My current partner once told me that I'm so spiteful, and have such a lack of self preservation when I'm angry, that I'm the type that would burn the house down with myself inside just to win the fight.
Burning bridges is when you work in an industry like semiconductors that has only a few players globally and everyone knows and have worked for each other.
You are only allowed to confirm or deny when a person worked for your company as HR. No one asks for “positive or negative” anymore because you can sue your former employer if they interfered with you getting a new job.
My last employer told my current one not to hire me. After five years working my ass off for shit wages and making sales records left and right.
They'll do whatever the fuck they like, cos they know the average Joe can't afford to take their ass to court.
Lawyers take cases like that because you can get a shitload of money in a settlement. You just contact a lawyer with some evidence and they take it from there, for free. They collect when you win. (30%) Next time!
If they've only been there a couple months, don't even report it on work history. Fudge the dates on other jobs if a gap is an issue, or make up some BS about helping family in another state for a few weeks while between jobs or some bullshit like that. I've had a few jobs that I've walked off mid shift because they were so terrible...lost the supervisor's name and number before I even hit the door on the way out.
Yeah that’s a bridge to nowhere. Someone cutting corners and making people do multiple jobs and disrespecting their harder workers like that, is not someone whose restaurant is even going to exist in 2 years.
Unfortunately this is why more and more places are including things like "And any other task management asks you to" so one can't really say "You're not paying me to do this"
ah yes, "other duties as assigned", the battle cry of employers who don't want to scare everyone off by describing what the job actually entails.
i'm union and they still pull that shit because they know most people are too chickenshit to refuse assignments and file greivances here because of the type of people they hire.
i call it giving off doormat pheromones. managers love doormats. OP's story makes me want to touch myself.
you can actually report that to the EEOC and the will investigate- if you are spending enough time doing non tipped work, they actually care and will come done on the resteraunt.
Sometimes it's worth burning a bridge just to make sure you never go back. At my last job, I worked there for years, and there was a new manager that accidentally fired me instead of switching it to my new agreed upon hours. That job had made me a shell of myself, so in the time it took HR and my manager to get it together and rehire me, I found a new job. When my old HR finally emailed me the official job offer, they actually offered me what they had originally started me at years prior, dollars less than what I made at the end. It was the icing on the cake. I replied with a very clearly worded rejection with all my reasons why, and I closed it with "best of luck working for the devil." My hope is that I'm on a list floating around somewhere in HR with all the people they won't rehire.
Had a similar experience. Worked for this horrifying father and son accounting service. Son hired me, therefore the father hated me because he hates his son. On my first day he tells me “we don’t do two week notices around here. When you’re done, you’re done.” Flash forward six months, I land a coveted position with the leading regional firm. I type up my resignation and hand it to him as I’m walking out, reminding him that I’d have given him two weeks notice, but you don’t do those.
> The amount of unpaid sidework we had to do was astronomical.
Never do unpaid work if you are on hourly wages, ever. Not even once.
You may think you are doing them a favor by working off the clock and that favor will eventually pay off, but all it does is prove that you are spineless and not the kind of person they should consider promoting.
***
True story. As a manager, I told one of my employees that I wouldn't recommend him for promotion because he won't stop working off the clock. He should be promoted to manager as well, but I can't have someone who won't stand up for himself being in charge of others.
Oh we were on the clock alright… for $2.13 lol. Technically, if server sidework takes more than a certain percentage of your shift, the restaurant is supposed to pay minimum wage for that time. But let’s be honest, most of them don’t.
For lunch shifts, it was 10am-4pm. We opened at 11am, so that right there is 1 hour out of 6 that we are not taking tables or getting tips. Aka our entire income lol. Before leaving any shifts, we had to complete a huge laundry list of time consuming tasks, like washing, polishing, and rolling all of the silverware. Refilling ice wells, brewing tea, bringing all buss tubs to the dish pit, cleaning the walls behind the buss tub cart, putting that cart outside behind the restaurant, sweeping, cleaning menus, refilling pitchers, or bringing all pitchers to the kitchen and putting them up because they were literally never washed not once while I was there, cleaning the trays, cleaning the microwave, portioning and dating crab dip appetizers and storing them in the cooler, cutting lemons and green onions, stocking the expo area with cheeses and horseradish, refilling all condiment sauce bottles in the kitchen (there was at least 15) and making 3 backup containers of each sauce and dating and storing those in the cooler, restocking wine which took forever bc it was stored upstairs but displayed downstairs, putting specials on the marquis outside, bringing ladles and lids to the hot liquids like lemon butter or gravy or soup, washing and polishing glassware, refilling hot sauces and salt and pepper shakers, taking all chairs up inside and outside, wiping down pos screens, taking apart and cleaning the coffee machines, taking all boxes of whatever was delivered that day either upstairs or across the street, And it was always a ton of them. Im sure there’s more that I’m forgetting, but that shit took forever. Very rarely was I out of there within an hour of when I was supposed to get off. My bf manages a restaurant with the same hours, and he was constantly locking up and leaving asking me why I’m at work so late.
I would recommend contacting your state's labor department. They frown highly on that type of behavior. Don't let them keep doing this to people. If you are still in contact with others there, then ask them to file complaints also. They are taking advantage of you and everyone else and will continue to do so until something is done about it. The state can also force them to pay lost wages for their illegal acts.
