I Tried to Fight the Stupid and Clueless Patricians at Lazy Dog for Workers’ Rights. I Lost. Part 2
This is the first in a 3-article series. It is about my time working at Lazy Dog in California, my little battles with them, what went on there, what I went through, what I fought for, and what I tried to change. At Lazy Dog, the patricians who rule that company do not care about cleanliness or about their employees. They have no consideration for how policies they pass or actions they take impact their employees. They have no clue what they are doing. THEY ARE STUPID AND CLUELESS. The stupid and clueless patricians sit high atop their throne and rule from their towers at 3337 Susan Street in Costa Mesa, CA. That is where Lazy Dog is headquartered at. Links to part 1 and articles 2 and 3 at bottom. To contact me, just highlight a random word and in the menu bar, click on the speech bubble with the lock icon. Private notes is the way to contact writers on Medium.
In the break room at Lazy Dog, we have two components that give us the space where we employees can place our stuff. We have lockers and the bottom shelf. There are two shelves on the wall, the top and bottom shelf. The two shelves are over the break table. The lockers only have 18 lockers. That is not anywhere near enough for the number of employees that there are at Lazy Dog. There were two other problems with the lockers besides there not being enough for everyone. Those lockers were not big enough for my belongings that I brought. I had my lunch bag and my slingpack. [See lockers and my slingpack and lunch bag photos]
And those lockers were disgusting because the idiots who worked the back of the house would put their shoes in the lockers without having the decency to put them in a bag because they lacked common sense and consideration for others. So, we employees would put our belongings on the bottom shelf. Backpacks, purses, jackets, and drinks being drunk during the work shift. I do not have a photo of before the bottom shelf was removed. In early December, Corporate removed the bottom shelf. They kept the top shelf. We lost the bottom shelf to put our backpacks, purses, et cetera, on there so we were forced to use the top shelf. [See bottom shelf removed photo]
I am a short man. I am only 5’3”. I have to stand on a chair if I need to reach into my bags for something. [See break room full shot]
If I did not stand on a chair, I would have to stand on my tippy-toes, stretching my arms out all the way to grab my bags. It is not easy, quick, and convenient. I reach into my bags for something multiple times a day. I grab my slickpack to get a tissue to blow my nose, to grab my mustache comb if I need to comb my mustache, to put on lip moisturizer, to grab a glove because I am allergic to the gloves they have there, to grab my sunscreen to reapply sunscreen if I need to, or to check my phone if I need to. I bring fruit in my lunch bag to work. I have to grab my lunchbag to get my tupperware. Having to stand on a chair to get my slingpack and stand on a chair to put it back, it is annoying and ridiculous. And it is disgusting because we are standing on those chairs with our dirty shoes and we sit on those chairs. If I did stand on my tippy-toes every time, that would pull out my tucked-in shirt which is required for my uniform which I would then, every single time, have to go in the changing room to retuck in my shirt. Aside from the loss of having a place to place our stuff, the removal of the bottom shelf led to another unintended consequence. In our restaurant, we had for years had an issue of coworkers not taking their dishes to the dishpit after they were done eating. They would just leave their dishes on the break table and they would pile up. This issue had been going on for two managers up to that point, and it continued when the third general manager at Lazy Dog Montclair came in, Caroline Hughes. The original general manager at Lazy Dog Montclair who opened the restaurant with me was Karla Maldonado. She got fired in January 2023 over having drunk with coworkers for New Year’s Eve 2023. In case you got confused, meaning December 31st, 2022. Analena Parris came in and she became our second general manager in January 2023. Caroline Hughes became our third and current general manager in December 2023 after Analena Parris transferred to the Lazy Dog in Brea in Orange County to be the new general manager there. From the time of Karla to Analena to Caroline, management at Lazy Dog Montclair had a rule in place that was enacted under Karla that employees must take their dishes back after they are finished eating and repeatedly reminded employees of this rule and of the consequences they face for not obeying it. Jessica Stewart, one of the managers, would post messages on Hotschedules a lot reminding employees that they must take their dishes back once they are done eating. They even one time lined the wall of the break table with notices saying that you must take your dishes back and that cameras would be checked if dishes were left to see who did it. God I wish I had taken photos of this. They never did that. For years, management issued empty threats to enforce the rule and punish employees that did not comply. Managers never enforced the rule and they never issued punishments to employees for not taking their dishes back by writing them up, suspending them, and then if it continued, firing them. This allowed the ‘dishes being left’ problem to continue. I tolerated the ‘dishes being left behind’ problem because