*I'll add link to emails in the comments
This one's a long one. Essentially, been in the wedding/catering/restaurant industry where I live for a while. Mother in-law and I worked in tandem at a popular wedding venue and met a local caterer/restaurant owners. Friendly with us for a few years. MIL kinda got burned by venue director (we're friends at a previous job for like 10 years, but director has always been shitty and uses people as stepping stones) so she quit. Caterer asked her to be GM at their little restaurant attached to a hotel. She agrees (has never worked restaurants but its not rocket science). They want me to server/bartend/do events. I agree. Looking for a stress-free easy job and this is it. The more we work there, the more we see how fuckin nuts this guy is. She eventually tells him restaurants aren't for her and he promotes me. Cool. Easy enough.
Some things we constantly noticed was that he's verbally abusive to his wife (which she's also a piece of shit, but thats besides the point), constantly belittling other staff, taking them into a dark banquet room to try to shame them???? He seems to get off on this power trip. His word is law. Can't suggest anything to him. Always shoots it down. Says he wants it his way. Whatever.
For example, we had a Sunday brunch every week. The restaurant was NEVER busy unless the hotel was hosting like a baseball team or event (front desk never notified us either so I'd be serving a group of 100 people by myself since there was usually only 1 server on). Hardly any customers from the street. So for brunch, we'd have this awkward, empty dining room with one or two tables. And the buffet tables were a long walk away in the banquet room….why? By the time people got back to their seats the food was cold. People constantly suggested we move the buffet to the dining room (plenty of space since the dining room was 90% empty). I'd been telling him this forever but he says no. Well, homeboy hardly ever came in unless he needed the kitchen for catering. Hadn't seen him for 2 weeks so I set up the buffet the way it should be. Maybe I can show him this is the right choice if I can get people to leave good reviews and shit. Mistake.
He showed up and was SO mad. He demanded I break it down and move it to the banquet room..IN THE MIDDLE OF CUSTOMERS EATING..a fuckin toddler tantrum. In the dining room. I guess I should note he never yelled or screamed at me or my MIL. But he was in a cranky mood in general, and I knew this was why.
Another quirk he had was he had to have full control of what was going on, yet he'd never come in. I could prepare payroll, but never submit it. He had to look it over and submit it himself aka play with the numbers and steal shit from employees. He also had me do inventory and ordering, only I had to send everything to him so he could remove things I request and then place the order. Every week, so much shit would be missing from the order I sent him. Then he'd say “oh well, we have that” and I'd tell him “no, we used that. THATS why I put it on the request list”. Then he'd get testy when I'd have to make constant runs to the supply store because he didn't buy the 6 cases of sausage I needed for our DAILY sausage/bacon/egg breakfast buffet…
Now to get to the constant wage theft. This man stole SO much money from everyone. I was the GM, so I got paid a salary (a whopping $700/week). He said he expected 45-50 hours, but more on the 50 hour side. I worked WELL over 50 hours a week. Someone calls out or no-shows? I was expected to serve. Fine. Idc. It was stressful but hey, I'm making tips. Right?
Wrong. After I'd send payroll over, he'd fuck with it. I noticed this because after working a VERY stressful week and making great tips, I wanted to check my paystub to make sure it matched with my slips (I ALWAYS take pictures of my slips at the end of the day to compare). I saw my paystub and my net was $700. I'm sorry, wut? Where the FUCK are my tips? I texted this man, as, surely, it was a mistake. I sent all of my paperwork over. Maybe it was an oversight? Nah. This man straight up told me that I was salaried and that he pays me well and I don't qualify for tips..
I knew this was fucked, so I politely told him I didn't quite understand since I was the only front of house person on most of the days I earned the tips (again, staff was wishy washy. Super nice! Got along great. But he hired lazy people). He said he understood where I was coming from but that he “didn't want to be taken advantage of” and that surely I understand since he's a small business owner.
Now I'm fucking pissed. And I'm a non-confrontational human doormat. Since I have him in this text thread admitting to withholding my tips, I asked him if he'd be evenly distributing the tips to the others servers, since I wasn't allowed to claim them. He told me no because the other servers “didn't earn the tips”….yeah. No fucking shit, Sherlock.
He called me. And i knew i shouldnt have answered becauze he was avoiding the paper trail. But i answered. He starts backpeddling and saying “well, I've been meaning to talk to you about payroll and stuff”. No, no. We're not going to discuss overhead. I schedule who you tell me to. We operate at bare minimum. Don't fucking blame me for your poor money management. Your operating costs are like, ZERO with how poorly staffed this place is. There is no cutring hours or else you need to change your operating hours, which he refused to do.
Tips have NEVER gone to overhead costs. Tips are NOT for payroll. Tips are a gratuity. And its illegal for a business owner to have the business claim them. The customer tipped ME for MY service. They paid the bill to cover your costs.
I was DONE. The BOH guys were so hyped that I was going to fuck this guy and leave him high and dry. Literally everyone that worked there hated him. Loathed him. But they couldn't afford to lose their jobs, so they were happy watching me fuck him. I went into my office and sifted through the bins of shift reports and slips. I took pictures of EVERYTHING with my name on it with customer signatures and tips. I was getting ready to report his ass and build a case. I also asked other servers if I could see their paystubs and said if they didn't feel comfortable with it I understood but that I was worried he was stealing from them, too. They all showed me and everyone was short for that pay period and other pay periods before.
I left my key on the desk and got home, sat at my laptop and just typed away. I sent this mother fucker my immediate resignation and told him that my decision was final and I did not want to be contacted, as I'd witnessed him constantly threaten and yell at other employees and I refused to put myself in that situation.
12 hours later, he finally saw my email and called me! TWICE. I was going to answer, but my MIL was with me and she said “let him incriminate himself with a voicemail”. He left me one going off and DEMANDING I call him back. He was absolutely seething. I loved it. Eat my dick.
This loser then decided to CALL MY MOTHER IN LAW….WHO LEFT MONTHS AGO….
He really thought he was doin something. Calling her. She pretended to not know anything that had happened so she could get him to dig himself a little deeper. He starts LYING to her saying he didn't understand. I was so sweet and smart and a great manager but I suddenly became greedy and unreasonable. Never mentioned taking my tips. But said I was demanding a cut of OTHER SERVERS TIPS.
BRO. You really think my MIL isn't gonna find out? And that she's gonna believe you over me and the clear evidence???
She eventually called him back and laid into him. It was chefs kiss
Well, I gathered my evidence and called the DoL. I must have been assigned the laziest mother fucker cause I kept saying “I know the law says managers can't participate in a tip pool, but this was not the case. The stolen tips were from when I was taking on tables start to finish if other employees were there OR it was just me alone in the restaurant” he just kept saying “well you can't take pooled tips”. I KNOW THAT. And when I was helping with anything and pooled tips were involved I never took any. Most of the time I'd give my tables tips to the server working if I helped. I ain't an asshole like that.
But I emailed over receipts with my name on them/customer signatures/tip amount, my paystubs in question, texts convos, call logs, etc. I told him a lot of current and former employees wanted to coke forward about him. They did. At least 5 of them did.
I never got a follow up or anything. Nothing EVER came of this shit. I hate that he got away with it. And continues to be a shitty person who hides behind the facade of a God fearing family man….
I did wait about 2 months to call the health dept. on his ass though. I was the ONLY one to clean the whole restaurant. I knew no one else was doing it. They nabbed him for so much shit. Bugs EVERYWHERE. He even got closed down for a while. Serves you right, stupid asshole.