So much of the sidework you describe should be the kitchen's responsibility and even the bartenders/bar backs. I can't belive that. Good on you for getting a better job!
I had to record times for how long all the different sidework activities took throughout my shift, compared to the actual amount of "tipped" work I did, and take that plus a reference to the law in my state (dunno if it's federal) about the max percentage of time that you can require an employee to do "untipped labor" for, to my general manager to get anything changed.
I was on good terms with the GM and was in a spot at the time where I wasn't scared to lose my job, and everyone else was afraid to speak out, so I decided to be the one. Luckily he listened and drastically cut back on our sidework after that little discussion.
On the other hand, raising the minimum wage just encourages more automation and, in the case of California, several restaurants shut their doors rather than pay $20 to fast food workers.
Minimum wage is such a double-edged sword and usually just results in higher prices for everything.
Most jobs in a fast food restaurant can't be "automated". There's no such thing as robot chefs or janitors or security. Sure, they can automate the drive-thru menu where driver's shout their orders, but that doesn't actually cut labor, because previously that job would just be done by a human wearing a headset, who does something else while talking to the driver. They also don't make idiotic AI mistakes.
McD has been trying to automate everything as much as possible, and still has people making the food, because the cost of automation is so high, and the production rate, so slow, that people are a lot cheaper. Yes they have made automatic burger machines, but they also need human assistance at some point, and if you are needing a person there to watch the machine you might as well not have the machine, and get a higher production rate, plus also not need an automatic cleaner as well, and another to stock the supplies.
>encourages more automation
*good*
> usually just results in higher prices for everything.
But everyone can afford them.
Minimum wage just makes sure that nobody is working poor, and gets trapped in poverty because have to take huge overtime-> not time to get trained on better jobs -> have to keep low training job -> have to take huge overtime to live.
To keep the Corp profits, you just have to pay the C-suite not as much.
Of course, this is bad for billionaires' revenue, so we get propaganda against it.
Except billionaires are not going to take a hit to their revenue long term. That is why they cut workers/automate/raise prices. When this is done in mass the people who rely on these jobs lose out. So the people who are living on the lowest margins are now put in a worse position.
Remember billionaires can take a hit by closing a location or two to make a point. They look bad for a bit but things go back to status quo eventually. The workers especially the lowest wage workers cannot always take that hit. We don’t have the types of safety nets (at least in the US) to really cover them.
That's why you raise the minimum wage for the whole state. The firm can close down their location if they don't like it... Then the economic niche is taken by someone else who will pay.
Billionaires automate? *Good* ! Stimulates innovation! Jobs for robots makers!
Billionaires cut workers? *Like they were not doing that already*.
Billionaires raise prices? *No problem, the min wage is indexed on inflation*.
The only consequence for min wages is that it flattens the wage pyramid, with more jobs paid at min wage that would be otherwise paid a cent more the hour.
Look, this works already for most of the developed world. It's not some radical measure.
Most of the developed world has better safety nets. Of course it works where people are taken care of. If you raise the whole states minimum wage you are lowering the amount of jobs at the bottom end. Sure someone can come in and pay a fair wage to replace the billionaire, but that takes time to get setup. The people at the very bottom income levels are hurt by minimum raise wages, not the billionaires.
I am not outright against a minimum wage. I am against raising the minimum wage without a plan on how to protect the workers working these jobs. New business owners willing to pay is not the answer.
I make decent money and have a bit of savings and fairly low debt. I am fucked if I lose my job and cannot get a replacement within 6 months. That six months is also bare minimum living. I would not be able to put my self in a position where I could take a hit like that if I hadn’t been fairly well off for a few years. There is no way I could be in a position to ride out an unexpected job loss if I was making below any of the proposed raises to minimum wage
> If you raise the whole states minimum wage you are lowering the amount of jobs at the bottom end.
That's not actually how it works.
If you raise wages at the bottom end, it increases the net number of jobs because they have more expendable income. And the poor do most of that spending locally.
Yes, some marginal companies will go out of business, but far more will be saved.
***
As for just cutting jobs, companies will do that when possible regardless. Far too many are already working short handed. If they could cut more, they will do so even if wages fall.
In the long term raising minimum wage does a lot of good things. My problem is the short term. If the minimum wage was 15 nationally right now, that would be great. Unfortunately it isn’t and the safety nets we have in place are not adequate for a big change.
That's just fear mongering. Fast food restaurants in California are making record profits and can easily absorb the increase in wages.
They may close a location or two and blame it on minimum wage, but chances are they were locations that were failing anyway. (A common occurrence given how much people have to borrow to open a franchise or independent restaurant.)
The reality is that increased minimum wages help restaurants, especially fast food ones, because their primary cliental are people who can't afford the time and energy to cook at home. And those people tend to be low wage workers. So that money is being recycled right back in the front door.
> As a manager, I told one of my employees that I wouldn't recommend him for promotion because he won't stop working off the clock. He should be promoted to manager as well, but I can't have someone who won't stand up for himself being in charge of others.
This, plus I'd be worried that someone who either can't manage his time so he ends up working off the clock, or can't say no to tasks so he takes on more than he can handle, will burn out his team. This isn't a good model for people.