I did not see it as a big deal since it was only something I had to deal with for 30 minutes out of my shift when I took my break. But when they removed the bottom shelf, that removed that storage capacity because that bottom shelf was not just the shelf that we used to put our stuff on and our drinks but it also served as the storage shelf for restaurant supplies and kitchen equipment. So now, in addition to the break table having piles of dishes because they do not enforce the rules, the break table became the dumping table that would be used to store restaurant supplies and equipment on there, along with sometimes people’s personal belongings. In effect, our break table became more crowded and dirtier than it had already been. Cluttered with drinks, dishes, boxes, restaurant supplies, kitchen equipment, and personal belongings. It was already dirty because of dishes being left behind by employees after they finished eating, but with the removal of the bottom shelf, now you add everything being put on the break table, and it made for an undignified and uncivilized table to eat off of. [See break table photos]
I want you to look at the break table photos and picture them as one. I want you to imagine each and every one of those photos as one moment. The reason I am asking you to do this is because the break table has been worse than that. I do not have photos of those times when it was worse. These are the only ones I have. But imagine if you combined all those photos as one and had the break table be in those conditions at one time. Now imagine you are just a mere plebeian, working hard, trying to make ends meet in this piss-ass Godforsaken state which does not care about anyone who is not rich and because California thinks that everyone in the state is rich, and you have to eat your lunch or your dinner in this dingy-ass break room because the stupid and clueless patricians who sit high atop their throne at Corporate and who rule over you do not give a damn about you. Yeah, that is what it is like. About two weeks later after I came to work and first saw the bottom shelf removed, Angelos Panagopoulos was there and so I asked him why it was removed. He said it was because some worker at some Lazy Dog put a rack of glasses on there and it fell over and injured someone while he was sitting there on his break, and so it was removed due to “liability” as was the word Angelos said, because having a shelf over the break table allows people to put stuff on the shelf that could pose a hazard to employees’ safety. Again, they kept the top. [In case you do not know what a rack of glasses is, see racks photo]
I believe that move by the stupid and clueless patricians at Corporate pissed me off even more than their banning bustubs back in January. The level of outrage and indignation that fell over me was immense. A sense of I, as just a plebeian working at the restaurants, under the power of these stupid and clueless patricians who rule over me at Corporate and who run the company, have been wronged. That pissed me off because the reason why they removed the bottom shelf was completely illogical and contradictory, and not grounded in rational thinking. If some idiot who put a rack of glasses on there when he knows it was not supposed to be there, and it fell over and injured someone, number 1 — he should have been fired, and number 2 — Corporate should have taken responsible action and issued a new rule to all Lazy Dogs that racks of glasses, pots and pans, or restaurant equipment cannot be placed on the shelves and only personal belongings such as backpacks, purses, and jackets can be put on the shelves. But no, they automatically remove it, screwing us employees over, completely overreacting, and not taking sound, reasonable, and responsible action. Instead of exhibiting effective leadership and taking responsible, reasonable, and rational action by putting a stop to the act of putting anything that is not personal belongings on the bottom shelf by enacting a rule banning racks of glasses, pots and pans, kitchen equipment, restaurant supplies, and boxes from being put on the bottom shelf, and punishing employees who do not follow that rule, they take the easy and quick way out and just remove it altogether. This negates them from having to take effective leadership and tackle the problem. It is a cop-out. A way to avoid dealing with the issue. I have the right to have a clean and dignified break table and if management does not enforce the rules and punish employees who do not obey them, and if a shelf in the break table is removed causing clutter due to less storage capacity, and if that decision was not based in sound judgement and logic, that violates my right to have a clean and dignified break table. That violates my right to have a happy work environment. In January of this year, I decided to write what I called “a letter of contempt” to be signed by us employees and sent in the mail to Corporate that is to express our contempt over the bottom shelf’s removal. I gave them my pitch over why it matters, that it is not just about a dumb shelf, it is the principle of it. I explained the principle. Told them why the stupid and clueless patricians who sit high atop their throne at Corporate removed it. About 40 coworkers said they would sign it. No one signed it, so I sent it with just my name along with one photo of stuff on the top shelf to disprove their reasoning. [See first top shelf photo]
I mailed the letter and the photo in a manila envelope on Friday, January 12th, 2024.
