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Note: The following is an article submitted to us by a local restaurant worker and is unedited. Have a story you’d like to submit to us? The Working People’s Press aims to be a voice for workers in Charlotte, and we encourage you to get involved and send in your own experiences to our email: WorkingPeopleCLT@proton.me

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I am a server at a restaurant located in Charlotte’s Uptown, near offices where highly-paid executives go for lunch and nights out. What motivated me to stay was the first manager I met; but sadly, after his departure, I was soon met with a variety of disappointments. 

There seem to be other employees who wanted to fill in the missing management position, but that only led to confusion as one person after another wanted to boss other people around; giving confusion and agitation when it came to my everyday work. Having to work around the failure of having an actual leader in the restaurant, I was pretty much left to avoiding interactions with many stiff-necked employees that made the day more difficult than needed. 

The culture of the restaurant is typical of any industry, where coworkers that could otherwise support each other have problems with each other. Many suck up to the management despite being paid the same pithy wage of $2.15 an hour. 

Though every day isn’t a complete headache, I can’t help but to see some faults in the restaurant that make things as a server irritating. Managers are constantly unvigilant on the quantities of menu items in stock. Every day, there is a long list of menu items which are unavailable; it seems almost comical that our biggest sellers are unavailable due to our managers not keeping track of which items are running low. There is a sense that small items are unfortunately out of stock due to unavailability of the resources, but it’s mainly due to the lack of awareness on the manager’s end of having ingredients in our kitchen stocked. 

Often these stocking issues result in customers placing orders only for servers to be informed by kitchen and bar staff that we do not have those items in stock. One employee had to offer a free small plate because we were out not only the original dish they ordered, but the alternative menu item they ordered. Many times we are out of a lot of our menu, resulting in unhappy customers. Servers in North Carolina restaurants are only paid a wage of $2.15, meaning the ownership sub-contracts the responsibility of paying a living wage to servers out to its guests through tips. 

Shortages of food items would probably be a smaller problem in my view, but it’s not as nearly as large a problem as the lack of dishes, to-go containers, and even small utensils such as spoons and napkins in the restaurant. 

This is a great issue mainly stemming from the managers cutting corners and unwillingness to provide the restaurant with the basic supplies it needs to run efficiently. The head manager or owner whom I have made my complaints to has an uncaring attitude when addressing these issues. For example, we have a receipt printer which constantly shorts out. It is one of only two printers in the entire restaurant. When I asked why doesn’t she just purchase a new printer to avoid these issues, my remarks seemed to go over her head in a way that’s commonly seen as impolite and uncaring. 

I suspect that management is also cutting corners by having some back of house employees work on dishes while simultaneously working in the prep kitchen. Managers often hurry these employees in terrible Spanish to work on “soup” while servers also need new, clean dishes to set the tables for guests. If tables aren’t set, management also nags at servers for not having the tables in their sections clean and ready for new guests. 

Management also pushes employees to use tablets to put orders into the POS system, though they frequently shut down, freeze, or glitch. The POS system we use hasn’t been updated since 2022. Even when working properly, there are not enough tablets for all servers to each have one to input orders. Management complains that servers forget to put orders in, and thus lose money because we aren’t charging for those items, but refuse to make sure the infrastructure is in place to make sure those orders get input into the POS in the first place. 

Our general manager constantly acts like we’re on equal footing, where if we do our jobs well (signing people up for our loyalty program, getting good reviews on Google, pushing alcohol on guests), then the restaurant will reward us with high pay. However, this could not be further from the truth. The restaurant simply acts as a pimp facilitating our access to customers; and if we’re lucky, they’re acclimated to American tipping culture. However, even my best coworkers, who provide exceptional service and knowledge of the menu, get stiffed. The restaurant gets exponentially more benefit out of having us act as individual salespeople, cooks, preppers, and dishwashers for laughable pay, than we get just for being there. 

Like in many restaurants, the managers’ interests are directly opposed to the servers, prep and back of house, because they get bonuses based on how much they reduce costs on materials, like ingredients, cookware, and paper and plastic products. The managers have also yelled at staff about how they get fined if we start closing before official closing time, even though that has nothing to do with staff’s wages. In reality, the restaurant offers nothing of benefit to the employees, but managers crack down on mistaken orders, when they’re responsible for poor track of inventory. 

Many employees seem to get very little hours and it’s claimed due to performance, but in reality it is only favoritism being upheld. Other employees get 40 hours a week while others get roughly 10. My first two checks were late by several days, which only gave suspicion to where our money flows behind these walls. 

This restaurant has two locations in Charlotte and has two wage complaints at the NC Department of Labor. They have been “late” on pay for multiple employees, another example of their lax management. Multiple employees have worked at the restaurant for at least a month before receiving their first paycheck. One employee was simply paid through a personal check by the boss, not through the company. Other employees have reported being shorted on their checks. It is especially concerning that the back of house is staffed almost entirely by immigrants, many of whom do not speak English fluently. Employees from both front and back of house have reported being shorted on their checks, but they only know because they keep track of their hour slips from clocking in and out. 

The common belief that many small restaurants in Charlotte are run by unethical owners that rob their employee wages may become a bigger belief for myself after being employed here at the uptown ramen bar location. I solely warn job seeking individuals to be aware when entering the workforce such as these and give my greatest hopes that you don’t get taken advantage of by trying to earn a livable income.

Nothing that happens in this restaurant is unique. This is simply how business is done. Many vouch for the capitalists, saying “if you think about it from the owner’s perspective, it makes sense.” But Charlotte is full of restaurants staffed by people who are the sole breadwinner in their families, needing to pay for transportation, school supplies, food, and rent, which are all increasingly unaffordable. Something as simple as a group confrontation or letter with management, or group walkout in solidarity with coworkers, would give workers leverage for bosses to understand that without them, they are penniless.