I lost my full time job a couple months ago and my room in a house shortly after. So I'm living in my car looking for any job I can get. I apply for a barback position.
I meet up with the manager hours before the bar was open, so it was just him and I. I made the mistake of being honest and telling him I have no restaurant experience but lots of service industry experiences from selling cars for five years before the pandemic. I talk him into giving me a chance and he tells me not to tell ANYONE I have zero restaurant experience, so I don't.
On my first shift he blatantly tells one of the bartenders about my lack of experience right in front of me. Oh well I thought.
Shifts were going well. I was absolutely busting my ass as I was responsible for stocking the liquor, beers, seltzers, and ice behind the bar. Washing all the drinking glasses and such. If a server wasn't quick enough or more often just lazy I would bus and clean the tables, bring them their food and keep their water filled. The place seats around 100 or so but fits much more than that. On top of that I also had to keep up with all of the customers dishes and even the cooks dishes they dirtied! Not being from the industry I thought this was normal. Later found out not so much.
I let my manager know about my living situation just in case my car broke down or got towed or something. He said he would keep that between us and did as far as I know. Then he OFFERED to loan me $1,000 to help me out if I needed. I cannot stress enough I did not ask for money or even talked about it.
I wasn't comfortable accepting that but over 3 weeks or so he did loan me $600. Any time I got one of my first three pay checks or tips from the night before I offered to start paying him back and he wouldnt let me yet.
There was at least a couple coworkers there who really did not like me. My best guess is to why is that I am new to the industry and started off doing very well. Then someone started telling the owner I was eating two free meals every time I worked. We are allowed one per work day.
Not only did I never eat there more than once on any day I had worked there, I usually only ate on two of my three work days per week. This wasn't the first red flag I noticed but it was geared directly towards me.
One of the other flags I noticed was a good number of the bartenders and some servers would talk shit at closing time about any and everyone who wasn't there to defend themselves. Mostly about other employees though. I could only imagine what was said about me when I wasn't there.
One particular bartender is dating the owner. So not only is nothing done to her but they take her word as gospel for some reason. I was too oblivious to see what was coming because things did start out good and I never talked bad about anyone there and gave no one any reason to about me.
So it's payday again (Halloween) and my manager texts me at like 9am telling me check is ready. Stupid me thought “how nice, he knows I need it and got it done before opening time at 3pm.”
I walk in and was immediately shown the backside of my check where he has signed pay to the order of Joe blow. He says he has to get some of his money back and left me cash in my envelope for the difference. I should've took one big step back, slowed everything down and looked at it and refused to sign it, but my dumb ass just signs it. I imagine legally he would've had to print me another check or cross out his “pay to the order of” on the back. After I signed it I realize he took all $600 dollars back out of a $700 dollar check that was going to his homeless badly in need of money employee. The second I finished signing the check he tells me I'm fired for NOT WORKING HARD ENOUGH!
I'm 39 years old and that is honestly the first time anyone has told me that. I took pride in always trying to be at least most of the way caught up with dishes in the kitchen and behind the bar and not letting them pile up. Something I never saw the other two bar backs do. I HAD to work extremely hard to always try to be caught up on dishes, cups, booze, beer, ice and food. I would've been fired before my two days of training were done otherwise. I was also told I take too many smoke breaks.
I heard both of those excuses for the very first time that morning. I asked if I had such a bad work ethic and smoke too much why is my firing the first time it was brought up? He said everyone has told me so and complained every time they had to work with me. I'm 90% sure it was two bartenders doing 100% of the complaining.
I can only guess as to why because they never indicated any problems with me, nor I them. The closest anyone came to saying anything like that to me was two bartenders giving me a couple tips to be more efficient. There was no negativity involved and I listened to them and used the tips they mentioned. I'm guessing because I was the new guy with no experience and initially I got a lot of praise from the servers and bartenders I worked with and maybe they got jealous?
There are two girls who are servers I worked with quite often. Two of the most genuine and honest women I've met in a long time. They would without fail compliment me for working so hard for them. Or just ask how I was and would truly mean it. They didn't treat me as an outsider.
Sorry for the long rant, but I tried to leave out anything I didn't feel was pertenant information.