My letter of contempt:
Dear Sir or Madam,
This is a letter of contempt from Alex Salazar, an employee at Lazy Dog Montclair. I do not know who has the power to make decisions at Lazy Dog Corporate so whomever that is, the people whom this letter is addressed to herein will be referred to as “the people in power”. This letter is to show my objection to an action that was taken by the people in power. In early December, the bottom shelf over the break table was removed from the break room. There are two shelves above the break table in the break room. The bottom shelf is where we employees would put our personal belongings on, e.g.; backpacks, purses, jackets, water bottles, and drinks. Angelos informed me, Alex Salazar, that it was removed because some idiot at some Lazy Dog who has no common sense, put a rack of glasses on the shelf and it fell over injuring someone sitting at the break table, and its removal was due to “liability” per Angelos’ words. Your reasoning that the bottom shelf is a liability is illogical because the top shelf was kept. It was not removed so your reasoning is a fallacy. The keeping of the top shelf still enables anyone to put items on there that could potentially fall on someone which items have been placed on the top shelf which is shown in the photo I have attached. Another example not shown in the photo is the Dewalt leaf blower that has also been placed on the top shelf. Instead of taking the logical and sound course of action to ensure that this kind of lack-of-common-sense and foolish behavior does not happen again which would have been to enact a rule that non-personal belongings such as racks of glasses, kitchen equipment, boxes, and pots and pans are not to be put on the shelves above the break table, and enacting harsh punishments to anyone who violates this rule, such as for example, first offense — a suspension, second offense — firing, you take the irrational and illogical course of action which was removing the bottom shelf hereby depriving us of where we put our stuff. This was an ignorant and oblivious decision done without considering us or consulting us before it was carried out. That liability bit that the people in power reasoned for the removal of the bottom shelf was the cheap, cop-out, easy way out instead of effective leadership and taking affirmative action to deal with a problem. Brainless buffoons without common sense are always going to be a given in society, but instead of cracking down on bad behavior and enacting harsh punishments to deal with lack-of-common-sense idiots, you undertook a course of action that was done in haste and not out of logic and sound judgment. The fact that the people in power at corporate were not able to reach this conclusion on their own shows that they are incompetent and possess the lowest intelligence in which they should not be high-level executives with decision-making power at a corporate office. I, Alex Salazar, a busboy at Lazy Dog Montclair who has signed this letter of contempt, object to the people in power’s incompetence in decision making, object to the removal of the bottom shelf that was taken against us and without our consideration, and demand the reinstallment of the bottom shelf in the break room.
