calls about why I was removed so I just presumed I was fired. Never figured out what happened.

A month or two later I’m still without a job, and also without unemployment benefits. No bills have been paid. A local spot JKogi hires me as dishwasher, the owner tells me to not use the dishwasher my second night, then tells me to go home early because the dishes are too oily. He wasn’t there all day until the moment after I had just prepared the rice, and was momentarily about to drain the sinks to continue manually washing the dishes. Worked for two nights, the owner decides he would rather wash his own dishes, which is what he was doing when I came to pick up my check, without further disrespect or incident.

I cried for about an hour that day, once jkogi let me go.

Now all I do is use my friend’s door dash account and split the measly money I get from riding around in my failed inspection, headlight-out, vehicle that I can’t even make enough money with fraudulent door dash to make the monthly payment on.

Low barrier to entry jobs all have extremely abusive environments as they are touted as jobs that the employee should be grateful for because they are told it's an unskilled job. Unfortunately the vast majority of employees in the industry (not top earning chefs but other back of the house staff) believe this bs about it being unskilled and do have to capitulate to the abusive boss because they are dependent on the income.

This is where unions can be useful or even just open discussion among the workers, both of which are federally protected rights that restaurants are caught breaking often. Law breaking of worker rights is so prevalent that businesses are legally required to post certain laws, and they still break them!

To be fair, there are exceptions. I've cooked at the same restaurant for the better part of a decade, and while there are the usual issues you would face in a high stress environment, it is the most non-toxic BOH experience I've ever had.

It so weird to read this article. It almost feels like the author is… surprised? The industry environment is the same - big city, small town, hillbilly podunk. I’ve worked in DC, Fredericksburg, Richmond. There isn’t anywhere where this isn’t standard.

I agree. My son who is 28, has been working ten years as a cook in Richmond. I watched the show called the Bear and recomended it to him, as it dealt with the honest environment in most restaurants. He watched the show and told me he almost turned it off as it gave him PTSD. Restaurant work, suffers from the same Capitalist bullshit as everyother business. Treat and pay your workers badly, while trying to convince your employes you are doing them a favor by abusing you this way, that its part of the training. The problem isn't restuarants, its about trying to feed people with the Capitalist approach of raking in the most money for the least amount of money spent. As my son would say, there are way too many restuarants. If you can't make enough money to pay your workers a living wage, then get out of the business. Covid and the advent of Door Dash only compounded the problem for kitchen staff. They are now suppose to cook for an entire restuarant, while feeding an entire city at the same time with no additional help. The only thing big cities have is a great many more terrible customers.

I worked in some kitchens in my late teens and early twenties. This was 25 years ago in a kind of rural area way smaller than Richmond and it was the same shit then.

Unionize

I worked at Mannino’s in Virginia Beach as a prep cook.

It was such an unnecessary amount of stress for just $9 an hour. At the time I was 21 and had low self esteem so I felt this desire to prove myself as a cook. I enjoyed being pushed to work hard but the level of harassment and personal bullying had a huge negative impact on my personal and professional development

I worked under a sous chef who got in my face and screamed at me over some really petty issue while I was plating a dessert he bought for a server he liked.

Their were threats of violence, a lot of deep shaming for trivial mistakes that are a part of the learning process. Territorial issues, and gross treatment of the servers. Male servers were called f****t’s and female servers got unsolicited texts and calls from kitchen staff that would get their phone number from the list of contact info for employees

I have so much regret for the year I wasted working there, and finding any kind of charm in such a negative work environment. Many of the staff tried to justify their behavior saying things like, “hey man it’s not personal”, or “hey in the end we’re one big family. A dysfunctional one but we’re a family” and that’s all a lie. It manipulates naive workers into putting up with treatment that should honestly be illegal

As a child of the industry and having lived in many places and been raised in many restaurants, I can say with confidence that the unpleasant atmosphere of both back and front of house is endemic to the food industry. Not just in the restaurants themselves but in the suppliers as well. And no, I don't know how to fix it. Like all things it starts with management and pay scales. But people have to want to change and as far as I know, no one in management wants to.

Too bad there’s not a restaurant workers union, they can have an electricians union, teamsters work for many different companies, obviously there’s way more too it than that, but if the employers, law enforcement, bbb, and osha don’t have your back then who does. I’d love to see my friends in kitchens get paid better; and the people I don’t know for that matter. Our voices have to reach the high towers, we gotta scream together

Always has been.

I got hired as a “kitchen manager” and was paid the LOWEST LEGAL annual salary a person could receive. No benefits. No PTO. No vacation time. I was expected to work 60+ hours a week sometimes. I got to the worst point of my drinking during this time. Every time I would open the conversation of a raise they always came back with stuff I needed to improve on. Even when labor was brought up I would literally work open-close and use minimal staff possible. Never ever saw a raise.

I ended up quitting because an employee came in still drunk from the night before and was threatening bodily harm on me. When I realized I did not want to handle the situation myself I asked another manager. They just stood back silent and let this dude continue to threaten me. I realized right there I would never have the support i knew I deserved. Owners didn’t even do anything.

First time I had ever walked on a job. And I never returned to the restaurant/bar industry. I fell into such a bad depression.

A month went by and they actually reached out asking me if I could come back because they needed the help. I kindly declined.

Actually have ran into some of the staff that worked under me there and they all apologized to me about how I was treated and that I didn’t deserve it. But nobody ever wants to speak up in the moment because that’s just how the industry is.

Boiling down the problem to behavioral issues as if those aren’t in part a direct result of exploitation from owners (often via management)who sometimes don’t even know how to run their own with their own hands business, is disingenuous as fuck. Spend more on your employees and less on new cars and houses. The cognitive dissonance is making my head spin

Anahahahhaa this article is hilarious considering the context. I wonder if they talked to any former employees of the subject at Eat restaurants because I bet they’d have a lot to say.

I try to warn people to avoid going into kitchen work. Just suck it up and go front of house. You'll never want to go back in a kitchen again.

Kitchen staff get completely abused. Stop letting servers make 2x what you make for half the work... become a server.

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