Update: I posted an altered version of this at Bullett as well.
I was watching Kitchen Nightmares last night, which, oof on me, I know, but it was at a restaurant set in Boston, and fine, I am a big fan of Gordon Ramsey's awful TV shows. Predictably, the drama of the episode, set at Galleria 33 in the North End, came from a staff that didn't care about their job. In this case that happened to trickle downward from the dipshit owners who have no idea what they're doing, and don't seem to care at all. But a common refrain at the problematic restaurants on that show is owners who just can't figure out why their employees don't care as much as they do.
and saying "Weird how many restaurants are bad. You'd think an industry that pays its ESL staff $7/hr to cook the food and servers $2/hr to present it would have higher standards across the board," and it seemed to strike a chord among my many friends and colleagues in the industry. Go read the thread , there are some interesting reactions and points that others have made, but it comes down to this: if you want people to invest themselves in the business that you own, maybe you shouldn't do everything you can to pay them the bare minimum required by law?
In Massachusetts the wage for servers is something like $2.50/hr. OK, but don't they make that up the difference in tips? you might ask. Most of the time, yes, but it's by no means a given. It's entirely possible for a server to show up for work, do manual labor for a couple hours before the place opens, stand around all night waiting for people to come in, then leave with nothing. It's basically like the owners are saying "Here's the deal: you work as a janitor for 1-2 hours at the beginning and end of your shift for $2.50 an hour, and we'll let you take a gamble on possibly making like $15-20 an hour in between." That's before we get to the dishwashers and line cooks making under $10 an hour to break their balls all day before taking the bus to another job to the do the same thing on a later shift.
As if to accentuate my point, leading into today's hurricane situation in the northeast, in which nearly everything in the city of Boston is closed, there are plenty of restaurants who have decided to open their doors (like these heroes at Boloco).
Public transportation is suspended, by the way. We are literally in a state of emergency.
Public transportation is suspended, by the way. We are literally in a state of emergency.
, saying "Unless you're a diehard owner willing to keep your business open by actually standing inside the place and working today/tonight, I don't want to hear that you're open. I'm sure your employees are thrilled and not at all inconvenienced/scared of losing their jobs."
That speaks to my larger point about the way restaurant industry workers are treated by their employers. Huge state-wide emergency? Disaster area? Sounds scary, but you better find a way to get all the way across town from wherever you live (trust me, the back of the house people live far) just in case some asshole who lives nearby is stupid enough to come in and pay us for food. No, it won't be busy, and you'll probably lose money taking a cab here back and forth, if you can even get one, but we certainly wouldn't want to lose out on a day's worth of receipts, just in case.
We talk about small businesses all the time in election seasons like this, as if opening a business makes you some sort of hero, providing work to people who need it. Fuck a small business. A small business is just a hypothetical future big villainous business only successful enough at this point to exploit the labor of like 3-9 people.
Speaking of which, here is a list of restaurants, compiled by Eater Boston, who don't care about the well-being of their employees. I'm sure many of them gave workers the option not to come in, and more have provided plenty of leeway, but if this storm is going to be anything like they're telling us it is, I think a better compromise might have been to say "Stay the fuck home, it doesn't matter. None of this matters."
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9 comments:
star a restaurant and pay everyone 20 dollars an hour and close when it rains. see how long you stay in business, hippy.
"When it rains." It's a state wide emergency. Public transport is closed. Power is out for hundreds of thousands.
"No, we stay open because we employ people on an hourly basis who rely on Boloco being open to pay their bills and care for their families. When we close, they make no money," he said."
RE: Eater's list
That'd alot of restaurants to shun from now on, wouldn't it? Including alot loved by the hipster doofuscenti.
I didn't actually read the list.
As always, it's tough to make generalizations or pass judgement without knowing individual circumstances and all of the details and considerations that went into a decision. Hotel bars/restaurants for example, may have been required to be open by contract to provide their (stranded?) guests with meals. I'm not saying owners of hotel bars/restaurants shouldn't care or shouldn't make special accomodations (cab fare, bonus, etc.) in circumstances like yesterday, and also the owners should be there themselves if/when they can during special circumstances to set a great example. Each restaurant had a special set of circumstances to deal with yesterday, and none of us knows all of the detail.
Another example, (the antithesis of the hotel bar example) lf I owned a small neighborhood restaurant, I probably would have been at the restaurant yesterday keeping an eye on things, protecting the property, taking in deliveries, mail, etc., and if I had any employees who wanted to work, rather than be home alone, we probably would have opened, even in a limited way. Sometimes small, neighborhood restaurants (w/generators) can act as a place of refuge/community where folks can gather, especially if they lose power in their homes. Again, every restaurant on the Eater list had lots go into their individual decision. Like every business, there are lots of great people at the helm, and unfortunately, a few callous douchebags. Sorry for rambling.
As an employee of restaurants as a tipped employee making a whopping $2.63/hr for over 10 years there were many many storms where the restaurant was open and I did not make any $ (the hourly wage gets taken in taxes so if you don't make tips you don't leave with anything at all). The bartenders did great during these storms while people sat & got drunk during the storm. There was never an option by an employer of not coming into work and if the T isn't running they didn't care how you got there or got home at 2 a.m. I have been threatened by employers of restaurants when I have had to call out due to illness (pneumonia) so I doubt they are offering their employees the option of staying home.
During a State of Emergency the restaurants that are not part of a hotel should be closed.
I wonder the same thing with grocery store chains such as Whole Foods that stay open during storms so someone can get that piece of brie...makes perfect sense to make employees come in and run all that overhead so you can sell a few things....
Best story yesterday was a door that blew off at a Staples in Danvers but the store remained open for business. Who the heck needed anything in the office supply category that badly???
IMHO - YMMV
great comment, thanks,
Meg- congressman Ron Paul has a "tax free tips" bill you may have heard about it.
Also, Luke isn't concerned about waitstaff he just hates capitalism and likes telling people what to do.
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