Eastern Promises
During the summer of my sophmore year of college, I decided to pick up a second job to have more money for the upcoming semester. During my search I found out that a local Japanese/sushi restaurant was hiring. It seemed like the perfect fit for me, since I was studying Japanese and I figured I could practice with the owners. I placed the call and was told to come in the following day for an interview. I showed up early only to find no one else at the restaurant. After waiting 10 minutes past our meeting time, a girl (the daughter of the owner) about my age pulled up. We went into the restaurant and she quickly interviewed me, just mainly asking about my history as a server. I told her my experience and the reason I was interested in working for them. She said it was great and I could start the next day.
When I arrived the next day, an old Korean woman, who turned out to be the owner, was the only other person in the building. I learned quickly she neither spoke nor understood English. This and the fact I never filled out an application or tax forms should have been enough for me to realize something wasn’t right. It turned out that not a single person involved knew anything of Japan. The owners were Korean and just liked sushi, the cooks were Mexican and the servers (other than myself) were Chinese, but hardly spoke any English. The owner would yell at us in Korean to do things and I ended up running in circles until the daughter came over and yelled at me.
On top of that, the way they handled our cash tips was sketchy. After each table, we had to take the cash tips up to the old woman at the register where at the end of the night she would divide them evenly between us all. Even though it was my first night, I had been taking on more tables than the other two waitresses, who were just talking to each other. The last straw for me was when I got a call from the daughter asking me to come in one night for work on a night I had specifically told her I was working my other job. Her response? ”Make up something to tell them; tell them you’re sick.” Yeah. Right. Lie to the restaurant I’d worked at for four years. I told her I would see what I could do and never called her back. To this day I avoid that restaurant like the plague.
Look there’s nothing wrong with waitresses talking and not doing their job. Ever think about what their life goals after college might be?
It all sounds sketchy, and I would have quit, too, but I don’t see why the ethnicities of the owners and the other employees matter. It sounds like you’re not Japanese, so why did you expect the other servers to be? Even if the owners had been Japanese, you took this on as a job; nobody promised you an education or free language classes.
a little weird, considering I think, if you are a waitress your tips are from the table you take care of, not from the owner. I will never look @ a sushi place the same….that sounds horrid!
I wouldn’t work at a place where we have to split tips unless I have to.
That place sounds horribly run. You made the right move.
And serbiz, I think the point she was making was that while she was taking the majority of the tables, the others weren’t doing anything & they still got the same amount of money.
Andrew, Serbiz was applying for the First Post Sarcasm Award.
Uhm, they just “liked” sushi? Sushi is commonplace in Korea, this is like saying Canadians who eat hamburgers are pretending to be Americans.
You’re judging them for misappropriating someone else culture, when it’s THEIR culture. It’s you who are pretending to be Japanese, not them! Amazing.
There’s nothing wrong with a person not doing their job, Serbiz? What a ridiculous statement.
I don’t think Serbiz was being serious. Like Meshell said.
Meshell, my bad…
I always give people a hard time for not picking up my sarcasm online or in a text, but here I fail.
Sounds like another white person fetishizing the Japanese and getting their feathers ruffled when they find out that their employers are “lesser Asians” (because they can’t be bothered to actually tell the difference between Asian races). IMPOSTERS! THE SCANDAL!
Go choke on your pocky.
Yeah, some of this stuff sounds annoying (especially the tip pooling) but i agree with Irate. OP went in expecting some fantasy Japanese job where they were going to be immersed in the culture and conversing with native speakers. If you wanted that experience, you should’ve work-studied in Japan. You seem annoyed that they dared to be Koreans operating a JAPANESE restaurant. I would think you’d have been able to tell when you met the daughter of the owners. Korean names are obviously Korean, and not Japanese.
You guys, I don’t think the OP was trying to be racist. The point of all the racial stuff is that the OP spoke English and Japanese, but the staff of the restaurant spoke neither. So all of this weird stuff was happening, and she couldn’t communicate with anyone to clear it up.
HAHA..when I read the third sentence I laughed hysterically because I knew where this was going. Hate to break it to you, but almost all Japanese restaurants have Korean or Chinese owners, because Japanese food sells for a higher price, and Korean food isn’t as popular with Americans. (One way to tell the ethnicity of the owner is to look at the Miso soup – if there is oil in it, it was made by someone Chinese. Also, if the main ambiance color is red…also likely to be Chinese.)
The way tips are split in this story is typical of any restaurant that is owned/managed by first generation Asian. Sometimes there is a hierarchy system involved – those who have been there longer get a larger share of the tips, it’s a simple way to ensure a slower waitstaff turnover among other things.
Also, it’s always Mexicans in the back. ALWAYS.
I can’t believe the owner’s daughter asked you to ‘make up an excuse’ for your other job or ‘to say you were sick’. Glad you didn’t listen to her. Never mess up a good job (that you’ve had for 4 years) for a crappy side job.