As the title states this is my first time working a position as a server at a restaurant. For some context I work at a small, popular Asian establishment on the strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. Almost everyone here is from Japan or of Asian descent. The owners are direct immigrants from Japan, and micromanage the restaurant in extreme ways. The work environment is extremely toxic (think very traditional Japanese work culture) and I'm not sure what my next steps should be. Also, I'm the only black individual on staff and am constantly feeling singled out. I initially took this job because the owners/managers are the parents of a couple close friends and I had around 2-3 other close friends working here. Also, as a recent college graduate I was looking for a job to rake in fast and easy cash. Prior to getting hired I was working three jobs while going to school, and I made enough working at this restaurant to quit all of my other jobs and focus on this one.
Tips are pooled and split among staff who worked the shift. Every server on staff is given a different percentage amount from 0-100% on how much of their total tip they can earn from each shift. Percentage is determined by level of experience and job proficiency. For example, senior staff and supervisors/managers all receive 100%, whereas newer hires can range from anywhere between 20-80%. This means that if 3 servers are working and net a total of $300 throughout the night, for a shift with two senior servers at 100% and 1 new hire at 50%, the newer hire would receive $50 and the senior staff would receive $125/e. Initially, I did not have a problem with this, as it felt like a very clear way to measure job proficiency and gave me goalposts and motivation to learn as much as I can and work my ass off. However, there are a lot of issues with this system.
First, the way they measure job proficiency and experience is extremely discretionary and biased. There is NO official training or training regime. As someone with zero restaurant experience, learning everything was extremely daunting. The servers are not just servers but also wash the dishes, run the food out, bus the tables, clean the tables AND serve the tables (and everything has to be done in a specific way). Thankfully, I am very proficient at customer service so serving was never difficult. However, there are many, many, small tasks and functions that are absolutely required for you to do that are never explained. You basically learn by doing something wrong, or forgetting to do something you were never told and then getting scolded for it. Also, anyone under the age of 21 is not allowed to reach 100% tip, no exceptions. The reason for this is because they are not allowed to serve alcohol, so technically they pass it off as they aren't fully proficient at their job.
With that said, if they like you–your tip percentage will increase. If they don't, it won't. I've worked with several individuals who had a hard time understanding English or Japanese (they usually only spoke one or the other, or were Chinese) that I believe were being taken advantage of. They would get ignored or shunned whenever they had any questions. Also, whenever they did something wrong they were scolded, called lazy, and told that they simply didn't want to learn so their tip percentage would not increase. And let me tell you, it is extremely disheartening to work a 7 hour nighttime rush as a server and walk away with $30 as opposed to your coworkers $150, despite doing the same amount of work or more. Almost everyone quits or is fired.
After around 4 months I finally reached 100% tip after working my ass off. About 1 month in I am put in a group Imessage and told that there is going to be a mandatory test at random to measure job proficiency, and our tip percentage would be adjusted based on how well we did (yes, this means that they could lower my tip if they thought I failed). I asked one of my supervisors for more elaboration on the test, and he said get used to it and that all restaurants will test your knowledge. I told him I basically knew everything. I guess I should have specified that I knew everything relevant to be proficient at my job, because I would later find out that he (and all the other supervisors) HATED that I said this.
About a week later I am taken outside towards the end of my shift. All three supervisors inform me that they want to talk, and then take me inside and we sit at a table. They begin the conversation by stating that absolutely no one enjoys working with me. This came as a surprise, because as I mentioned, I do work with a few friends, and for those who I don't consider friends, I always considered us on friendly terms. They then informed me that they were cutting my hours down to two days a week, and reducing my tip percentage to 50%.
The reasons they gave are as follows:
I talk too much with my friend in the kitchen.
I talk too much to customers.
I handed out a personal business card to a customer.
Poor work ethic.
Out of context, I feel like these seem like reasonable reasons to discipline an employee. However, with context
I had received one verbal warning regarding talking to my friend in the kitchen, ever. I immediately cut it out, making sure whenever I am talking to him, I am also doing busy work, whether its washing dishes or helping prepare food. The reason me and my friend would have conversations during downtime is due to the frequency at which other staff held conversations. In the kitchen, there are three cooks, including my friend. Every single day the head chef and the other chef are standing around holding full conversations while my friend carries the kitchen (even during busy times). With extreme frequency (like 3 or 4 times a week), the head chef will leave his station and sit down with the manager at one of the dining tables and hold a full conversation for hours at a time, leaving my friend alone in the kitchen. Also, on multiple occasions the other servers are standing around at the counter chatting it up, while me and others are attending to the entire restaurant.