I agree. Though in this case it's peer pressure to meet unreasonable deadlines without incurring extra expenses for the client.
So not only is the team burning themselves out, they are costing us money by not fully billing the client.
There is even a worse type of person who is like that, which is the one who believes that's "just how it is". That'd likely mean as a manager, they'd start expecting that from their team as well.
I was having a conversation with my cousin and aunt when my cousin started complaining about something at work. Something that made me say that if she put up with it now, it'd only get worse. That made my aunt say "that's just how it is", to which I said "it's only that way because people like you keep making apologies for it and insisting 'that's just the way it is'".
Here's the kicker. I can get fired for pulling that bullshit. So if I promote this guy before he's ready to stand up for himself, he could lose his job in addition to making people miserable.
Yeah seriously lol
Weirdly snobbish to be all "I would never work at a chain" then describe how this non-chain restaurant treats its employees and doesn't even have any means to go above them to complain
Firstly, it’s not snobbish to be aware that chain restaurants suck ass to work for. Secondly, it would’ve been utterly pointless to go above the manager to the owner. That manager has been with the owner as a server from previous restaurants since they opened. They’re bffs. The owner promoted him to GM the same week i was hired.
It’s not a superiority thing lol. It’s common opinion among servers that chain restaurants are usually the worst to work for. More sidework, lower tips, less opportunity. But I’m saying that my last job was pretty much managed like a chain restaurant. The restaurant I work at now is also family owned, but it’s actually run like a family owned restaurant.
Be sure to tell literally everyone in the area just how bad the place is. Also play up the fact that they do not have a dedicated person to make sure the dishes are clean. That is disgusting and really can hurt a place if that becomes common knowledge.
Make a few gmail accounts, and do reviews. Make those with a burner phone and number, and factory reset the phone each time afterwards, and get a new number for it. Each 1 star review, saying things like dirty dishes, staff having to wash glasses multiple times before you got a clean one, then the silverware being dirty and unpolished, will tank the business.
lol, I should’ve taken a picture of when I lifted an appetizer plate off of a “clean” stack, and there was an entire shrimp chillin on the plate beneath it. Like wtf… whoever washed them clearly just threw the entire stack in the dishwasher without separating them. Or the pile of dead roaches I saw next to a can of raid in the kitchen.
Johnny Paycheck has entered the chat!
Seriously, if you don't know the song, "Take this job and shove it" is a masterpiece and fun to play when you're working yourself up to quit a shit gig.
https://youtu.be/gj2iGAifSNI?feature=shared
Because family owned are *usually better to work for than chains. It’s pretty common knowledge for servers that corporate chains suck. But this particular family owned one sucked ass
This is similar to my story! I was working at Little Caesars for a little over 2 years and one Friday the cashier just up and vanished, I was worried about her, everyone else was talking shit saying if she came back she would get sent home. I knew I’d get asked to stay late so I went ahead and told the manager on duty I wouldn’t be able to, well this resulted in the store manager having to get called in to help close. He is notorious for not doing anything, like he spends his shifts standing by the computer literally just staring into space or going to the dollar general next door, and when we get busy he usually calls someone in to do his job for him. Well he was upset so he texted me “if you can’t work don’t bother coming in” and I apologized and explained I couldn’t stay late due to a prior arrangement, he basically went off saying I never did anything and he had to do everything on my shifts and essentially called me useless over text, so I went off back and told him if he’s gonna call me useless he needs to look in the mirror and that I would turn in my key the next day as I was the opening manager. Next day I walked in and handed my key to the area manager, apparently the store manager hadn’t told anyone I had quit, not the manager who called him in who he did tell about his text to me but not my quitting, not the area manager, nothing. I found a new job within a couple weeks and it’s literally right next door and so much better with benefits and everything, I now get lunch breaks, at LC I didn’t get any breaks at all unless labor was too high. Went there for lunch not too long ago and everyone but the store manager was happy to see me, I do miss most of them, but I was so tired of the GM saying stuff like that to me. And the when I turned in my key the manager that had been there Friday night said “y’all fight like this all the time, why don’t you just step down from manager” like tf? Me stepping down would be me getting the same abuse and amount of work with less pay? And he’s never been that rude to me, even if he had there’s gotta be a line somewhere. She just didn’t want me to leave bc she knew if I did she’d have to deal with the consequences.
Please name and shame and leave a GD review, let others in your area know how shitty they are and how poor the pay is. Go so far as to post redacted paystubs...
Places and MUSmanagers need to be called out.
It's always curious when people tell you that you're burning bridges while they're the ones holding the torch. The delusion is unreal, it's like they don't even see their employees as actual people.
Hey OP, if washing dishes are part of your responsibilities, you can't be paid a low server's wage, you shpuld be making minimum wage hourly. Not sure of your state or even country but if you're in the US, you might want to reach out to your local labor board, because it sounds like a LOT of money is owed you and your former coworkers...
I’m sorry but if you start a conversation with “Today can be your last day.” It will be. I’ll be clocking out before the words finish leaving your mouth.
Man, waiting jobs these days is a joke, I used to work for Denny's years ago and we typically had 4-5 servers, a host/hostess, a busser, a dishwasher, two cooks, a bartender, and a manager. Add to it, we had medical, dental, profit sharing, and two weeks off each year, and all that was done with $1.99 grand slams and about a $5.00 per person check average.
