Before You Complain to the Restaurant Manager About Your Server, Consider These Consequences
It might feel good in the moment, but here's what actually happens to the human being you're getting in trouble.
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No matter what job you have, if you do something that isn’t workplace protocol or etiquette, there will usually be some type of repercussion. Since the majority of my employment history revolves around food service, I only know what happens when you get in trouble at a restaurant, but every job has its reprimands.
What I suspect is different in restaurants than in most other places is that servers can actually lose money when being disciplined and it’s just one more unjust matter in the world of working in food service. It isn’t uncommon for a restaurant employer to penalize a server by taking away shifts from them. In other words, a manager can delete a server’s shifts from the schedule and effectively take money out of their pockets.
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Are customer service jobs the only ones where employees face retaliation by way of income? If I worked in a cubicle doing data input and I treated a colleague with disrespect, would I be docked three days of pay or would I just be sent to human resources where it would go down on my permanent record?
"Are customer service jobs the only ones where employees face retaliation by way of income?"
Darron Cardosa
Use your words, not my income
Servers often have so little to rely on at their jobs, that managers and restaurant owners know the quickest way to cut them to the quick is to go after their tips. I once worked for a man who was notoriously bad at communication and confrontation. If one of his employees wasn’t doing what he thought they should be doing, instead of talking to them, he would reduce their shifts in the hopes they would eventually quit. I saw it again and again. He didn’t like a particular bartender who often had his friends sitting at the bar. The bartender wasn’t giving away free drinks or anything, but his friends would take up valuable bar space and not order as much as the owner would have liked.
After a few weeks of this, he began to reduce the bartender’s shifts so he’d make less money. Eventually, the bartender could no longer afford to work there and put in his notice. The bigger issue here is that the owner couldn’t just use his big-boy words to express what he wanted. The underlying issue is that an owner or manager can directly impact how much a restaurant employee makes.
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Actions have consequences
I was once suspended for three days, having my shifts and income ripped away from me, all because my manager didn’t like how I reacted to a customer who left me a single penny as a tip. I understood that tips were optional and there was no guarantee that my good service would be rewarded with one. I also understood that the customer made a conscious decision to leave a solitary cent as if to prove to me she did not abide by the social contract of tipping in restaurants.
"Customers can treat us however they want with little retaliation, but employees are expected to smile and take it."
Darron Cardosa
Working in customer service is a one-way street. Customers can treat us however they want with little retaliation, but employees are expected to smile and take it. I turned that one-way street into a five-lane highway and decided to react. My manager didn’t approve of me following this woman out to 49th Street and throwing the penny at her, hence my deleted shifts. The lack of income that weekend taught me a valuable lesson to vent my frustrations online instead of the streets of midtown Manhattan.
This hits the wallet
Nobody wants to get in trouble at work, but more than that, nobody wants to lose money. Too many times a customer complaint or a bad review about a server can result in a loss of shifts, smaller sections, or shorter hours. It’s not fair, but it happens all the time. When a professional athlete breaks a rule they can be fined, taking a direct hit to the pocketbook. A $15,000 fine to someone who makes $60 million over four years might not affect them much, but when a server loses a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shift because their boss wants to penalize them, it can take weeks to make up that income.
Bottom line: Think about that if you complain and hope your server gets in trouble. And if you are a server, don’t throw pennies at customers unless you’re prepared to face the consequences.
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