Signed,
Alex Salazar
Busboy at Lazy Dog Montclair
Workplace activist
Because Costa Mesa is just down the freeway from Montclair, it would not take long for my letter to reach Corporate. Two weeks later, I had not heard anything from them which I found strange. I let it go and I had no plans to contact them to ask about the letter. I instead started storing my stuff underneath the counters in the take-out station. [See take-out station photos]
But then on Friday, January 26th, 2024, Caroline Hughes told me that I could not have my stuff there because it is a health code violation. How the hell storing my stuff underneath the counters is a Goddamn health code violation is beyond me. That pissed me off. I complied. I put my stuff on the top shelf and then immediately at 4:52 (I have the time stamp from my email) emailed Lupita Salvador and Shelley Reed asking if Corporate got my letter. Lupita Salvador responded that she would check with the receptionist. If I remember correctly, I believe she left me a voicemail that the receptionist did have it and that she would call me the next week. She spoke to me on the phone the following week and she did confirm an injury that occurred leading to the bottom shelf’s removal. She did not state what kind of injury it was and what exactly happened because she said it was a private matter, and she said that removing it was to remove the “ease of access” as per her words, that someone has to put non-personal belongings such as restaurant equipment on there. That infuriated me because again, that is completely contradictory and nonsensical because the top shelf was kept where restaurant equipment could still be stored on there by either tall people or short people that stood on the chairs to put stuff there. And indeed, after the bottom shelf was removed, the top shelf was used for storage purposes. [See top shelf photos]
There was an incident in which something placed on the top shelf did fall over and hit one of the waitresses. I believe it was in the 4 o’clock hour because that is what I remember, I was talking to Madelyn Bogy, a waitress there, and this metal rod fell on her, from the top shelf. I immediately took photos of this to prove my Goddamn point. [See metal rod photos]
So their reasoning was absolutely pointless. POINTLESS. POINTLESS. POINTLESS. It was without logic. Without sense. It was a decision without sound reasoning. Anything stored on the top shelf could easily fall off and injure someone. My thought was, does she think that Lazy Dog only employs short people, and does she think that short people cannot stand on chairs to put stuff on the top shelf. She said that the decision was final, that they made their decision, and asked me if there was anything else that she could do for me. I said to her that no, there was nothing else that she could do for me because, my exact words were, “apparently the people who run this company are idiots”, and I hung up. What a stupid bitch. Useless pawn. Total tool. Shelley Reed emailed me a letter on February 2nd, 2024. When Lupita and I spoke on the phone, one thing that she said to me, after she confirmed the injury and that being the reason for the removal of the bottom shelf, was that we are free to put our stuff on the top shelf. She is clearly acknowledging the keeping of the top shelf, but more so than that, she is directly telling me that employees can now just put their stuff on the top shelf. This is the letter from Shelley Reed.
That was Shelley Reed’s response to me. First, their reasoning for removing the bottom shelf that it is a “liability” and that it provides “ease of access” is contradictory because they kept the top shelf, but now, Lupita Salvador and Shelley Reed, who both head up the HR department, are giving me contradictory information as to why the bottom shelf was removed and what employees can do about storage of their personal belongings. Lupita tells me that the bottom shelf was removed because of an injury and to prevent the “ease of access” that the bottom shelf provides in putting stuff on there that could potentially fall on someone and injure him. She tells me that employees can store their personal belongings on the top shelf. Shelley Reed tells me that the reason why the bottom shelf was removed was to put the rice cookers on them and that employees should not put their personal belongings on the top shelf. From one dumb bitch who is a useless tool and pawn for Corporate to another dumb bitch who is a useless tool and pawn for Corporate. Those two dumb dames really have no idea what is going on at the restaurants. The HR department made up of Lupita Salvador and Shelley Reed, they are not there for you. They are not an employee council to speak for you and to advocate for you. They are not your voice. They are not your advocate. They are a stand-in for whomever it is that runs the company. They are there to defend corporate’s policies. They do not run the company. The people whom I need to get to, I cannot. They are unreachable. The HR department at Lazy Dog is the only department that an employee can speak to about problems in the company that impact him but that department does not run the company. I did feel that I was wronged and that we employees were being ignored and stomped on by the stupid and clueless patricians who sit high atop their throne at Corporate and their lack of effective leadership, that I considered suing them. I contacted David A. Lowe of Rudy Exelrod Zieff & Lowe in San Francisco. I sent him an email on Saturday, February 3rd, 2024. I attached the letter of contempt, the letter Shelley Reed sent me, and seven photos. The following email exchange occurred on the same day.
