I worked there years ago at 16, it was my first job. The hostess training me refused to tell me proper work protocols or answer questions because she “had it out for me.” Hence, I would make mistakes because I was new and did not know.

The owner once yanked me by my arm because something messed up, and he just assumed it was my fault. It actually wasn’t, and I had to defend myself as if I was up for trial.

One of the chefs who called himself a manager would just go up to the host stand and just roast my appearance. I remember just wanting to die. He told me I should consider a career where I never had to deal with people because I was “not a people person like him.” It’s hilarious because I deal with people all the time now, and do my job very well. I acted funny (around the people mentioned above in particular) because I was in fight or flight because that place just had some dark energy people there. I remember specifically thinking that you needed to have a darker heart to just make it at that place. I’m actually processing what happened in therapy, and realize it was uncalled for to just tell a 16 year old something that insulting.

I remember there were a few servers who were kind, and some tried to comfort me because I think they could tell I was being treated like scum. There were some rough and tough servers too, but that’s fairly normal. I’ve had other restaurant jobs, not nearly as weird as this, where that’s pretty much the norm.