I work as a host at a restaurant (regional chain). There are 3 positions during lunch: the seater, coordinator and cashier. The cashier is basically in charge of take outs, to gos and phone orders (including Doordash/Ubereats) The seater takes people to their seats and helps buss while the coordinator basically greets guests and assigns seating in accordance to what servers need tables. Both of these host positions receive a fixed hourly rate of $16.
Every host is trained on seater and coordinator but sort of have to “earn” their way to cashier.
The caveat is the cashier actually gets paid a base exponentially less, the federal minimum wage of $7.25. They sell you on this “promotion” by saying you will make tips and end up with more money overall. However, given that people rarely fucking tip on takeout (not to mention all the doordash we are in charge of but can’t receive tips on) it is normal to just break even and not uncommon to actually come out with less money than the other hosts working for a fixed rate.
So, I walk into my scheduled cashier shift after making a whopping $29 in tips for 7 hours of work the day before, and I’m informed by the manager that the seater and coordinator called out and will not be here. I am expected to pick up all of their work in addition to my assigned take out duties.
So naturally, being a holder of a bachelors in finance (Ik, working a shit job I’m overqualified for yayyy autistic burnout) I cordially ask if I will be compensated for the extra work. If I can clock in as a coordinator to receive my base pay of $16, while also working the takeout for tips.
This manager has the AUDACITY to give me attitude, say “that’s not how that works”, and even claims that she doesn’t get paid more to pick up extra work from no shows, that I’m not being a team player etc… I held my tongue but was fuming.
Like firstly, you LITERALLY do get paid more to pick up people’s slack, you’re a manager and your higher wages reflect that. You signed up for that. You also receive monthly bonuses if the restaurant is hitting marks, so yes quite literally she is getting paid when work is more “efficient” I.e. lower labor cost higher output.
It just fucking enrages me. These people are not smarter than me. I know what they’re doing. Again I went to business school and graduated with a bachelors in finance.
Just because people called out doesn’t mean that their labor disappears. You know what does disappear? The payroll for their labor while expecting the SAME productivity. And that’s achieved by passing that labor onto me.
So, I worked today, all alone up front for my measly $7.25, manager only came to help when the line to get seated was backed up and I was busy on the phone.
Which begs to posture, if we got thru the day cutting out two employees at $16/hr and passed off their labor to me making $7.25, what happens when the suits at corporate see that the restaurant can run at almost the same efficiency with less payroll costs, will I show up one day and permanently assume their responsibilities too? 🤔
If you’ve read this far thanks, I just needed to vent.
TLDR: manager got pissy when I asked if I’d be compensated for picking up the labor of 2 coworkers that called out.
Edited: grammar