Sorry if this ends up long, it's my first time posting.
My brother got me a job for a business he worked at almost 10 years ago. It was my first job, and I only started working there because I needed a job, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life (that would make money).
In this business, there were four separate “businesses”, all run by the same owners: a sports bar, an actual bar, a bowling alley, and a restaurant (which is where I worked at). This will be relevant later.
I started off as a prep cook during night shift, working part time hours. I got to work with my brother, who was the Assistant Kitchen Manager, as well as some other people I knew, including a friend from high school, so it was great. I got to know my other coworkers and we all had a lot of fun, but we still managed to get everything done even as the busiest restaurant in my town at the time. The restaurant also handled banquets and parties, ranging from 50 people to 400-500 people, all throughout the year.
Now, the first red flag of my time there: after about 6 months, suddenly all my hours are taken away by the Kitchen Manager. I don't know why, my brother doesn't know why, but then suddenly comes an offer from Owner #2: Why don't I help as a janitor over nights. The longtime janitor had had a heart attack some time before, and just wasn't as quick as he used to be, so if I help him out, maybe I can get some hours back.
Oh, I see… Red Flag #1.
So, I had no problem with the janitor work. It was easy, the OG Janitor was a good old guy, and we would get done pretty quick, and have coffee with the restaurant opening crew before the doors opened. We started work at midnight, and would finish about 5AM.
Red flag #2: One night, we walked into the sports bar, and Owner #2 is there at the bar with the manager of the sports bar. Both are drunk, and we're just trying to do our work and let them do what they do. I should have known back then that things were gonna end up bad after hearing Owner 2 say, “God damnit, (manager), I LOVE you!”
After working as a janitor for about a month, I managed to get back into the kitchen because they needed cooks, since the state fair was coming up and it was one of our busiest times of the year. Cool, me and a dishwasher are getting transitioned to cooking; it's hard due to being trained when there's countless people coming from out of town for the fair, but working with people that make work fun make things easier. And after about a month, comes another change; one of the morning shift quit, so I got moved to morning shifts to start doing that.
And about that time after, is when a whole bunch more shit starts to red flag it up, and in order not to make this too long, I'll start listing the red flags for the last 9 years of my employment at this circle of Hell.
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After a year of working, I was still making minimum wage, which in my state was $7.25 at the time. I asked KM for a raise, filled out a performance review, and wasn't given an answer until minimum wage went up to 8$ in my state. When I asked about my raise, I was told “well you just got a raise”… yeah, from minimum wage to minimum wage.
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Tried again a bit later, and again, filled out a review, and then they held off until my state increased minimum wage to 8.50$, and was told the same thing again… minimum wage to minimum wage.
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In this time, the operations manager of the business was fired due to stealing, my brother who was the Assistant Kitchen manager left, a new AKM was hired, a new Operations Manager was hired, and the KM left, after telling the owners “You don't own me”. During this time, I told the new OM that I was considering leaving too, and wouldn't ya know it, suddenly they have month to bump me, and another guy who had been there at the time for 10+ years, to $10.25 to try to keep us there.
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It was around this time I started learning from the older staff who had been there forever, about some of the shitty things the owners would do: from sexually harassing the wait staff, to cutting the hours of people who reported them for that or for them messing with hours, down to 1 hour per week so they employee would have to quit (and therefore they wouldn't have to fire them), to them promising raises and management positions to employees (at any of the four businesses) who would sleep with them.
For reference for what's going to happen after that: the owners' have a habit of picking favorites among the staff, people who, even if they're new, they'll ask to eaves drop on other employees and basically spy for them. They'll treat these people better even if they don't do as much, or as good of, work as other people.
- Around Easter, another business closed and the owners hired the manager from there, who also used to be a AKM for them, to come and help out: he brought 2 people from that restaurant with him. After Easter, I work one shift with the current AKM and this guy who used to be the AKM before I started, and then the current AKM was fired.They wanted the guy they re-hired to be the KM but he refused as he was going to school to be a nurse. He was still given all the power over the kitchen, though, and for some reason, he did not like me. One of the guys he brought with, who stuck around, years later even said he couldn't understand why he disliked me. And I, who had become the main opener, got: My hours cut and were given to the 2 people he brought with him, I was delegated back to only being allowed to prep, and then eventually shafted back to half my days being night shift again. When I would try to talk to him about it, I would be stonewalled and pretty much shafted.
This guy hired someone as a dishwasher, and literally a week later, made them a cook over letting me cook again (also important later).
- More summarizing: The new OM left, and the Sports Bar manager who Owner 2 professed love for, was given the job. The guy who was in control of the kitchen left, and the dishwasher-turned-cook, who had at the time only been there for a few months, was given AKM along with another coworker who had been there for years. The guy left soon after, and the Dishwasher-turned-cook was now the KM.
