She Was Fast-Tracked for the Shift Supervisor Promotion—Then Management Hired a Shiny New Favorite and Transferred All Her High-Tip Shifts
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If you work hard for a company, you should be able to be treated well and get promotions and other things that are promised.
What would you do if you had been on track for a great promotion, but then a new employee was hired, and the managers put her on the fast track to promotion?
That is what happened to the young woman in this story, and while she is infuriated at what is happening, she doesn’t know how she can push back without getting fired.
Read through the full story below and see if you have any advice.
I keep getting screwed over at work
I (24f) work at a restaurant.
She is clearly doing a great job.
I started as a server a year and a half ago, now I work serving, line cook, to go specialist, certified trainer, and service professional.
Was told I could be a backup culinary professional since I know almost all of the back of house job codes.
There is nothing wrong with her showing some initiative.
Then another server who has only been here a few months (let’s call her Rachel) starts telling me she wants to be like me. Grabbing my shoulders and getting the attention of managers to say things like “I wanna follow in her footsteps!” (only after she found out about the pay, of course).
So, she starts working on the line and 2 days later starts telling me how they wanna make her culinary professional before I’ve even become the backup.
The manager seems to really like her.
I brought it the the attention of a manager who said that was ridiculous and she’d talk to the GM, but then days later I spoke to the GM and he confirmed.
He told me it helps that she’s bilingual and that he “really likes her drive”. I made a joke, “What, service professional isn’t enough, you need culinary professional too?” Yeah brother, I’m broke?
This really doesn’t seem fair.
Mind you, most of the kitchen staff knows enough English to get by (and vice versa), but there’s so many people available to translate that I don’t think it warrants giving an 18 year old little girl $24/hr to do so every once in a while.
Especially when she’s still learning the ropes. She’s constantly making mistakes and I don’t blame her because she’s new. But that’s precisely why it’s insane to me that she’d get those culinary professional hours and not me.
What? She makes a different amount depending on what she is doing?
The other day, GM asks me to come in as service professional because it was one of our newest managers first day and he needed the extra help. GM says rachel will cover my shift.
Then, come to find out she doesn’t wanna close and wants to leave early (starts asking to go home 2 hours into what’s supposed to be a closing shift).
They let her go home as well as one of the other line cooks who had been there since opening. And then they come to me and say they need me to clock out of $24/hr and clock in as line cook ($19/hr) to close.
They don’t respect her here. It might be time to find a new job.
I begrudgingly agree. So, instead of having the typical 3 line closers, they go down to 1, enlist me for help, and I’m stuck there until 1am.
I talked to the manager and he apologized for the miscommunication but said Rachel did only pick up the shift on the condition that she wouldn’t be closing.
The managers are playing favorites, for sure.
So, instead of saying sorry Rachel, there’s been some miscommunication, we’re gonna let the opener go home instead. (2 closers isn’t unheard of on slow weekdays)
But no. He didn’t go back on his word with her. He only does that with me. Like today when I agreed to come in early (8am) to help unload the truck (grueling work, I have no upper body strength).
Is this even legal?
Rachel also came in and volunteers for door duty, which means she sits holding the door open while someone half her size has to try lugging everything inside.
And then she also took door duty for the trash run, which consisted of me breaking down ALL the boxes. And if I’d known I actually WAS closing, despite triple checking before accepting the shift that I would be able to leave early, maybe then I would have fought harder for door duty! Or taken a break!
I went 14+ hours with no break. No food all day. Running on 4 hours of sleep on account of another nightmare shift I had just the night before.
Talking professionally to the managers is a good idea.
Am I crazy? Why do they make exceptions and compromises for everyone except me? Rachel gets praised for her drive, and here I am, burnt out, having panic attacks at work, with what as my reward? An apology? Right.
I close again tomorrow and I want to say something to the managers because I am so tired. How do I go about acknowledging my rage without losing my job?
Honestly, it is unlikely that anything will change here. She should do her best, but also look for another job at the same time.
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Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.
This person has experienced the same type of thing.
Get that resume updated.
There are a lot of titles at this restaurant.
Management will treat you the way you allow them to, though.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a delivery driver who tried warning his boss the truck needed new brakes and tires, only to find his truck sidelined during their busiest season.
This commenter says she is acting like a doormat.
She will continue to be treated poorly as long as she allows it. She needs to tell her manager that she won’t be picking up shifts or covering for people if they keep treating her like this, but it won’t be easy.
Of course, she should also be looking for a new job.
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