When I (F) was 15-years-old my first job was at a local popular restaurant as a busser and hostess. I got this job because I had an abusive home life and was walking the poverty line, so finding a way to not be home often while making money was the only thing I could count on.
I didn't associate much with the kitchen staff, only when I was putting away dirty dishes and running food orders. The kitchen staff was mainly only Spanish speaking so I couldn't communicate with them well. A few months into working, I began to notice that every-time I'd run in the kitchen one dishwasher would always stare and smile at me, sometimes even wave. I would just smile back and say thanks for taking my dirty dishes and leave. I felt it was just a friendly interaction between two people working jobs that sucked.
I walked home every shift around 10pm-11pm as it wasn't far from my house. One evening I left my work, began walking down the sidewalk and realized I forgot something. I turn around to go back to the restaurant and see the dishwasher standing out front staring at me walking away. As soon as we looked at eachother he ran back inside. I thought it was weird but didn't really think into it as I just wanted to get what I forgot and get home.
A few days after that, I am halfway home from leaving my late shift. I cut thru a local park during my walk which is closed after dusk, so I am the only one ever walking thru it at this hour. I was listening to music in my headphones and when a song stopped to transition to a new one I heard walking on gravel behind me. I turned around and see the dishwasher from work walking a yard or two back. I didn't register who it was at first but I screamed and as he ran off I realized it was him. I get home safe but shaken. Wake up the next morning and see I have a new friend request on Facebook from the dishwasher. I didn't even know his name but recognized his profile picture; it seemed like he had just made the account and he had no friends. In my pending message requests I see I have a few from him. The messages consisted of, “alwayssunnyinupstate, hi, hi, i love you.”, “please answer, hi hello”, “marry me beautiful girl, i love you”, “can we kiss i wanna”, and a few more consisting of the same sentiments. I immediately felt sick to my stomach, I was only a 10th grader and looked younger. This man was over 25. I felt very scared of this man.
I went into work the next day (wasn't scheduled) to talk with one of the owners (a married female in her 40's). I told her what happened with him following me and the messages and that I was uncomfortable, I was shaking and crying. She told me that because he is from a different country and doesn't speak English very well, there is probably just a translation issue and that he didn't mean to scare me, that he probably had a crush on me and that the messages weren't overtly sexual so it wasn't a case of sexual harassment or anything illegal she could do something about. She then asked what I would like to do about the situation. I wanted him fired but I didn't feel I was able to ask for that so I said I didn't know. The owner said she would talk to him for me, which made me feel scared for my safety even more.
The next time I go into work she told me she had talked to him and he is not to talk to me anymore. When I went into the kitchen that night he was staring at me still and smiling, but didn't say anything more to me. I had multiple panic attacks that shift, and over the course of the next few months everytime I had to go to work and see him. He never tried to message me again on Facebook or follow me home, to my knowledge.
2-3 months later, I go into my shift and my coworker (who knew of the situation) told me that the dishwasher was fired and replaced the previous day because he was caught stealing food. I was so relieved he was gone that I didn't even see how completely fucked it was that the owner let him off when he followed home and harassed a minor but fired him over stealing pre-prepared food from the walk-in freezer.
This owner was a complete bitch the longer I worked there (2 more years), no one liked her and she had zero knowledge how to run a restaurant or care about her staff. She consistently talked to me like I was an idiot yet anytime she worked, she made the restaurant run ten times slower. I am happy to say the restaurant closed down a year after I quit, so did other restaurants her and her husband owned. I hope they're broke as fuck now. Fuck you, Crystal.