My Daughter is Not a Piece of Ass

I was very happy the day my oldest daughter informed me she was going to be a cashier/hostess for a local ethnic restaurant not too long ago. It was, and still remains, one of our favorite places to eat in town. So, I was delighted she would work for darn near family friends in the biz. As time went on she appeared less likely to want to go to her job although it seemed simple enough with her key tasks of seating guests, collecting payment, and grabbing to go orders from the kitchen. Not too demanding of a job in exchange for $7 an hour.

One day, upon answering the question, "So, how did your shift go?" after I picked her up from work I learned part of the overall problem. The problem was the cooks in the back of the house who created what amounted to a hostile work environment with their sexual commentary and faux advances on my daughter when all she was doing was picking up the carry out orders for customers. The problem was also the occasional male customer who thought it would be a good time to hit on a single, attractive, female cashier. My daughter.

So, the message for today is one that I spoke to a while ago on the post. While we cannot entirely control the unwanted sexual advances of the general public we can and must put an end to sexual harasssment in the foodservice industry. As it turns out it, leads to turnover and EEOC lawsuits among those who were harassed. In short, my daughter was not some piece of ass for the cooks in the back of the house; she was doing her job as cashier/hostess by getting a carryout order for some hungry customers wanting to pay for their food and enjoy it at home. I am also glad that she, like so many females, did not placate the ignorant cooks and "play along as if no big deal" only making matters worse.

Fortunately, my daughter was not totally turned off to the industry like countless other females who have been harassed in our testerone-driven foodservice industry, she has taken a job in a senior citizen home as a server in the resident dining room. She is not likely to be harassed by the residents for obvious reasons. Nor will she be harassed by others in the back of the house because they have a strong selection process and HR department that will not condone that behavior on the part of males or females. I wish there were more in our industry that could stake the same claim, perhaps many would stop whining about high industry turnover and the lack of females in upper management.