Full on RANT. Sexual harassment in the work place.

jena.n.ross · January 2011

Okay, we've been over this before, I'm a waitress at a nation wide corporate restaurant. It's all about the dollar, and repeat business. So it doesn't matter if the customer is wrong, a jerk, etc, it's all about making sure they come back.

And we've got some "characters" who come in all the time, and get away with crap they shouldn't. We have two different nasty older (one is early 50s, the other probably late 60s) men that come in all the time and basically molest the staff. We're talking a front of house staff of mostly 18-24 year old girls. And they both get away with it, the managers just don't want to deal with it. "Hug" and kiss on the girls. One girl got licked on the face by some random old man.

Fast forward to this weekend. One of the girls had her ass grabbed by a customer, we're talking, full hand grab. She turned around and basically said do not do that again. Maybe ten minutes later, he did it again. She freaked, and rightfully so. What does management do??? Kick the guy out, right? No, they just transfer the table to another server.

This is completely unacceptable! Rather than protect their staff, they expose another female server to a pervert. And I overhead the manager I hate telling someone the girl "over reacted." Excuse me, but a complete stranger grabbing me, not once, but twice... they're damned lucky it didn't happen to me. I eat crap there. I go in, make my money, and come home. Feb 7th, I'll be there 4 years. And I eat crap and sell myself to every table I talk to. It's a means to an end while I get my degree. But enough bad stuff has happened to me, that they are super lucky it wasn't me. I've had my boob rubbed, my hair pulled, been spoken nasty to, been spoken to one of my male coworkers nasty (dirty) about, and been practically groped by the aforementioned early 50s guy. He came up behind me while I was waiting at the bar for my drinks about a month ago and put him arms around me and kissed my neck. UGH. I told the little assistant floor manager, but she didn't want to deal with him. She weighs probably 100 lbs, and is only mid 20s.

I made up my mind then that if ANYTHING happens to me again, I'm going to absolutely freak out on management. So they're lucky it wasn't me with the ass grabber. Because they would remove him from the building, or I would bring the police into the building, and they could enjoy the negative publicity.

I cannot believe they won't do anything when this stuff happens. It makes me sick.

And, speaking of sick - the aforementioned late 60s guy paid in piss soaked cash last week, and the manager told the girl to rinse it off and deal with it.

ead1975 · January 2011

That's completely ridiculous. You should document every single thing they ignore and file a group complaint with the regional corporate office. Your managers report to someone, and you have every right to expect them to back you up when customers can't behave themselves, almighty dollar or not. And if any of you have an in with someone who happens to have access to some law firm letterhead, even better.

Trust me, the last thing these chain restaurants want is the threat of a law suit.

Dyork · January 2011

ead1975:
That's completely ridiculous. You should document every single thing they ignore and file a group complaint with the regional corporate office. Your managers report to someone, and you have every right to expect them to back you up when customers can't behave themselves, almighty dollar or not. And if any of you have an in with someone who happens to have access to some law firm letterhead, even better.
Trust me, the last thing these chain restaurants want is the threat of a law suit.

THIS!!!

That really blows. Frankly, I'd skip right over the management and file a complaint with HR. It's one thing if the management does something about situations like that, but if they completely ignore it then something should really be done about it...or them.

hz80408 · January 2011

Totally agree with the other PPs. If it's a national chain, then they ought to have higher up, even corporate HR staff that you can contact. And if nothing else, I'd honestly consider documenting this all and conglomerating (sp) with the others who have been harassed and filing a lawsuit. Then you could quit working and still be able to afford your lifestyle.

msmerymac · January 2011

Definitely document and relay to corporate PR. If you ever went off on the managers for not protecting you and got fired, you'd have a wonderful basis for a law suit.

pondering_gal · January 2011

I've had issues before where I just try to ignore the situation, but that's also because I'm behind a counter where they can't grab me (though once I got as ass smack).

I'm so sorry you have managers that don't stick up for you and other women constantly being harrassed. I agree with everyone else, document any future incidents and do what you gotta do to protect yourself!

maheard · January 2011

Dyork:
ead1975:
That's completely ridiculous. You should document every single thing they ignore and file a group complaint with the regional corporate office. Your managers report to someone, and you have every right to expect them to back you up when customers can't behave themselves, almighty dollar or not. And if any of you have an in with someone who happens to have access to some law firm letterhead, even better.
Trust me, the last thing these chain restaurants want is the threat of a law suit.

THIS!!!
That really blows. Frankly, I'd skip right over the management and file a complaint with HR. It's one thing if the management does something about situations like that, but if they completely ignore it then something should really be done about it...or them.

All of this! What is happening is completely unacceptable and your managers should be fired. No one should ever get groped unless they ok it.

ddumire · January 2011

Holy Crap! What kind of restaurant is this? Staff should not be subjected to this, and who acts like this anyway?

Full on RANT. Sexual harassment in the work place.

Re: Full on RANT. Sexual harassment in the work place.

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