I’m just reminiscing on my first job, I was 17 and was working at a bbq chain restaurant. I was new to taxed labor (I usually did landscaping with my cousin before), I worked there for a 1yr and a half until I lied about a new opportunity just to leave.
Within days I was immediately left alone and did whole 4-6 hour shifts alone (I worked after school and on the weekends), not that I couldn’t do it but that he was very “codo”, mexican slang for cheap and greedy. He only had two people max but mostly one each shift, it sucked ass. He really did his best to underpay and overwork.
We were able to keep and split money from the tip jars, which was alright, an extra $13 was something I would be excited about as a teenager. Sometimes when he would come on the last 30minutes to close he would insist on splitting the tips or… play paper scissors rocks for all of them (what an asshole now that I think about it).
The worse part actually was that I was getting $35-70 tips on average through the receipts customers would sign. I asked him how I could get those and HE SAID THE ACCOUNTANT WOULD ADD THEM TO MY TAXES and that I would receive them when doing my income tax… I didn’t know you could cash your tips from the register. It wasn’t until recently, I’m 21 now, I thought about that and I was livid. This man, who I thought was my friend and would take me to car shows and offroading, was taking tips from a 17 year old. The restaurant is under new ownership now because he couldn’t keep his employees after I left and he went bankrupt- he would also buy the minimal amount of items he could from the chain corporation and purchase the rest of items such as the brisket from the neighborhood Walmart , and I would have to as well sometimes. Not that he couldn’t afford the OG items but he was just that cheap.
Anyways, thank you for reading, would love to hear if anyone else has similar stories