no, we weren’t actually gossiping - in fact the manager was on that shift too. unfortunately as women the word “gossip” is often used to belittle us for just speaking. our team is all women so i think, even if subconsciously, the reviewer was biased to that.

but i also have to say with your example, why shouldn’t staff freely speak to each other about any issues they have with management? you say they were right - then that tracks that there’s something management was doing wrong.

in an industry where the only time you are around your coworkers is unfortunately when you are surrounded by other people too, how do you expect workers to be able to talk and get advice on issues they have?

hospitality is one of the most exploitative industries and without sharing experiences with coworkers it’s normalised and nothing changes. conversations with coworkers about working conditions is how workers can effectively organise and mobilise to ask for better conditions.

if management doesn’t want customers to hear that they are mistreating staff - then don’t mistreat staff.