My fiance (42m) is a chef at a local independent chain in our city. Last November he was promoted to head chef of the new cloud kitchen they were opening up. Things looked bright for our future, but as soon as he got on salary he was forced to work 10 hour shifts 7 days a week for 3 months, as the company had not taken time to hire workers before opening the new concept kitchen. His boss and him used to get along. It seemed like his boss was the only one who saw his potential and was opening doors for him. However when my fiance finally hired a couple cooks underneath him that he trusted so he could get a few days off, they lasted for only two weeks before his boss saw the potential in the new hires and transferred them away from the cloud kitchen and into the brick and mortar locations, leaving my fiance as the only worker once again. When this happened, boss promised my fiance that he himself would take on a couple shifts a week or be there as a relief when he was sick. This never happened, he did not show up for one shift, and on the day my fiance actually did get sick, he didn't show up then either and the kitchen had to close for the day with a $1500 fine because there was no one to run the store. My fiance saw he was being taken advantage of and stepped down as head chef, relinquishing his salary and benefits, but mostly his responsibility running the store. I told him I needed him to continue to work there until he found another job or was eligible for unemployment because we can't survive off my income alone. Since stepping down, it seems like his boss is deliberately sabotaging him to try to get him to quit (we live in a right to hire/fire state, and if he quits he won't qualify for unemployment.) I say this because in the last month his boss has come in and stayed till 4am rearranging the entire kitchen to where cords and ovens were now safety hazards, he has missed over 4 large catering orders because he showed up either too late or not at all, tried to force my fiance to come in and cook when he came down with covid, and has purposely not scheduled anyone to work Saturdays in the last month forcing the store to close down on it's busiest day (and that's a $1500 fine every day the store is closed.) He's also taken money out of the inventory fund for the cloud kitchen and used it to pay for the other restaurants expenses, leaving the cloud no money for food and supplies to restock. Everytime someone ask his boss what happens he tries to blame it on my fiance. But, my fiance has emails, text, and even video evidence to prove that his boss has been behind the whole thing.
Apparently my fiance isn't the only victim. Everyone in the restaurant chain now hates this culinary director because he never shows up or helps out when he's needed, and when he does he f**ks everything up. At this point we're just waiting for him to try to fire my fiance. He has talked to his boss's boss about whether he's going to be held accountable for his mistakes or not, and boss's boss responds that the employees (including my fiance) are still responsible because “that's just the way this all works.”