Question: I’m 15 years old and have a job at a local pub. I work in the kitchen doing washing up, cleaning, preparing (c?
I’m 15 years old and have a job at a local pub. I work in the kitchen doing washing up, cleaning, preparing (chopping, pealing and plating food) and serving customers. I have been doing the job for around 2 months now. I am on £4.50 an hour which I thought was quite reasonable. However the chef is horrible. He is constantly taking the p*ss out of me and saying how bored he is with my company. On top of this, he is really rude and nasty to me. For example today he asked my to get him two plates, which i swiftly got. When i bought them to him he said “For f*ck sake you f*cking idiot, they aren’t the right f*cking plates, you know what plates to get. F*ck me.” The thing that really annoys me is that i ALWAYS work my ass off and i get absolutely no respect whatsoever. He treats me like a peice of crap on the bottom of his shoe. I just felt like crying after that shift. However, I cannot aprroach the manager either as she gives no thought at all to her employees. I am constantly being underpaid. In one instance she failed to pay me for a whole day of work due to her “not beleiving” me in that I have not been payed. I now have took the measure of writing all my hours and shifts in a diary to provide some evidence of hours I have worked. I know if I talk to the manager she wouldn’t give a damn. I have searched my whole town for another job for the holidays without any luck. What should I do? This “chef” needs a punch in the face if you ask me.

Answer:

Answer by Orla
I’m 17 and work in a restaurant as a waitress. I can sympathise about horrible chefs! They think the can treat and speak to everyone like sh*t because they’re the ‘boss’ of the kitchen. The manager sounds pretty rubbish as well. You are doing the right thing by keeping a note of the days and hours you have worked. The most you can do is show the manager this if you think you have been underpaid. Remember that they might dock 0.5 hours off your pay for a lunchbreak and that this is totally legal (as long as you are getting your break of course). If you only have a month until you go back to school there probably isn’t much point looking for another summer job. You may have to grin and bear it. You could leave a week before school starts to give you some free time and a proper ‘holiday’ before going back to school?