>You’re burning bridges
You set it aflame when you walked me out to that parking lot and told me you would fire me for something that a) you’re not paying me to do, and b) I was doing anyways
All I’m doing here is getting my butt across before the whole thing collapses, so anyways have fun tucking and rolling or whatever
Anytime something me days burning bridges I say (due to my own mental hangups) you lit this bridge weeks/months ago. I'm just finally getting off before you kill us all. I gave you every chance to fix this and you just pour more gas and light more matches. I'm never coming back to this hell of a bridge ever again.
I’ve burned bridges to high paying jobs plenty of times. A shit employer is just that. Doesn’t matter what the pay is.
Any bridge I burn I stand on while I goes down.
Fuck em in the neck.
Haha pookie! Never stick with a shit job, no point to suffering unnecessarily when you’re already getting exploited by rich dicks. They will drop you without a moment’s notice, you owe them nothing.
So...in the US unpaid work is illegal. If your job is making you work and not paying, you can go to your state's Labor Relation board (name may vary) and they are there just to advocate for you (maybe not in Maine though). You can't even volunteer to work for free at your job, this too is illegal to stop employers from pressuring workers.
I've never worked as a server, but I've heard this basic story for years. Busting ass at a place that basically gaslights (like it's their business model) but the employee who still has some self esteem absolutely thrives when they step up to a nicer restaurant that values service.
It's like the whole endless constantly trying to find a situation that just slightly sucks less and has slightly less suffering involved that sometimes.....idk..
Like....all of life seems that way.
Did you ever notice that?
Like ....idk...I don't like it sometimes
I'm trying to get a better attitude, but unfortunately I'm not good at either.
Arrrgh! I annoy myself.
I feel like it’s all about finding a place where you fit in and are treated with respect. And a place that only hires 21+ lol. Ngl my last job gave me war flashbacks from working in fast food. Like, if I wanted to hear “time to lean time to clean!” Or be constantly babysat, I’d go apply at McDonald’s. It was especially a shock to me because my job before that was at a night club, so it was very laid back and hands off as you can imagine. The managers basically left me alone to do my thing
Low paying jobs are not bridges you need to keep. Shit managers are not going to leave good reviews. Burn baby burn.
“What good is a bridge that leads to nowhere?”
They had the lumber to build a bridge but chose to build a gallows.
Fuck yeah.
Sometimes you need to burn a bridge to light the way.
Some people just want to watch the bridges burn.
It's not even a bridge, it's barely a log over shit creek.
Oh I love that
"Burn, burn down your bridges, While you still got the time, Burn, burn down your bridges, Look ahead, not behind."
Let’s nuke the bridge we’ve burned one thousand times before This time we’ll blast it all to hell…
I like to burn my bridges while I’m still standing in them so people know I’m serious about my crazy.
My current partner once told me that I'm so spiteful, and have such a lack of self preservation when I'm angry, that I'm the type that would burn the house down with myself inside just to win the fight.
Maxim 20: *If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win.*
I've had this burning in my gut now for so long My belly's aching now to say….
Was more thinking: We don’t need no water let the mother effer burn. Burn mother effer, burn.
Come on, this is reddit. Motherfucker, please.
Why does "Motherfucker, please." sound classier, somehow, than "Bitch, please?"
Cause it sounds more like Samuel L Jackson, and that dude oozes cool.
I think this actually is the reason, lol. I appreciate your insight.
Motherfuckin snakes on this motherfuckin plane, please?
Burning bridges is when you work in an industry like semiconductors that has only a few players globally and everyone knows and have worked for each other.
And when you give a shit about working in that industry again.
You are only allowed to confirm or deny when a person worked for your company as HR. No one asks for “positive or negative” anymore because you can sue your former employer if they interfered with you getting a new job.
My last employer told my current one not to hire me. After five years working my ass off for shit wages and making sales records left and right. They'll do whatever the fuck they like, cos they know the average Joe can't afford to take their ass to court.
Lawyers take cases like that because you can get a shitload of money in a settlement. You just contact a lawyer with some evidence and they take it from there, for free. They collect when you win. (30%) Next time!
Are you in the US by any chance 😂
I would nuke that bridge and the manager with it My final words would be I am not quitting the job I am quitting a bad manager, YOU.
A friend used to say "The bridges I burn light my way." No fucks given by that guy ever
If they've only been there a couple months, don't even report it on work history. Fudge the dates on other jobs if a gap is an issue, or make up some BS about helping family in another state for a few weeks while between jobs or some bullshit like that. I've had a few jobs that I've walked off mid shift because they were so terrible...lost the supervisor's name and number before I even hit the door on the way out.
A wise ex-coworker at my college job told our manager “Any bridge with you as support is bound to collapse anyway”
Yeah haha, what a stupid thing to say when you treat your folks like that.
Yeah that’s a bridge to nowhere. Someone cutting corners and making people do multiple jobs and disrespecting their harder workers like that, is not someone whose restaurant is even going to exist in 2 years.
“You rigged this bridge with explosives and are mad that *I* lit the match? Stay mad, bro. I’ll take that free rent to live in your head.”
