So I had a effin weird night.
I work in a very nice restaurant and today while doing my opening sidework I was standing in front of the line cooks rolling hand towels. I'm quietly going about my job when I start hearing kissy noises and banging on the steel countertop. Naturally my attention is grabbed and I lift my eyes to see this cook grabbing his genitals in front of me.
My flight or flight response is freeze so I look back down and keep rolling my hand towels trying to convince myself this isn't actually happening right now and maybe he just has an itchy penis or something? (Which would still be a really weird health code violation right?)
Anyway, he continues to use these wooden blocks to bang the countertop trying to get me to look at him and I continue to ignore for roughly a minute. Meanwhile, there are people in this kitchen walking around doing work and he stops banging when they get close enough to the prep window to see what he is trying to show me. He used his prep knife to bang the countertop and thats when I realize exactly what this guy is doing. So I walk away .
I go to the restroom, think for a moment, wash my hands, come back to my station to finish my sidework, and he starts doing it AGAIN for about another minute with the kissy noises.
So now I'm pissed. And this next part happened within the span of 10 seconds. I yell at him “WHAT THE FUCK MAN? PUT YOUR DICK AWAY! ” He's squeezing on his genitals and like definitely trying to show me but he wasn't looking at me, he was kinda staring off in space. So I point at what he's doing g with his hands and I yell “HEY! YOU! STOP!” and he let his dick go.
This next part confuses the shit out of me. Everyone in the kitchen just kept working. There were people around. I have been told I have a quiet voice but I was yelling. There are more people who don't speak English in the kitchen than people who do speak English so maybe no one understands what I was yelling? Since everyone was acting like nothing happened I just went to pre-shift.
I almost cried but I continued to try to do my job. I went to my manager and told him exactly what happened but he said he would tell the GM and then the GM asked me what happened and had me point him out. The GM took the cook into the office and then pulled me aside to give me an update.
He used the words, “there are two sides to every story” and he told me that in spite of the language barrier the line cook was very apologetic and seemed embarrassed. He said he hurt himself and he was rubbing/squeezing it to make it stop hurting.
(Are you fucking kidding me)
So I asked well then what was the banging for? And the GM said he asked and the line cook said he was banging the wooden block because it hurt so bad.
So I asked well then why was he doing it again after I left and used the restroom and came back? And the GM said he wasn't really sure. I told the GM that I don't believe him and the GM told me the chef will address is when he gets back (he's off today).
So then I started realizing that actually just fucking happened and he admitted to it. And they are letting him work with nothing more than a prep surface between us and, now, a target on my back. This guy knows I told his boss after I yelled at him.
I saw my chef pop in and I thought maybe he is going to do something, but he didn't and after he left I asked the GM if the chef stopped by to take care of that and he said no he was just dropping off some catering supplies.
I started feeling flustered and forgetting table numbers so I told my GM I wasn't feeling like I was in the right headspace to be there and I was worried I might mess up.
He told me I could go if needed to. That they could run without me.
I told him I didn't want to leave just because that guy did that and I need to stay because I need the money. I just asked him to bear with me if I make any mistakes and then I got fucking teary eyed.
I went to the bathroom to fix myself and when I came back he said he could let me go for the night and I won't be part of the tip pool but he will make an adjustment on my check so that I could get sick pay for the night so I (stupidly forgot to ask if I would get my normal amount or if I would just be getting regular sick pay – which is only minimum wage) and I left.
Oh and the GM told me to get some rest as i was leaving.
Anyway this is my story. How tf am I supposed to face them when I go back? I feel like they believed his excuse and sent me home.