Regarding talking too much to customers, I had received no prior verbal warning. Also, I am working on the strip in Las Vegas, a city known for its service and hospitality. All we get are tourists that have no idea what they are eating and that have many questions and concerns. With that said, I do admit I can get carried away with talking to customers. The last job I left told me the same thing. It is something I am absolutely working on and I let them know I appreciate them pointing that out if it really was becoming a problem. However, in the same conversation, all of them admitted that they were guilty of doing the same thing–and namedropped other servers who were guilty of it as well.
The business card was a bad move on my part, and I apologized after they had brought it up. I guess for more context, I'm a freelance model (they know this) and always keep my personal cards on me. I had a customer who was interested in my work so I handed them a card with information on where they could see my work. After my apology, I was told by the supervisors that when I clock in, I am no longer “throwaway” and that my name becomes “server” instead. As if I'm a damn robot.
Regarding work ethic, this was the first time my work ethic has ever been brought into question. I had received no prior warnings. It is very common for tables that I serve to praise my service, and on more than one occasion ask to talk to my boss for additional appraisal. Good customer service and satisfaction are extremely important values to me whenever and wherever I work. In all of my work life I had never received a complaint. The supervisors regularly had me assist in training new hires and scheduled me as shift lead. They also had me open or close the store daily, so clearly I am knowledgeable and proficient at my job in their eyes. Regardless, I am always open to criticism because at the end of the day I have my flaws and can only do my best to grow and learn from them. However, during this citation I received no specifics (despite asking) other than reiterating the point that I serve tables for too long on occasion.
Towards the end of the conversation they started quizzing me on the menu. They asked me what to do about allergies and what the difference was between our alcohols. I answered both questions correctly, citing word for word what I had been taught/told from when I asked them these questions. They refused to acknowledge I was correct, but also didn't outright say I was incorrect–kind of just dropped the “quiz” and moved on.
I basically refused the punishment. Saying that I am willing to keep working but I am unwilling to work with cut hours and reduced tips. They backtracked *extremely quickly*, saying that the only reason they cut my hours was because I told them I was unavailable on those days. I immediately refuted the point with the reminder that I had actually updated my hours the week prior, saying I had even more open availability on the days that they cut.
For tips, I received an extremely half-assed apology and a very evasive conversation. I brought up all of the points I listed above (no prior warnings, no formal training for mistakes and the double standards) and my manager basically just looked at me blankly. She offered a half-assed apology that it was actually her mistake for raising my tip percentage too high, and that maybe there was a cultural and generational gap between us that contributed to miscommunications. She said that she simply wasn't used to hiring and working with people my age. I brought up my friend/coworker who is 19, and has never once been punished so harshly for any of his similar mistakes. I got ignored, but my tip percentage was gradually raised back to 100% within the next three weeks. Oh and the quiz bullshit? I found out from my coworker that out of everyone from the Imessage group chat who received the warning about the mandatory quiz, I was the ONLY one they had quizzed!
Now, here's another kicker. During the time when my tips got lowered to 50%, we had a new hire for about a month who was the best friend of one of the supervisors. I actually get along with this new hire really well and really enjoy his presence. Well, by the time they bumped me back up to 100%, they bumped him up AND promoted him to supervisor. Within the first two months of his hiring. I am entirely convinced that the only reason that happened is because he is close friends with the other supervisors. He is extremely good at his job, and has previous restaurant experience, however, to this day he still requests the help of all of the other servers in learning the functions and tasks that the restaurant requires. We have other servers who have been here for 5+ years and know this place inside and out and are refused any sort of promotion.
There are a lot of ridiculous rules here. For example, we are not allowed to hand out a free cup of water to anyone who comes in asking for a drink. It's always felt mean-spirited and illegal. I'm pretty sure the only reason for this rule is to stave off homeless individuals. There are times when tourists enter and ask for a cup of water and it is handed out free of charge, and other times when an individual comes in dirty and with beaten up clothes and the excuse is always that we charge 50c for the plastic cup we serve the water in.
Anyone who orders take-out is absolutely not allowed to eat inside the restaurant, even if the entire building is empty. I had a terrible incident in which two customers entered and paid for takeout, then tipped pretty well. After receiving their food and leaving, they came back inside and asked if they could sit inside. My coworkers refused them, despite the completely empty restaurant. Despite my coworkers' protests, I seated the customers. After around 20 minutes they finished their food and got up to leave, but not before coming up to me in private and handing me a $100 bill. They informed me that they were the owners of the restaurant next door and appreciated my kindness and wanted me to have it as a gift. I (mistakenly) went to go tell my friend what had happened (dumb, I know.). The head chef overheard me, and told our managers. Towards the end of my shift, right before I was due to clock out the owners came in and took me outside. They said that if I did not hand over the $100 to share, that I would be fired on the spot. I was so shocked. I explained the situation and that it wasn't a traditional tip. I explained that no one would have even received the money had they followed their rules. Didn't matter. I handed over the money and left. I received around $30 of that money.