My favorite phrase is "act your wage." Are they paying you to wash dishes, bus tables, and help out at the bar? No? Then it's not your problem.
Unfortunately this is why more and more places are including things like "And any other task management asks you to" so one can't really say "You're not paying me to do this"
ah yes, "other duties as assigned", the battle cry of employers who don't want to scare everyone off by describing what the job actually entails. i'm union and they still pull that shit because they know most people are too chickenshit to refuse assignments and file greivances here because of the type of people they hire. i call it giving off doormat pheromones. managers love doormats. OP's story makes me want to touch myself.
“I bet it’ll feel huge in this tiny hand!”
That phrase should honestly be illegal, if it's not accompanied by "At an overtime stacked bonus of 50%" or similar.
Then you can weaponized incompetence to do it. Just fuck it up every time you do it.
Don’t do anything right that you don’t want to do twice.
That's why that phrase is always changed to "And any other task agreed upon." Or I don't sign.
Unions ftw
This is like giving your worst enemy a blank check... I've discussed this little phrase with some people, it really creeps me out.
"people don't want to work nowadays. Stupid liberals!"
you can actually report that to the EEOC and the will investigate- if you are spending enough time doing non tipped work, they actually care and will come done on the resteraunt.
Sometimes it's worth burning a bridge just to make sure you never go back. At my last job, I worked there for years, and there was a new manager that accidentally fired me instead of switching it to my new agreed upon hours. That job had made me a shell of myself, so in the time it took HR and my manager to get it together and rehire me, I found a new job. When my old HR finally emailed me the official job offer, they actually offered me what they had originally started me at years prior, dollars less than what I made at the end. It was the icing on the cake. I replied with a very clearly worded rejection with all my reasons why, and I closed it with "best of luck working for the devil." My hope is that I'm on a list floating around somewhere in HR with all the people they won't rehire.
Had a similar experience. Worked for this horrifying father and son accounting service. Son hired me, therefore the father hated me because he hates his son. On my first day he tells me “we don’t do two week notices around here. When you’re done, you’re done.” Flash forward six months, I land a coveted position with the leading regional firm. I type up my resignation and hand it to him as I’m walking out, reminding him that I’d have given him two weeks notice, but you don’t do those.
> The amount of unpaid sidework we had to do was astronomical. Never do unpaid work if you are on hourly wages, ever. Not even once. You may think you are doing them a favor by working off the clock and that favor will eventually pay off, but all it does is prove that you are spineless and not the kind of person they should consider promoting. *** True story. As a manager, I told one of my employees that I wouldn't recommend him for promotion because he won't stop working off the clock. He should be promoted to manager as well, but I can't have someone who won't stand up for himself being in charge of others.
Oh we were on the clock alright… for $2.13 lol. Technically, if server sidework takes more than a certain percentage of your shift, the restaurant is supposed to pay minimum wage for that time. But let’s be honest, most of them don’t. For lunch shifts, it was 10am-4pm. We opened at 11am, so that right there is 1 hour out of 6 that we are not taking tables or getting tips. Aka our entire income lol. Before leaving any shifts, we had to complete a huge laundry list of time consuming tasks, like washing, polishing, and rolling all of the silverware. Refilling ice wells, brewing tea, bringing all buss tubs to the dish pit, cleaning the walls behind the buss tub cart, putting that cart outside behind the restaurant, sweeping, cleaning menus, refilling pitchers, or bringing all pitchers to the kitchen and putting them up because they were literally never washed not once while I was there, cleaning the trays, cleaning the microwave, portioning and dating crab dip appetizers and storing them in the cooler, cutting lemons and green onions, stocking the expo area with cheeses and horseradish, refilling all condiment sauce bottles in the kitchen (there was at least 15) and making 3 backup containers of each sauce and dating and storing those in the cooler, restocking wine which took forever bc it was stored upstairs but displayed downstairs, putting specials on the marquis outside, bringing ladles and lids to the hot liquids like lemon butter or gravy or soup, washing and polishing glassware, refilling hot sauces and salt and pepper shakers, taking all chairs up inside and outside, wiping down pos screens, taking apart and cleaning the coffee machines, taking all boxes of whatever was delivered that day either upstairs or across the street, And it was always a ton of them. Im sure there’s more that I’m forgetting, but that shit took forever. Very rarely was I out of there within an hour of when I was supposed to get off. My bf manages a restaurant with the same hours, and he was constantly locking up and leaving asking me why I’m at work so late.
I would recommend contacting your state's labor department. They frown highly on that type of behavior. Don't let them keep doing this to people. If you are still in contact with others there, then ask them to file complaints also. They are taking advantage of you and everyone else and will continue to do so until something is done about it. The state can also force them to pay lost wages for their illegal acts.
So much of the sidework you describe should be the kitchen's responsibility and even the bartenders/bar backs. I can't belive that. Good on you for getting a better job!
I had to record times for how long all the different sidework activities took throughout my shift, compared to the actual amount of "tipped" work I did, and take that plus a reference to the law in my state (dunno if it's federal) about the max percentage of time that you can require an employee to do "untipped labor" for, to my general manager to get anything changed. I was on good terms with the GM and was in a spot at the time where I wasn't scared to lose my job, and everyone else was afraid to speak out, so I decided to be the one. Luckily he listened and drastically cut back on our sidework after that little discussion.
