Complaint Review: Denny's - The Villages Florida

I was employed at Dennys Lady Lake, FL from mid-December, 2009 March, 2011 as a server. During



my employment there, I and other servers have been subject to continuous sexual discrimination and harassment, a severe and pervasive hostile work environment, and derogatory comments to the female servers.  The General Manager, has not only created this environment, but allowed this situation to continue.







Some examples of his sexual discrimination are treatment of male employees to female employees. One



instance is Sven Posey will yell and discipline a server while on the floor in public (in front of customers). Sven yelled at me in front of my customers and it was demeaning, degrading and humiliating. This happens frequently and customers has told other servers and me that this treatment the General Manager gives the servers is completely inappropriate.







Another example is the general manager knowingly allows and stands behind the verbal abuse of the cooks to the servers and allows the hostile work environment. the general manager also causes a hostile work environment because he continually verbally abuses me and other servers. the general manager would yell at me to greet the door, even if I am busy and other servers are standing right beside him. He humiliates me and other servers in front of the guest, degrading us and our abilities, and always telling us that we arent doing our job. So much so, that the hostile environment was severe and pervasive.







In a discussion with the general manager on February 26, 2011 I discussed the discrimination of the male cooks with him. the general manager protected the male cooks by explaining that their actions of sexual discrimination and hostile environment was due to their nature and was the pool of employees he had.  An audio tape is available as evidence of that conversation. There are also cameras in the store that would prove incidents; including an incident where a male cook was throwing cooks knives on the kitchen line and another male cook writing Go f**k yourself on my ticket. These should be available if management has not already destroyed.







the general manager has told servers the procedure of giving a re-cook or drag to the kitchen.  However, when a server does follow procedure, the male cooks make an argument or snide comments to the server, often about the servers incompetence, regardless that it was the cooks error in the first place. male Cooks are allowed to continue to make offensive and derogatory slurs, being verbally abusive and sexual innuendos.  Management has allowed the cooks to do so or have merely pulled them aside, told them to settle down and go outside for a cigarette. Then Management tells the female servers not to talk across the line and the male cooks are still permitted to verbally abuse the female servers and yell across the line.



The general manager told a new server, on Saturday, March 5, 2011 which was only her 2nd shift that the female servers are responsible for 95% of all errors that occur, including cook errors.



S***o W**d, a male cook, has had many episodes of creating a hostile work environment to me and other servers with derogatory comments, swearing, throwing knives while on the line, arguing with the general manager loudly and guests hearing it. S***o W**d is told to go home (and he doesnt) or go take a break. He goes outside, smokes a joint and comes back into work and repeatedly the general manager allows it. A female server complained that the restaurant was very hot (sweat was dripping off the servers) and he threatened to send her home if she complained.





The general manager continually threatened to stop/forbid any server breaks if he felt they were not adequately doing their job. This would apply to every female server, not just the one who may not have been doing their job. However, the male cooks, regardless of mistakes made, were permitted to take their breaks. the general managern would make a female server work past the required 5.5 hours of work for a break, even though business did not warrant a stop on breaks. He would threaten no breaks for the next day to all female servers.





The general manager has called servers ugly, sometimes to their face, demean servers by inappropriate name calling, and humiliated female servers.



The general manager ripped the back of his pants approximately in January 2011, however knowingly walked around the restaurant the entire shift, baring all.



The general manager has a previous alleged charge of sexual harassment at this same restaurant location.





A male cook has directly approached a female staff member and was overheard by another female staff member say, Do you want to f**k? witnessed by T**e C****n.





I also believe I was discriminated against because Sven Posey has always maintained a dislike for M*****l R***s who was previously a Co-Manager in this location and is my ex-husband. M*****l

R***s was promoted to Systems Administrator with the company and the general manager must rely on Michael R***s for IT technical support.





I have repeatedly reported the sexual discrimination of the cooks to the general manager to no avail. I have been brushed off and shushed like a little child. 





I and other female servers have heard sexual comments that the general manager makes to female servers. One day in January 2011, he was interviewing a redhead and after the interview commented on how hot red headed girls were and how good they were in bed. She was hired however did not stay long enough to even get to know her. There are plenty of other sexual comments and treatment that the general manager has said/done.