I am the only individual in the entire restaurant not allowed to wear their hair in a ponytail. Everyone else has their hair in their face or in a ponytail. For my entire time working there I would wear a hairnet, because I do have a lot of hair. One time I came in with a ponytail, hair completely out of my face. I was disciplined by the manager and told I must wear a hairnet. I figured it was a misunderstanding about textured hair, so I explained that my hair was clean, healthy, and out of my face–so it was no different than anyone else. She said that it didn't matter, I was human, so that meant my hair would fall out naturally and was too much of a risk (again, despite the fact that others have hair long enough to be in their faces). I guess this wasn't a huge grievance because I do not mind wearing a hairnet and I do understand the concern with hair around food–but is more so just an example of singling me out.
I am genuinely concerned for black customers whenever I am not there. Whenever I work they practically refuse to serve them, leaving them to wait 10+ minutes until myself or someone younger has the time–even when it's not busy or they aren't doing anything. They do not listen to black customers, and are frequently getting their orders wrong. Whenever this happens either they tell me to resolve the issue or I step in myself to try and defuse the situation. I have heard stories that whenever the store would be empty on a slow day and a group of black customers would walk in, the head managers would force them out citing that we were closing early despite the fact that that we are still supposed to be open for an extended period of time.
Both of the only other black coworkers I had got fired. One of them was busy with school and let go, however as they were firing her they tried to justify it by saying she has only ever worked on call. Here's the thing, they placed my coworker on call a few weeks prior to her firing. Before that, she was regularly scheduled. I know because I worked with her and we became good friends. They tried to convince her that she was always on call, and never regularly scheduled so she had to be let go. My other coworker more or less got let go because she did not greet the head manager of the restaurant every time he showed up. Keep in mind this guy is extremely standoffish, only speaks Japanese and will never look at or say a word to you first.
One male supervisor in particular really dislikes me. I found out from one of my other coworkers that he had a direct influence in lowering my tip percentage to 50%. He is widely known (even among other supervisors) as being one of the worst individuals to work with in terms of overall demeanor. Every word out of his mouth is a complaint or curse directed at customers or other staff. While working with him, he takes over 5 bathroom/smoke breaks during a shift (I started counting). While it's busy, all he does is restock and talk to customers, taking the occasional takeout order while me and the other server are left running the entire restaurant. I assisted four tables of 4+ customers in the time it took him to chat up one customer and take one to-go order. Whenever I stop to breathe or take a drink of water, he points out to other supervisors how lazy and inefficient I am. He goes behind my back and spreads lies, like that I'm giving away free food and sodas to my friends that come visit me.
I found out from one of the managers that a main reason my tip percentage was lowered was because the supervisors didn't find it fair that they had been there for so long and I was making the same amount of money as them. Also, I found out from my coworker that I have been on the shit-list since day 1. The reason was that despite the mistakes and errors I made while I was learning, I would receive an obnoxiously high amount of tips from customers as opposed to the senior staff/supervisors. To them, this was suspicious. Wtf??? Also, I'm a little suspicious on how they calculate tips. On really busy days, I'll look at our sales and get a general idea for how much we made in tips. On multiple occasions I'll count out around $350 total in tips, yet, with three servers working all at around 100%, I'll only walk away with around $95. My 19 y/o coworker has noticed the same issue. He's stuck at 80% but the tip disparity is insane. The supervisors at 100% will walk home with $160 while he walks home with $95.
At the time I'm writing this, for the past two weeks the head manager has been treating me extremely coldly, basically not saying a word to me aside from yelling at me. The other head manager has stopped greeting me warmly as well. As of Friday, I had discovered that they cut my hours to 3 days a week. I am pretty sure they are going to fire me soon. My friend in the kitchen got demoted to a busser. He is no longer working in the kitchen at his usual rate, and is instead working for around $4 less in the front. Keep in mind we don't even have a “busser” role, because everyone in the front kind of does everything. They are most certainly trying to get him to quit while attempting to take advantage of his labor. Him working as a busser means the senior staff/supervisors don't have to worry about cleaning tables on a busy day while they make $200/e and my coworker walks home with nothing short of $20.
There is honestly so much more, these are just things that stand out to me. I'm currently weighing all of my options right now, including going back to school. I've been looking for another job for the past month, but nothing at the moment seems to pay as well. Worst case I'm thinking of leaving and going to work at a dispensary or something.
Regardless, as it's my first time working at a restaurant I'm kind of curious on if I'm overreacting or in the wrong on any of this somehow? I know it's a long read and is mostly just me venting but I would love any insight or criticism or simply advice on how me and my friends can handle this and move forward. Thank you
TLDR; work at a popular Asian restaurant as a server, facing mistreatment, double standards and harsh punishment despite no formal training or written/verbal warnings for conduct