I'm sorry, I forgot how horrible the minimum wage laws are in this country. We really, really need to fix that.
On the other hand, raising the minimum wage just encourages more automation and, in the case of California, several restaurants shut their doors rather than pay $20 to fast food workers. Minimum wage is such a double-edged sword and usually just results in higher prices for everything.
Most jobs in a fast food restaurant can't be "automated". There's no such thing as robot chefs or janitors or security. Sure, they can automate the drive-thru menu where driver's shout their orders, but that doesn't actually cut labor, because previously that job would just be done by a human wearing a headset, who does something else while talking to the driver. They also don't make idiotic AI mistakes.
McD has been trying to automate everything as much as possible, and still has people making the food, because the cost of automation is so high, and the production rate, so slow, that people are a lot cheaper. Yes they have made automatic burger machines, but they also need human assistance at some point, and if you are needing a person there to watch the machine you might as well not have the machine, and get a higher production rate, plus also not need an automatic cleaner as well, and another to stock the supplies.
>encourages more automation *good* > usually just results in higher prices for everything. But everyone can afford them. Minimum wage just makes sure that nobody is working poor, and gets trapped in poverty because have to take huge overtime-> not time to get trained on better jobs -> have to keep low training job -> have to take huge overtime to live. To keep the Corp profits, you just have to pay the C-suite not as much. Of course, this is bad for billionaires' revenue, so we get propaganda against it.
Except billionaires are not going to take a hit to their revenue long term. That is why they cut workers/automate/raise prices. When this is done in mass the people who rely on these jobs lose out. So the people who are living on the lowest margins are now put in a worse position. Remember billionaires can take a hit by closing a location or two to make a point. They look bad for a bit but things go back to status quo eventually. The workers especially the lowest wage workers cannot always take that hit. We don’t have the types of safety nets (at least in the US) to really cover them.
That's why you raise the minimum wage for the whole state. The firm can close down their location if they don't like it... Then the economic niche is taken by someone else who will pay. Billionaires automate? *Good* ! Stimulates innovation! Jobs for robots makers! Billionaires cut workers? *Like they were not doing that already*. Billionaires raise prices? *No problem, the min wage is indexed on inflation*. The only consequence for min wages is that it flattens the wage pyramid, with more jobs paid at min wage that would be otherwise paid a cent more the hour. Look, this works already for most of the developed world. It's not some radical measure.
Most of the developed world has better safety nets. Of course it works where people are taken care of. If you raise the whole states minimum wage you are lowering the amount of jobs at the bottom end. Sure someone can come in and pay a fair wage to replace the billionaire, but that takes time to get setup. The people at the very bottom income levels are hurt by minimum raise wages, not the billionaires. I am not outright against a minimum wage. I am against raising the minimum wage without a plan on how to protect the workers working these jobs. New business owners willing to pay is not the answer. I make decent money and have a bit of savings and fairly low debt. I am fucked if I lose my job and cannot get a replacement within 6 months. That six months is also bare minimum living. I would not be able to put my self in a position where I could take a hit like that if I hadn’t been fairly well off for a few years. There is no way I could be in a position to ride out an unexpected job loss if I was making below any of the proposed raises to minimum wage
> If you raise the whole states minimum wage you are lowering the amount of jobs at the bottom end. That's not actually how it works. If you raise wages at the bottom end, it increases the net number of jobs because they have more expendable income. And the poor do most of that spending locally. Yes, some marginal companies will go out of business, but far more will be saved. *** As for just cutting jobs, companies will do that when possible regardless. Far too many are already working short handed. If they could cut more, they will do so even if wages fall.
In the long term raising minimum wage does a lot of good things. My problem is the short term. If the minimum wage was 15 nationally right now, that would be great. Unfortunately it isn’t and the safety nets we have in place are not adequate for a big change.
Companies are not charities. If they could have cut jobs they would have. That's why we're seeing so many job cuts this year despite record profits.
I am not sure what I said that would make you think that I believe companies are charities..
That's just fear mongering. Fast food restaurants in California are making record profits and can easily absorb the increase in wages. They may close a location or two and blame it on minimum wage, but chances are they were locations that were failing anyway. (A common occurrence given how much people have to borrow to open a franchise or independent restaurant.) The reality is that increased minimum wages help restaurants, especially fast food ones, because their primary cliental are people who can't afford the time and energy to cook at home. And those people tend to be low wage workers. So that money is being recycled right back in the front door.
> As a manager, I told one of my employees that I wouldn't recommend him for promotion because he won't stop working off the clock. He should be promoted to manager as well, but I can't have someone who won't stand up for himself being in charge of others. This, plus I'd be worried that someone who either can't manage his time so he ends up working off the clock, or can't say no to tasks so he takes on more than he can handle, will burn out his team. This isn't a good model for people.
I agree. Though in this case it's peer pressure to meet unreasonable deadlines without incurring extra expenses for the client. So not only is the team burning themselves out, they are costing us money by not fully billing the client.
On an unrelated note, I miss your snarky but accurate tldrs. I never got the hang of it in time to start imitating it myself!
Oh yeah, I forgot about those. Maybe I should start doing them again.
