This is a vent and my first post so bare with me.
I work at a private dinner as one of the chefs, I'm technically not a shift supervisor but I do act like one to help my co workers shifts go smoother as they are either on the older side or minors. That being said, anytime there is a fuck up, I take blame even if I know nothing about it because the staff really don't deserve to be degraded how the owners treat others when they are unhappy. (Yes I know, I'm not going to do anything manager related till I'm payed to be one after today)
With a little context out the way, lets start. We have a very low employee retention for front of the house due to the owner's wife treated the servers like absolute garbage. So much so when we had a rush during dinner we didn't have tickets print out and she came to the kitchen asking if the food was made. We said we haven't had tickets and she openly ripped a 16 year old server infront of the other staff a new one telling him he “wasn't going to amount to anything in life” and he was “going to be a failure just like his sister” (his sister was a cook I worked with and she quit due to disrespect) he quit on the spot and then she yelled at me for not checking up front to which I told her front of the house wasn't my responsibility, I'm a cook not a server.
She then gives me hand written tickets and says she's going to tell them that there was a system error, I calmly tell her that I would have it ready in ten minutes and that I advise just saying “there is a slight delay on your food and it will he ready shortly” and she yelled at me saying that my young age makes me nieve and that I don't know what I am talking about, that the table of 8 that has been waiting for 30 minutes will understand that it may be another 20 minutes due to the system error. (For the verification, I am 21 and have several ServSafe Certifications and have always worked as a private chef. My certs are from food handlers to my primary and advanced alcohol certs, my food safety protection manager cert and cook/baking certs). That being said, I told her I could rush their order out in 10 minutes and just to say there is a delay because they have been waiting for a long time. Well she said the system had a error and that we were making their order now, they walked out, don't blame them either. She comes back and yells at me about how it's the kitchen's fault for not checking with front of the house (we are not allowed up there, we rely on front of the house communicating with us if something is wrong)
She degrades me, saying my Certifications are not real even though she has a printed copies with their I.D on them to validate them through ServSafe. Her husband comes down and yells at me aswell saying that this is what's preventing me from being a actual manager and getting a raise.
Fast forward about 2 hours later as the rush ends, we close for two hours so breakfast/lunch shift can wrap up and prep for dinner shift to come in once they get off school or their day jobs (90% of dinner staff is minors) and as we hit 20 minutes till close I put the food containers that I have set on ice up so they can be safely stored while still being able to be pulled out for small increments of time safely and dump the ice before doing routine sweeping and some dishes to help out my coworkers leave on time. It hits closing time and I ask my boss if he wants me to close the kitchen down and he yells at me for dumping the ice tray out and telling me that I don't decide when we close. I explain to him it was a pre-closing procedure that we have been doing for 6 months and he hasn't had a issue with it until now.
I go back to the kitchen and tell my coworkers boss said it's ok to close up shop and they clean their areas and leave within 15 minutes, I stay behind because cleaning a grill and fyer takes a little longer. As I'm cleaning both my boss and his wife yell at me saying to slow my roll and that I'm not a manager so I don't dismiss the staff. They ask where my coworkers went and I said home because we were told to close up shop. His wife yelled at me and said we still have paying customers in front of the house at the bar table. I told her that “with all do respect, fromt of the house should have communicated with us that there were customers still present past our standard closing time since kitchen staff aren't allowed to be upfront unless a guest requests us” she snaps at me and tells me I'm the reason that their business is failing, that I spiced up my resume and that I have costed them too much. This was my final straw of tolerance for the bullshit of the day so I yelled back at her going over every health violation that they commit every day such as:
Improper storage of food
Using expired product for sell
Cooking to the wrong temperature of food as they tried telling the teenagers that poultry is supposed to be cooked to 145 and that 165 (F, yeah I know I'm American) was burning the chicken
Buying from local stores vs ordering a food truck for our products just because it's cheaper
I try my best to minimize this as I am not a fan of serving people poison and I actually take pride in my cooking. This got me yelled at as to why I don't try to help them then if I know all this (I've brought it up and they brush me aside saying I don't run the kitchen) I tell them It's past my clock out time and that I'm going home. She yelled at me saying I can't leave because they still have customers. (Idk about the law here in texas as I haven't been here for more than 6 monts but according to our time sheets it says it's state law to work 6 hours without a meal break) I tell her that I've been here for 6 hours and that I'm either going home or getting a meal break if she really needs me to continue working. My boss said he'll see me in the morning.
Health violations asside they are also toxic employers. I get paid the most even though I'm not a manager, I make my pay known as my associates are also under paid and they are demanding more and have been pulled asside to be told not to talk about my pay which I told them is federally protected that I can do so. They change our menue without warning and tell us nothing of what it means then ridicule us that we don't know what portions to use or seasonings or really anything about the new menu items or revised items. If any little thing goes wrong such as slightly burning toast they insult us and tell us how we are the reason their business is failing and insulting our lively hoods. I was at first tolerant of it because I have worked in several kitchens and rush stress is normal aswell as being a veteran (whole other story.) They yell at me saying I'm not a veteran with how undisciplined I act. The dinner staff don't cook anything right, which isn't their fault as they're minors and haven't been trained nor taught proper cooking/food safety. I haven't been reimbursed for being told to take the Texas food handlers and TABC even though I already had the ServSafe Certifications of those and had to pay out of pocket for them. I'm also pretty sure I'm the only one who has their food handlers because all the staff I've talked to for kitchen said that they didn't have to take it. It's so bad here that some people won't eat unless me or another co worker are there, I've been told by both servers and the people themselves when they have been there while I'm on shift that they don't like anyone else's cooking because they can't cook.
Rant aside, I'm not mad or blame my co workers as most of them are children or elderly people needing a extra bit of income. The adults also try to make it more bearable to work here but yeah…. The owners make this place fuckin horrendous to work at.