Last night had a table walk out so had to pay the tab.
What? Let me get this straight - if a table sneaks out without paying while you're in the kitchen putting in/picking up an order, they expect YOU to pay for it? That doesn't sound right - is it even legal? That would be like saying that a retail employee is responsible for paying for any items shoplifted. My son is working as a cashier in a grocery store and he had someone run out with a small bag of expensive seafood after he rang them up. They're specifically trained not to give chase (he's a fit 6"1" and it was a petite woman so no question that he could have caught her). He called out after her but he's not allowed to leave his cash. He didn't have to pay for the order (I'd have coached him on how to fight it if they'd asked him to). When a teller in a bank is robbed (even without a weapon being shown) s/he is not responsible for paying the money back.
I don't see how they get the right to make a server personally responsible for the criminal actions of a customer that the restaurant admitted. I understand that there's a loss, but a business owner has insurance and is the one who should be bearing the risk of theft - not an hourly paid employee.
It makes me crazy when businesses take advantage of employees this way. I was working retail (for minimum wage) in university and the clothing store I was working for wanted me to arrive 15 minutes early to vacuum and clean and then stay an extra 15 minutes after my shift to close up. I had no problem with that, except that they told me that I wasn't allowed to punch in for that time since I only get paid for my shift itself. I punched in anyway, and when the manager told me that I couldn't I pointed out that she was breaking the Labour Code. She tried to swish that off, so I brought in a copy of it (I minored in Business Law) to show her and told her in no uncertain terms that if the practice continued that I was going to call the Labour Board and report them on behalf of all of the employees who worked there. At a minimum, that would result in retroactive back pay if not fines and penalties. I also pointed out that terminating someone for exercising their rights under the law is seen as a BFD by Labour Board types. She couldn't stand me after that, but I kept my job and hours got paid for the time I worked from then on. Thankfully this happened just a few months before I graduated and found full-time work in my career, so I wasn't there long.
I don't know anything about labour law in the U.S., but it might be worth checking out.
Enough of my own pity party. I'll stop being such a debby downer... Wore my beloved Restrict Friday and Snapdragon yesterday. I'm loving how this challenge is bringing out some old favorites as well as recent ones.
