First of all disclaimer this isn’t an xenophobic post I’m only half English myself and I’ve worked with many Italians before who have been great. There are good and bad people/coworkers of every nationality and I am aware of that. My current workplace specifically is bothering me.
I’m a bar supervisor at an Italian restaurant. It’s an evening job for some extra money (though I do long shifts at weekends sometimes 11am-11pm) and I mainly just make drinks, clean and look after the young bar staff.
All of the staff are Italian except me and the other 2 bar people. A uni student and then a 17 year old glass collector. All of the Italian staff know each other and speak Italian to each other. Of course, this isn’t an issue in itself and I had no problem.
But in my 6 months there I’ve noticed blatant differences in how management treat other Italian staff and how they treat me and ‘my’ staff on the bar.
First of all it was over staff food. When me and the 2 others work long shifts (we get a one hour break tbf but so do the other staff) and aren’t offered any staff food. Meanwhile the rest of the staff swan in and are given pasta and pizza. At first I thought it was just a case of “don’t ask, don’t get” so when the girl I work with on the bar said she was feeling faint 10 hours into a 12 hour shift I ask the manager if a pizza could be made for her. She got the chefs to do it but a big hoo-ha was made about it and the it. Just a couple of hours before during a lull in business they were all eating full-sized meals together and chatting away. We weren’t offered anything. They also descend on the bar at the end of the shift while we’re cleaning and make cocktails for themselves. Yet me and the other 2 bar staff are told to not even have juice to get us through a shift. There’s a coffee machine on the bar and we have a 2 coffee a day allowance.
Cash tips. I’ve seen the manager unlocking the cash tip box and handing out tips, again is 3 get nothing yet I distinctly remember when I applied the job description said tips would be handed out equally. At first I thought maybe as a supervisor I didn’t get tips as I’m on a higher wage than the waiters but eventually the 2 staff I supervise asked me why they hadn’t been given tips. All I said to them was that they mustn’t be doing them yet.
I hear my name and the name of other non-Italian speaking staff mentioned in conversation whilst we are right there next to them. This makes me uncomfortable and self conscious.
I don’t think I’ll speak up or report it or anything. I’m going to hand in my notice. But it’s not on is it? Or should I have made more effort to be included in the ‘clique’? But even so I think staff food should still be offered.