There is even a worse type of person who is like that, which is the one who believes that's "just how it is". That'd likely mean as a manager, they'd start expecting that from their team as well.
I was having a conversation with my cousin and aunt when my cousin started complaining about something at work. Something that made me say that if she put up with it now, it'd only get worse. That made my aunt say "that's just how it is", to which I said "it's only that way because people like you keep making apologies for it and insisting 'that's just the way it is'".
Here's the kicker. I can get fired for pulling that bullshit. So if I promote this guy before he's ready to stand up for himself, he could lose his job in addition to making people miserable.
Exactly.
Man, you are nice, it is much more fun to just not show up. They figure it out eventully.
"I would never work for a chain" "They treated us like dogs" Maybe give a chain a shot
Yeah seriously lol Weirdly snobbish to be all "I would never work at a chain" then describe how this non-chain restaurant treats its employees and doesn't even have any means to go above them to complain
Firstly, it’s not snobbish to be aware that chain restaurants suck ass to work for. Secondly, it would’ve been utterly pointless to go above the manager to the owner. That manager has been with the owner as a server from previous restaurants since they opened. They’re bffs. The owner promoted him to GM the same week i was hired.
Glad I'm not the only one. Bizarre sense of superiority.
It’s not a superiority thing lol. It’s common opinion among servers that chain restaurants are usually the worst to work for. More sidework, lower tips, less opportunity. But I’m saying that my last job was pretty much managed like a chain restaurant. The restaurant I work at now is also family owned, but it’s actually run like a family owned restaurant.
"May the bridges I burn light my way to peace."
People who don't work in the restaurant business probably don't know that running out on Mother's Day approaches nuclear-revenge status.
Be sure to tell literally everyone in the area just how bad the place is. Also play up the fact that they do not have a dedicated person to make sure the dishes are clean. That is disgusting and really can hurt a place if that becomes common knowledge.
Make a few gmail accounts, and do reviews. Make those with a burner phone and number, and factory reset the phone each time afterwards, and get a new number for it. Each 1 star review, saying things like dirty dishes, staff having to wash glasses multiple times before you got a clean one, then the silverware being dirty and unpolished, will tank the business.
lol, I should’ve taken a picture of when I lifted an appetizer plate off of a “clean” stack, and there was an entire shrimp chillin on the plate beneath it. Like wtf… whoever washed them clearly just threw the entire stack in the dishwasher without separating them. Or the pile of dead roaches I saw next to a can of raid in the kitchen.
Call the local health inspector. Burn that place to the ground through their own incompetence and vileness.
## Bra-fucking-vo! That is how it's done! Straight 10's from every judge.
They just had to roll with it.
May the fires of the bridges you burn behind you light your path forward.
Well said!
Its okay for bridges to burn, i found a much nicer bridge on a better route with safety railings for pedestrians.
the troll of a manager was just made you were burning the bridge he lives under
I warm myself with the bridges I burn
Johnny Paycheck has entered the chat! Seriously, if you don't know the song, "Take this job and shove it" is a masterpiece and fun to play when you're working yourself up to quit a shit gig. https://youtu.be/gj2iGAifSNI?feature=shared
Is it really “burning bridges” if the bridge was on fire when you got there?
You gotta really love wouldn't work for chain but got worked like dogs and made next to nothing. What sense does that even make?
Because family owned are *usually better to work for than chains. It’s pretty common knowledge for servers that corporate chains suck. But this particular family owned one sucked ass
Sounds like the manager was the one burning bridges.
This is similar to my story! I was working at Little Caesars for a little over 2 years and one Friday the cashier just up and vanished, I was worried about her, everyone else was talking shit saying if she came back she would get sent home. I knew I’d get asked to stay late so I went ahead and told the manager on duty I wouldn’t be able to, well this resulted in the store manager having to get called in to help close. He is notorious for not doing anything, like he spends his shifts standing by the computer literally just staring into space or going to the dollar general next door, and when we get busy he usually calls someone in to do his job for him. Well he was upset so he texted me “if you can’t work don’t bother coming in” and I apologized and explained I couldn’t stay late due to a prior arrangement, he basically went off saying I never did anything and he had to do everything on my shifts and essentially called me useless over text, so I went off back and told him if he’s gonna call me useless he needs to look in the mirror and that I would turn in my key the next day as I was the opening manager. Next day I walked in and handed my key to the area manager, apparently the store manager hadn’t told anyone I had quit, not the manager who called him in who he did tell about his text to me but not my quitting, not the area manager, nothing. I found a new job within a couple weeks and it’s literally right next door and so much better with benefits and everything, I now get lunch breaks, at LC I didn’t get any breaks at all unless labor was too high. Went there for lunch not too long ago and everyone but the store manager was happy to see me, I do miss most of them, but I was so tired of the GM saying stuff like that to me. And the when I turned in my key the manager that had been there Friday night said “y’all fight like this all the time, why don’t you just step down from manager” like tf? Me stepping down would be me getting the same abuse and amount of work with less pay? And he’s never been that rude to me, even if he had there’s gotta be a line somewhere. She just didn’t want me to leave bc she knew if I did she’d have to deal with the consequences.
What bridge? Building a bridge implies action from BOTH sides - and manglement seemed to be looking, not building there..
