Hey all, I always thought that the horror stories on this sub were isolated incidents and so I never thought anything of this nature would ever happen to me, yet here we are.
Some backstory, I RECENTLY got hired at a slightly upscale Vietnamese fusion restaurant in one of South Carolina’s major cities. I thought the interview had gone well and the owner/shift manager came across as progressive, so I had high hopes for this job, even though he was 20 minutes late to the interview. I will add that pay was never discussed.
After a week of stalling and failing to set a start date, the owner (let’s call him P) finally emailed me for a training date. Me being new to fine dining, I of course felt a little out of place when my first day rolled around, but still showed up fashionably early (in excess of 20 minutes). I signed my W-4 and got right to work scrubbing the prep dishes the way I knew how to, given that I have back of house experience. P immediately walks in and starts condescendingly chastising my method of cleaning the dishes, so I responded with, “OK, teach me your way of washing the dishes.” Not in a snarky manner, no affect of ignorance, just curiosity because he has more experience in this field than I do. He shows me his way, and I commit to that specific way of cleaning the dishes and my workstation for the rest of the shift.
9:30 rolls around, and I start working at triple pace because I want to be home by 10:15 at the latest. All of the sudden, the whole stack of pots and pans that the cooks have been using roll though, probably 35-40 large pots and pans in addition to the serving dishes. Case and point, I’m swamped and my new estimated time of departure, even with me working at breakneck speed is now 10:40 at the earliest. I swallow the pill of disappointment, and carry on regardless. This is when P walks in and continues to chide me for the rest of my shift. I’m not too sure about most of you, but I find it to be totally unhelpful and counterproductive when I’m trying to finish a task and someone is in my ear, basically mocking me. I finish up with the dishes and start cleaning up my workstation, paying close attention to detail. I guess that wasn’t good enough for P, who continued to talk down to me and micromanage my work flow, repeatedly telling me I missed spots and all that jazz, just in attempt to illicit a response from me. Just to be an ass. At this point (about 11:15) I start praying that a natural disaster hits so I no longer have to deal with him. Resignation had already popped into my head more than ever before. I wrap up my sweep and mop and turn to leave, and turn to face him. I tell him that his repeated comments and noticeably fake politeness came across as condescending and unprofessional, and his response is, “when was I unprofessional?” At they point I handed in my chef’s coat and asked him to mail my check to me, as I was definitely not coming back. He, on my way out, called me immature, told me he “didn’t like the way I carried myself” and that I “had a lot of growing up to do”. He refused to let me take food home, in addition to giving me 2 minutes of break during the total of 9 hours I was working. I’m still baffled and in shock that this happened.