I work part-time at a restaurant within a retirement community. I will admit that I don't really like my job. Management sucks and we're severely understaffed, but I stay because I love the seniors and find a lot of personal meaning in brightening their day.
My boss (let's call him Trey) is an ass for many reasons, and all of my coworkers hate him. A recent issue that has come up is that we're no longer allowed to drink water during our shift. A shift is about four hours, and because we are so understaffed we are basically speedwalking the entire time. Our uniform consist of long pants and three layers of shirt. And because many older people get cold easily, the thermostat is set really high (85°F some days). So yes, we do need to hydrate.
I work Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays. On Wednesday 12/7, I was taking a quick sip of water and Trey told me to stop and go back to my tables. I told him no, not until I finish drinking.
On Monday 12/12, Trey tells me that two seniors wrote negative comment cards about my service the previous Friday 12/9.
According to Trey, the seniors said I was “unavailable” throughout the shift and he said it was probably because I was never with my tables. Hearing this really hurt my feelings. The seniors are the only source of joy I have at that crappy job, and making them happy is what I'm good at, but now I felt like that was all ruined.
After a few days of processing this, I have reason to believe that Trey was lying to me. You might consider these coincidences, but I'm not sure:
• All of my tables except for one showered me with compliments about my service throughout the shift. And the outlying table didn't seem upset, they were just minding their business. Trey isn't allowed to tell me who wrote the cards, but I truly cannot think of two tables who expressed dissatisfaction at any point during their meal.
• Typically we have 9 tables (not sure how other restuarants work, but this is a crazy high number at ours and we are often very busy), but that day I had 5, so I was really able to devote a lot of time/attention to those tables and make sure their needs were met. I earnestly felt that I did a good job that shift.
• We never get comment cards about service, much less negative ones. I must have had to be doing a really horrible job to warrant negative comment cards from two separate tables, but per my previous point, that seems unlikely.
• Trey knows I don't respect him but I do respect the seniors, so if he can't convince me to stop drinking water, maybe a comment card will.
• Trey was off that day, so I can't prove to him that I was in my section throughout the shift. How convenient.
• Trey said the comment card described me as “the young lady with the green hair.” I get compliments about my hair a lot by the seniors, and they ALL describe my hair as blue (“I love your blue hair!” “I wish my hair was blue like yours!” etc). For the record, my hair is in fact dyed green, so I think their declining vision makes it look blue. Only someone with good vision (cough not a senior) would see that my hair is green. Trey…
I feel like I'm going crazy. Both of my parents as well as a friend believe he lied about this, but that just seems like such a sinister thing to do that I can't truly believe it. I don't know. This is all so crazy.
TDLR: My boss tried to ban me from drinking water at the restaurant I work at, and I refused. Now I suspect that he is writing negative comment cards about my service disguised as being written by customers, in an attempt to guilt me into not drinking water.
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