#restaurant work

[michthesinnamonbagel]

Me when a customer is mean to me

Source: The Price is Your Everything

Webtoon by Gones, Haco

[solange-lol]

CALLING ALL FOOD SERVICE WORKERS if you have every interacted with a toaster at your job. pleaseee FILL OUT MY SURVEY!! sincerely a niche interest design student

[blue-kyber]

I'm looking for another job at a different restaurant.

In one application, they ask why I left my current job (which I haven't. I'm still there until I can get another job).

This is what I wanted to say:

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I was forced to sign a warning accepting responsibility for something I didn't do. I was told - and I quote, "I'm sorry, but your best isn't good enough." I'd worked there for two years without an issue like this. They said accepting responsibility for something I didn't do builds characters. Which it doesn't. I've done that all my life, and all it did was harm my mental health and turn me into a doormat once others found out I wouldn't fight back out of fear and hypersensitivity. Then they said I was lucky they didn't take the mistake out of my paycheck - which they are not allowed to do by law and had no right to threaten me with that in order to gaslight me think they were doing me a favor. I know my rights. I saw right through it. They also tried to gaslight me into believe I was the one at fault. I refused. That only angered me more, and them, since their attempts failed. I couldn't leave that table until I signed it despite pleading my case. I am a sensitive person with RSD (rejections sensitivity dysphoria), so I had difficulty arguing my case due to my history of being a whipping boy, and my effort going into staying strong. I cried later, and felt raw and beaten for the next few days.

This is 100% not the first time this has ever happened. Yet I get up, and keep going like nothing happened. They know I am an ADHD autistic person. They know I work my hardest at giving my customers a good experience while facing more problems than a neurotypical person. They know I am managing it through medication and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy). I always get my work done with little to no accommodation (like taking a few minutes from sensory overload, or having understanding that some things are just harder for me to process. What they did do was let me keep my silent fidget toy, and agreed to letting me work 4 days instead of 5 so I have time to recover for the next week.) Battling an overload, burnout, or shutdown, or all-of-thee-above simultaneously and still mask takes a large amount of energy. But I still do my job with a smile and give my best customer service. Both of what I struggle with daily are state recognized disabilities. I can support myself, but it's harder for me. It's very energy draining to constantly mask, which is why I can only work 4 days a week - by my doctor's recommendation to help avoid burnout and meltdowns/shutdowns. To be told "Your best isn't good enough" invalidates the hard work and effort I put in to doing my job. It shows me that they don't care. Someone's best changes from day to day. I am a firm believer that there's always room to learn and grow, and take opportunities to go above and beyond to give my customers a good experience. What that warning and statement said to me is that they don't believe I understand these concepts. Being ADHD and autistic doesn't automatically make me an idiot with no ability to reason or conceptualize. I can't work for someone willing to throw away my two years of accomplishments in favor of one customer having an issue that they aggressively blamed on me to avoid admitting they were wrong. Since it's my word against the customer's, and my employer believes in the outdated and incorrect 'the customer is always right' rule, I - an employee they know and trust, with no record of delinquency, who has never lied about what happens at work, and admits when I did make a mistake, and works to avoid repeating that mistake - was forced to take the fall without an iota of understanding.

I am not a problem employee. I actively avoid causing drama. That negativity literally hurts me. If someone else is getting reprimanded in front of me, I feel it. I stay away from it. I work to keep the environment either neutral or positive.

I was punished by way of having my tables limited to 4 for 3 weeks, two 5 hour shifts switched out for 3 hour shifts, and one 6 hour shift switch to a 3 hour shift. In the 6 hour-turned-3-hour, I was taken off server duty and delegated to handle to-go orders. (they gave me 2 tables, which my coworker tries to seat people at, but you know customers - they will sit wherever they want). All of these changes heavily affected my finances, and now I'm struggling just to make rent. As of last week, they began alternating sections for the servers. I won't be surprised if they say they'd always done that, and I'd been assigned to one section that whole time. Before this incident, my coworker and I swapped off every other table to make it as fair as possible, and would offer tables if the other was lacking. Immediately after I had to take the fall, I was confined to one section. I wasn't even allowed to help my coworker when they had to handle two busy sections on their own - which was not only unfair to me, but unfair to them, and the customers. They got a frantic server while I had 4 tables, and all I could do to help was run food, make drinks, and get supplies ready so my coworker wouldn't have to take extra time for that.

If they had written me up and left it at that, I'd be mad about being wrongly accused, but I would have eventually let it go. A coworker said this happens to other servers there, too - it happened to them - and to just accept it. And I would have had they not added on that punishment. Adding that punishment is what pushed me to look for new work. It's very sad, because I honestly do enjoy working there. I love the crew, the food is delicious, and the customers are cool. I love my regulars. But I can't work for a company that forces their employees to take the blame for something they didn't do, and sabotages their employees' income as a punishment.

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It may be a little long winded. But hey, they asked. And my neurodivergent ass gave them the exact reason.

[rauko-is-a-free-elf]

I have not waited tables in almost 10 years but I was just walking past the kitchen area in a restaurant as their expo yelled "runner!" and I literally almost turned around before I had to tell myself they wouldn't even let me carry that food let if I DID walk up to the line lol

[saintvalentinex]

When you work at a restaurant during a global pandemic in America

[deathtokillian]

Pro tip if you work at a restaurant.

Go into the walk-in to scream.

[urby87]

Its awfully brave of me to wear anything but red to a job where I handle so much ketchup.

[daglout]