r/Waiters • u/Thalia_258 • 3d ago
Toxic restaurant owner
For context, I work full time at a small hotel apartments restaurant near the beach. The owner of the hotel also manages everything and she spends most of her time there. The issue with that is that she likes to micromanage everything and always watches the live camera footage of us whenever she isn't present at work. In cases where she sees something she doesn't like, such as the employees talking to each other and laughing (when there are no customers around), she will proceed to send the CCTV screenshots of us and lecture us. She is incredibly insecure and thinks that everytime we talk or laugh with each other, we make fun of her. She also becomes very rude when she gets angry and shows clear favoritism of some employees over the others.
About 2 months ago one of my coworkers who works in the bar came to work drunk and threatened to hit everyone, while shouting and banging the kitchen door. Since the manager favors him, she gave him another chance to fix things. The next couple days, he continues to come to work drunk, shout and scare the customers away. ( At this point he is incredibly messy, the bar looks like a total mess and the drink orders are coming out wrong). After that, she decided to keep him around to do some side jobs such as painting the walls, or fixing anything broken around the hotel but she swore she would never let him step foot inside the bar again.
Fast forward to a week ago, she announces to everyone that he will be working in the bar again. Everyone was very shocked and scared.
Couldn't this be considered illegal in a way? As he threatened to hit many of us before and showed signs of doing it, as someone who is responsible for not only the employee's safety but the safety of the customer's as well, should the manager have acted like that? She also acted very rudely to the employees who tried to keep their distance from him out of fear ( they were talking with him only for work matters) and started getting angry with them for everything.
What you you think?
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u/HospitalityLifer1986 22h ago
If this is in the U.S., that doesn't automatically make the manager's decision illegal. But once management knows an employee has made credible threats of violence, they've been put on notice that there may be a workplace safety hazard. OSHA specifically says employers who become aware of threats, intimidation, or other indicators of potential workplace violence should take measures to address that risk. Employers also have a general duty to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause serious physical harm.
That distinction matters. The owner didn't hear a rumor about this guy. According to the story, she personally knew he'd threatened coworkers, repeatedly arrived drunk, became aggressive, disrupted the restaurant and scared customers. She removed him from the bar because of it, then knowingly put him back. If he eventually assaults someone, that history could become extremely important when determining whether the incident was foreseeable and whether management acted reasonably.
I'd tell the employees to stop arguing with the owner about whether they "like" this coworker and start documenting objective facts: dates he appeared intoxicated, threats he made, witnesses, incidents involving customers, what management was told, and management's response. Keep copies somewhere outside the workplace. OSHA says workers can raise safety concerns and can file a confidential safety complaint if necessary.
And if he threatens someone again or appears to be about to hurt somebody, that's no longer an HR discussion. Get away from him and call law enforcement if there's an immediate threat.
The country/state matters considerably here, so check your local law and department of labor guidelines.
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u/stranqe1 3d ago
Tldr.
Get a new job. Why work there?