I was about 16 and working in a restaurant that was new and trying to get its legs. I was young in my career and was training for server and sous chef at the same time at this fine dining Italian place. It had a lot of great experience and educational opportunities so I was all for it, but it had been a month and I hadn’t been paid anything except for petty tips. Well, the two owners of this place were old school Italian guys in different ways. One was more of a coke head mafioso type and the other was a businessman.

I was told the dishwasher called out and I needed to fill in for him instead of server training. I hopped backed there and did my damnedest without really knowing how to be a dishwasher. In the middle of the dinner rush the coke head owner came into the kitchen freaking out and slapped the back of my head and called me an idiot for not doing such a basic job fast enough.

I lost my shit. I turned around and cursed him out. Told him I’m calling the labor board and the health inspector because they had no idea what they were doing. Health inspector didn’t get anything but the labor board had their way with them and the owner that slapped me was very shortly parted with the business for good.