Introduction
I've worked in the Food & Beverage Industry for almost 10 years now and I never thought it'd get this bad. For years I've used a website that posts job openings for National Parks, Lodges, Resorts and more that offer either free housing or for a few hundred dollars a month.
Interview
This restaurant located in Alaska posted on the website a job opening that I applied for and I got hired. During the interview I was told about how housing is amazing, private and how much it costs monthly as well as how the job is and their busy months during the summer season and so on. A arrival date was set to be picked from the airport and brought to the property.
Where things started to go south
Upon getting picked up from the airport in Alaska I met one of the owners which is who drove me 2 hours to the property. During the drive to the property he bragged about how they just get handed these licenses like their liquor license and their pot selling license and he can pretty much do whatever he wants and the state of Alaska doesn't mess with him. This 2 hour drive had nothing but red flags and made my stomach turn.
Housing
The 2 hour drive finally came to a end and we arrived at the property which I already had a idea of the exterior view of it because of online pictures and also Google Earth. I began to get my suit case out of the car and he went inside to get the keys to my housing, we began to walk to a really messed up looking barn/garage like structure in the very back of the property where I started to feel even more like a idiot showing up because I had a good feeling he was going to tell me this is my housing, which he did. When opening my door to my room I was greeted with a literal half inch to inch layer of dirt on top of a plywood floor, the worse dry wall job you ever seen, the size of room can be compared to a cubby hole for a midget, just big enough for a small mattress lifted just enough off the floor to expose a gallon water jug half full of yellow liquid that I'm sure you can guess what that is, and cigarette butts mixed in with layer of dirt on the floor. I sat on the edge of that bed just to gather my thoughts, message my family what's going on to keep myself calm and not tear up. After calming down and told by my family to at least see how the job is, I found a broom opened my door and started sweeping the dirt out of the room where I then found a stain right in the middle of the floor that I didn't even want to think what it was.
Issues on the Job
My first shift wasn't too bad everyone seemed nice and to be in the same situation as me after getting to know some of them. It wasn't long till I opened my eyes and realize that even the work environment is by far the most backwards and toxic work environment I've ever encountered in my entire job history. A cook that believe he ran the show began to drink beer on the clock and take shots out back and it wasn't long till he was encouraging a underage 19 year male to engage in on the clock underage drinking. Not saying anything to them I instead talked to one of my good friends I made there which he informed me that the on the clock drinking is happening because of the 2 owners apparently gave him permission to drink on the clock. After about a week of this happening the cook that started the trend of drinking on the clock began to be a raging drunk asshole to me and my friend both verbally abusive, threating to beat me up and call me homophobic slurs which I'm straight so I don't where he was going with that one . This restaurant kitchen has a open view of the dining room so both employees in the kitchen can see guests and guests can see in the kitchen so the beers was hidden in spots that the guests couldn't see. I ignore people like him because I'm always the bad guy in the end, well even doing that to this drunk cook I was still a bad guy. He got really verbally aggressive one night and was yelling in front of customers for me to come outside so he can beat me till I'm not breathing, me taking that not so kindly I got ahold of one of the owners immediately and explained to him the situation. He told me to “Just keep the peace”. He was no help at all so I headed back inside the kitchen and minded my business in my work station and that's when that drunk cook went off on me again and I pulled my phone out and texted the owners I just talked to that I'm trying to keep the peace but the drunk cook is still trying to fight me and still yelling at me. One of the owners comes into the kitchen and tells me to clock out and just leave for the day. So the drunk cook got to stay and make money and I'm the one that owner told to go clock out. After that shift every shift I clocked in for I was uncomfortable he would stare at me I could see him doing it at the corner of my eye. I never saw a single cook in that kitchen ever wash their hands, the drunk cook would play with the cheese used to make pizzas with no gloves on he'd mush and squeeze the cheese he would chain smoke cigarettes and always smelled really bad and wore really messed up dirty clothes that looked like he never washed them from the very beginning of him picking them out at a store off the shelf. The water pressure was so bad that dishwashers job was nearly impossible when you turned the water on one part of the property then all the other water areas like showers and mop bucket fill station and dishwashers station wouldn't dispense water.
The End
It had to be me ignoring him and never looking his direction or even comprehending that he exists in my area to “Just keep the peace” that triggered him to go to the owners and lie. At the time I had no idea what was being said behind my back. I'm standing there doing my job and one of the owners comes up to me and mumbles something to me that I couldn't hear clearly with all the commotion from busy service so I leaned in to hear him better and he said to me “You have 24 hours to get off the property”. While he said this to me he began to walk way as if he had the idea he's going to tell me that and I'll finish the shift then pack my stuff, I stopped him in his tracks and said “Where you going? Your doing this job now because I'm going to my room to pack my shit right now!”. The look on his face was both him being surprised and also pissed. Now even at this time I have no idea why I'm being removed from my job and kicked off the property I only found out because other employees came up to me when I was in my room packing and said “We heard what happened” and I asked “So what do you guys know?” I was told by those employees that the drunk cook went to the owners and told a fib that I cussed him out and that's why I'm being kicked off the property which is a lie and he's been the one cussing me and another person out, not the other way around. One employee told me their not surprised that the owners took the drunk cooks side of everything because “That's their fishing buddy”. Both dishwashers without me saying anything to them stood in my door way and said “We're packing too, we're done with this place”. It felt really good because when one of the owners came up to me when I was still packing to hand me my last paper check and I told him “You got 2 more employees to write their last check, get on it” he said “What are you talking about?” I replied with “You'll find out”. And he did, he found out for sure! A kitchen that's operates with only 5 employees on schedule they lost 3 in one day.
With reports filed with OSHA and the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development they have some more to find out!!!