During this person's time in charge, they claimed they were the only one who did any work, lied about working constantly until 2 in the morning (even though the kitchen closed at 9 or 10, and even with cleaning or paper work, there was nothing that would cause them to be there that late), constantly showed up late or not at all, and in one case left me and a new hire who had only been there for a few days, to do the busiest day of the State Fair by ourselves, not showing up until 1:45PM.
Anywho, they were eventually arrested for meth not long after that, and the owners eventually got their heads out of their butts and found out she had been stealing time by clocking in for 80 hours+ a week, but going back to her home right across the street for most of it.
- We get another new KM: the OM's sister in law, who had been taking care of cleaning for the business. This person lasted for about 3 years, until May 2020. While she was better than the last few people in charge, it was a huge case of being a nepotism hire. During this, I did everything required of the manager besides doing the schedule. This person would not help prepare any banquets or holidays, but would still take all the tips and not split them between people who did the work.
In a time where the business still should've been closed in our town, we're brought back to work 23 days after lockdown is called during the beginning of COVID-19 (end of March, 2020). Business is understandably not there – we're doing 10 tickets a day, when we used to do hundreds. We're no longer open nights, and they want us there in spite of everything, being busy. Even cleaning didn't take everyone longer than 2 days. This KM leaves in May.
- The last 3 1/2 years was probably the worst out of everything.
We got a new supervisor. He was someone we had worked with for a few years under the last KM. He was a good guy, really knowledgeable about cooking, and he fought for us. He was a buffer against the management, who wanted to speak down to and treat us like crap. But that only lasted until a year ago when “A” was hired.
From the moment they started, “A” treated everyone like they weren't worth her time. “A” would talk behind people's backs, suck up to the owners, tell lies about the other employees, and would snap at people for the tiniest thing. When our supervisor would sit them down and talk about it, out would come the crocodile tears, and then off running to the owners. They believed everything out of her mouth as if it were irrefutable fact, without getting any other person's side.
May of this year: a years long employee left due to “A”. One month later, our Supervisor left due to “A”.
A note: the reason I stayed there so long, I was going through immigration things for my fiancee and I needed stability. For years I was told they would hire my fiancee when she was able to work here, and she was finally able to in late March. Went in for an interview in April, and the owners treated her like she was dumb, acted as though she couldn't understand English even though she's from a country where English is the natural language, and just generally treated her like shit – not to mention doing nothing about the interview afterwards.
When the first employee left a full month later, Owner 2 told me, “Guess we're gonna have to consider your wife now”. Then nothing. When Supervisor left, “Guess we really have to consider her now”. Finally another interview. However this time, I get called into a meeting before. I'm told they're hesitant to hire her because “couples never work well together” and I can't treat her any different than other employees. Second part? That's fine, I had no intention of treating her different. But the first got me, because being a couple is the only reason the OM got her job, with Owner 2.
From the get-go, “A” treated my wife like shit, to the point of getting messages and calls in tears from how bad “A” was treating her, waiting til no one else was around to do it. The owners cutting her hours from full time, which she was hired for, to barely part time, because of things “A” would tell them. Yelling at and belittling me, because I was the only threat to her getting the supervisor position she wanted since before our old supervisor left.
It all came to a head during an all kitchen meeting. The owners talked about things we needed to do better to get customers back, such as our presentation; even though we've been getting complaints about our prices since they raised them during quarantine because they saw people getting checks from the government, and they'd raised them 3 times since then. (Keep in mind a lot of our customers were older people, who were on a fixed income). They compared us to the Sports Bar kitchen, which their whole kitchen is legitimately 15% the size of the restaurant I worked in, praising them but in the same breath insulting us. They did not want to listen to what we had to say, they just wanted to belittle us. “A” used the chance of being in front of the owners to yell at and mock my wife, and in return I yelled and vented my frustrations at “A”.
We tried to hold out, but the damage to our mental, physical and financial help wasn't worth it at all. The last few months was so damaging to our mental health we dreaded seeing “A” at all.
We took a week off to go to a friend's wedding and relax. We had managed to find new jobs before leaving and would start 3 days after getting back.
My last day I bought a “Sorry for your loss” card, I put my key in and wrote “It's us, we're the loss. We quit” and that we're giving them as much notice as they gave us before they cut her hours.
That was November 5th. They weren't able to open the 6th, and since I was the senior cook, they didn't have anyone skilled enough to work the weekend, so they were closed Saturday and Sunday too (which are the busiest days of the week).
I should mention it's hunting season, and that weekend would've been the busiest for them. They weren't open Thanksgiving because I was the only one left with knowledge of what to order and how to run it, since I'd been doing their ordering for the last 8 years.
My wife and I leaving has cost them well over 20,000$ in profit, and I have no regrets.