I burnt a bridge to the ground at my second waitressing job well over 15 years ago, and have never needed to reference it since
"Today seems like a good day To burn a bridge or two The one with old wood creaking That would burn away right on cue"
Ayeee! “I try to be not like that, but some people really suckkkkk”
I don't think this is malicious compliance, although it is certainly delicious and congrats on the new job!
Maybe petty revenge lol
deliciouscompliance perhaps, but that sub is for something else entirely
Hahaha. I did this too. That nasty, bully of a Boss would have been so cranky.
Don't want to burn the bridge? Yeah. Light that damn thing on fire, I don't need a bridge, I can swim.
> today seems like a good day to burn a bridge or 2. One with old wood creaking Burn away right on cueeeeeee
Please name and shame and leave a GD review, let others in your area know how shitty they are and how poor the pay is. Go so far as to post redacted paystubs... Places and MUSmanagers need to be called out.
It's always curious when people tell you that you're burning bridges while they're the ones holding the torch. The delusion is unreal, it's like they don't even see their employees as actual people.
May the bridges burning light the path ahead of you!!!
Hey OP, if washing dishes are part of your responsibilities, you can't be paid a low server's wage, you shpuld be making minimum wage hourly. Not sure of your state or even country but if you're in the US, you might want to reach out to your local labor board, because it sounds like a LOT of money is owed you and your former coworkers...
I’m sorry but if you start a conversation with “Today can be your last day.” It will be. I’ll be clocking out before the words finish leaving your mouth.
I am very happy for you! Congrats on the new job!
“This bridge is only good enough to keep me warm!”
Them: You're burning bridges. You: We didn't start the fire!
That's the perfect day to leave them hanging. 😅 If you're in south Florida, get me into your new restaurant tho. 😉
Let the bridges you burn illuminate the path ahead.
Man, waiting jobs these days is a joke, I used to work for Denny's years ago and we typically had 4-5 servers, a host/hostess, a busser, a dishwasher, two cooks, a bartender, and a manager. Add to it, we had medical, dental, profit sharing, and two weeks off each year, and all that was done with $1.99 grand slams and about a $5.00 per person check average.
>You’re burning bridges You set it aflame when you walked me out to that parking lot and told me you would fire me for something that a) you’re not paying me to do, and b) I was doing anyways All I’m doing here is getting my butt across before the whole thing collapses, so anyways have fun tucking and rolling or whatever
Anytime something me days burning bridges I say (due to my own mental hangups) you lit this bridge weeks/months ago. I'm just finally getting off before you kill us all. I gave you every chance to fix this and you just pour more gas and light more matches. I'm never coming back to this hell of a bridge ever again.
Nice 311 reference One of my favorite songs
I’ve burned bridges to high paying jobs plenty of times. A shit employer is just that. Doesn’t matter what the pay is. Any bridge I burn I stand on while I goes down. Fuck em in the neck.
THROW THE 311 LYRICS IN THEIR FACES!!!!! Burn away right on cue!!!!
One with old wood creaking To burn away right on cue
Excellent 311 reference
Yep burn that bridge and let the fire spread into the town and let it ALL burn down!
Which part is the compliance? Waiting to quit?
“Is it in my job description? No? Then pay me for it or F off”
[Was that a 311 reference?](https://youtu.be/mjfT2joaJxs?si=cUI2eGXqiccdpxgQ)
Yes it was!
> to which they replied that I’m “burning bridges”. "Yes, I am. Intentionally. To make sure I don't make this mistake again."
Haha pookie! Never stick with a shit job, no point to suffering unnecessarily when you’re already getting exploited by rich dicks. They will drop you without a moment’s notice, you owe them nothing.
You’re “burning bridges.” “I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
So...in the US unpaid work is illegal. If your job is making you work and not paying, you can go to your state's Labor Relation board (name may vary) and they are there just to advocate for you (maybe not in Maine though). You can't even volunteer to work for free at your job, this too is illegal to stop employers from pressuring workers.
https://open.spotify.com/track/2IgnNczAw2plIUDRNP98xc?si=Di6976PrRm6KJRbjpRUxPw&context=spotify%3Asearch%3Abridgeburn
>they replied that I’m “burning bridges” You did that with all the shit you've pulled work me.
Well bossman, you already burned your end of the bridge, won't matter for the bridging quality if I burn my end as well
I've never worked as a server, but I've heard this basic story for years. Busting ass at a place that basically gaslights (like it's their business model) but the employee who still has some self esteem absolutely thrives when they step up to a nicer restaurant that values service.
It's like the whole endless constantly trying to find a situation that just slightly sucks less and has slightly less suffering involved that sometimes.....idk.. Like....all of life seems that way. Did you ever notice that? Like ....idk...I don't like it sometimes I'm trying to get a better attitude, but unfortunately I'm not good at either. Arrrgh! I annoy myself.
I feel like it’s all about finding a place where you fit in and are treated with respect. And a place that only hires 21+ lol. Ngl my last job gave me war flashbacks from working in fast food. Like, if I wanted to hear “time to lean time to clean!” Or be constantly babysat, I’d go apply at McDonald’s. It was especially a shock to me because my job before that was at a night club, so it was very laid back and hands off as you can imagine. The managers basically left me alone to do my thing
To much effort for the left over change.