|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Miscellaneous |
|
Boltinis -- recent events and concerns. |
Current rating: -1 |
by Liz Perea (by way of Sascha)
Email: perea (nospam) uiuc.edu (unverified!) |
21 Feb 2001
|
I won't be working at Boltini anymore. In fact after the
events of this week...I won't be drinking or eating in Boltini's anymore
either. This email is to inform you all of some unfortunate happenings going
on in our little trendy hangout. If you go in there over the next month or
two, you may begin to notice a number a faces missing from the staff who
have taken care of your entertainment needs in the past. If you don't go in
there much anyway, you might still be interested in hearing about what some
folks might consider unfair labor practices. |
>Dear friends, colleagues, and students,
>
> As many of you already know, since last June I\'ve had the pleasure of
>making a few extra bucks working at a place in town that I have heralded as
>\"the best bar in Champaign.\" Boltini opened in June and myself (and others
>on this list) have enjoyed working there since before we even began serving
>the public. Despite my heavy workload of classes and teaching, I remained
>working at Boltini\'s one or two nights a week for more reasons than the
>small paycheck: I loved the people I worked with, I loved the atmosphere (no
>WWF in the background), I loved being a part of having the place succeed, I
>really, really enjoyed the clientele, and as a grad student it was nice to
>feel like a part of this town a bit - to have a life outside academia.
>Why you might want to read on...
>
> Well...I won\'t be working at Boltini anymore. In fact after the
>events of this week...I won\'t be drinking or eating in Boltini\'s anymore
>either. This email is to inform you all of some unfortunate happenings going
>on in our little trendy hangout. If you go in there over the next month or
>two, you may begin to notice a number a faces missing from the staff who
>have taken care of your entertainment needs in the past. If you don\'t go in
>there much anyway, you might still be interested in hearing about what some
>folks might consider unfair labor practices. If you are the type of person
>that doesn\'t want to support establishments that lack a sense of decency and
>humanity, then you might begin to remember how fun it was to shoot pool at
>Jupiters or listen to great music at the High Dive. I will try to keep this
>short and sweet, accurate to the best of my knowledge and as balanced as
>possible. For the record...this is an \"opinion piece\" which in no way seeks
>to defame anyone -- just a personal letter to my friends, colleagues and
>students. But of course, if any of you choose to share this with your
>friends, colleagues, and students and so on and so on, so be it.
>A little background
> For a while now I\'ve been aware of the fact that there were more
>people hired to work at Boltini than were really needed. Originally, as I
>understood it, that meant that some people might not get a lot of hours, or
>we might have to go to a shift rotating format. Early on, there was a sense
>of family among those who worked there and we were willing to make sure that
>the person next to us wasn\'t hungry for hours.
>
> Over Christmas break there were some changes going on. Our manager
>was called out of town for an extended period and that brought the other two
>owners into far more active positions than they had been before. In
>addition, a new wait staff manager was promoted from the worker ranks to
>take over scheduling and other responsibilities. It seemed as though we
>would all weather the storm together. Unfortunately, it was decided that
>rotating shifts were not going to be sufficient and lay-offs would be
>necessary. Surely this sucked, but it\'s not uncommon. How different
>businesses go about making such difficult decisions varies. I week ago I
>became concerned about the employee morale and spoke to one of the owners
>about it in a private meeting.
>The point of this email
> To bring this to a quick and poignant close , I was fired two
>days ago without warning and under dubious circumstances. The owners and
>wait staff manager had known about this for a couple weeks and yet no one
>informed me. Even as I sat across from one of the owners and talked about
>possible lay-offs and employee morale, though he knew then that they had
>decided to just stop scheduling me, he lacked the integrity and the guts to
>speak up. The non-scheduling strategy didn\'t work due to good friends who
>gave me their shifts. Thus I forced them to speak up and fire me. This
>notification came in the form of a phone call from the new wait staff
>manager - not even a face-to-face discussion. She played ignorant as to many
>of the details and claimed it was an owner decision. When I spoke to an
>owner\'s wife I was told that it was the wait staff manager\'s decision and
>that I should speak to her in person. This run around lead to the best
>theatrical performance I have ever seen in a work place environment. She
>actually had me fooled into thinking that her hands were tied and that she
>felt terrible about what happened. She was quite deceptive. She suggested I
>speak to the other owner and so I did. Being a communication scholar I made
>the mistake of thinking that respectful dialogue was an option. Instead I
>had the joy of experiencing the rudest, hostile, most insulting and
>unprofessional conversation I\'ve ever had with an employer. During this
>appalling, unwarranted, egotistical demonstration of power, I learned that in addition to two counts of being late for work (one was a scheduling misunderstanding I was actually in class at the time, and another was an intentional tardiness of a few minutes. Too many times I d been standing out in the 20 or 30 degree wind chills waiting to get in because the person with the key was late.) and some mysterious fellow worker who had supposedly requested to not work with me (as far as I know this was a ruse and a bold face lie of diversion) a staff manager had (based upon my
>experience - falsely) accused me of \"lipping off. I believe this would have been the new staff manager who must not have appreciated the fact that I respectfully cut a conversation short (regarding the scheduling misunderstanding) so as not to continue to be berated like a child. Fragile,
>self-contrived egos can be dangerous work companions. Well, I\'m sure others
>will follow. In fact, one \"disappearance\" preceded me - a wonderfully
>committed undergrad who unfortunately had a slight, petty, (yet respectful)
>disagreement with staff manager. We haven\'t seen him since.
>What you can do - if you so choose
> While I realize that this is a small town and many workers are
>fearful of \"making waves,\" I\'d like to make some (I have no fear of never
>being able to pour a beer in this town again and I sincerely doubt that the
>owners have much affiliation with the hiring committees of academic
>departments across this nation) and I invite you all to join me. This is a
>tenuous time at Boltini, many of the staff appear to be unhappy with the
>style of management that has emerged and business appears to have slowed
>down - a great time to voice complaints or withhold patronage. Personally,
>I\'d love to see people of integrity take over this location and create a
>fair environment for people to work in. Never know who might be waiting in
>the wings to do just that.
> And so it seems I have a choice. I can heed the advice of my
>previous employer and \"handle this well, so that he will give me a good
>recommendation and tell people that I was laid off instead of fired\" or I
>can pass the word of his arrogant controlling offers of benevolence and
>appalling behavior. Hmmm...what to do...
> In the future, if any of you happen to go into Boltini and order a
>couple rounds of waters, be sure to tip the wait staff and bartenders well.
>They are good people. Although, you might think twice if your waitperson is
>a really short gal with curly dark hair.
>In commitment to humanitarian business practices and worker solidarity,
>
>Liz Perea
>
>My caring and benevolent previous employer also pointed out to me that I am
>a \"smart woman who knows how to read\" (When discussing the scheduling misunderstanding), I\'m so glad he pointed that
>out...he\'s right, I am a smart woman and I can read. I can also draft a
>pretty fine letter. :)
|