From: Alex Salazar
Sent: Saturday, February 3, 2024 12:20 AM
To: David Lowe <dal@rezlaw.com>
Subject: Plebeian busboy looking to sue Lazy Dog
Hello Mr. Lowe, my name is Alex Salazar, I was referred to you by Gill Sperlein who says that you are an old friend and a great lawyer. I am a busboy at Lazy Dog and I want to sue Lazy Dog for incompetence in decision making and neglect in considering the consequences and how it would affect the employees at the bottom, poor judgement, lack of effective leadership, and denying me my right to have a place to place my stuff. Also, the giving out of conflicting information. I have attached documentation pertaining to my case. It is two letters and seven pictures. I cannot talk all weekend because I work all weekend. I can talk Monday — Thursday anytime. My number is ###-###-####.
The names of parties involved are:
Lupita Salvador.
Shelley Reed
Angelos (last name unknown)
From: David Lowe <dal@rezlaw.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 3, 2024 9:56 AM
To: Alex Salazar
Subject: RE: Plebeian busboy looking to sue Lazy Dog
Hi Alex,
Thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately, I’m not able to help you with this situation, but I wish you all the best for a just outcome.
Best regards,
David
From: Alex Salazar
Sent: Saturday, February 3, 2024 10:08 AM
To: David Lowe <dal@rezlaw.com>
Subject: RE: Plebeian busboy looking to sue Lazy Dog
Do you know any other lawyers that I can contact?
From: David Lowe <dal@rezlaw.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 3, 2024 4:01 PM
To: Alex Salazar
Subject: RE: Plebeian busboy looking to sue Lazy Dog
Sorry Alex, I’m not sure who might take this on. Maybe a workers rights organization. You could check with Legal Aid at Work to see if they have any suggestions.
It sounds to me more like a disagreement with management about a business decision than a legal claim, although perhaps another lawyer might disagree. Note that the company can discipline or terminate employees for these types of communications unless, for example, a court or arbitrator found that you were raising issues about working conditions or conduct that you reasonably believed was illegal (that is, “protected activity”). Even then, making these types of disparaging remarks about management is generally not protected and can subject an employee to discipline / termination.
Regards,
David
I sent him this last email which he did not respond to.
From: Alex Salazar
Sent: Saturday, February 3, 2024 10:40 PM
To: David Lowe <dal@rezlaw.com>
Subject: RE: Plebeian busboy looking to sue Lazy Dog
If a business decision was made without logic and is contradictory to the claims that they are making, and if the actions taken are suppressing the employees, that is a legal claim. I have to stand on a chair to be able to fully get to and put back my stuff on the top shelf. I am short. I am 5'3". Their reasoning for removing the bottom shelf was because it was a “liability” and because it provides “ease of access” per Lupita Salvador’s words for someone to put stuff on the bottom shelf that could fall over and injure someone as they claimed. Ease of access, how would Lazy Dog know that removing the bottom shelf removes ease of access? Does Lazy Dog only employ short people like me? If so, then removing the bottom shelf does remove ease of access. But if Lazy Dog also employs tall people, then the keeping of the top shelf does not remove ease of access for tall people thereby not removing ease of access at all. It retains it. And the availability of stuff being put on a shelf above the break table remains. And even if ease of access was removed by removing the bottom shelf, that does not negate the availability of the top shelf. Ease of access does not remove the possibility of stuff being put on the top shelf because it does not remove the ability of a short person to put stuff on the top shelf. He can stretch with his arms fully stretched out or stand on his tippy toes. Look at the photos that I have provided. The stuff on top of the top shelf. The boxes of cans on the other. How is that not contradictory? How do I not have a claim? How do you not see what I see? Your claim that it was a business decision and not a legal claim is a lesser-modern-extent perspective. Go back to The Gilded Age, when workers fought for fair wages, an 8-hour working day, safety measures, robber barons refused that because that would have cut into their bottom line. Those were business decisions. Yes I understand that those were extreme issues that pertained to well-being and safety and quality of life, but my shelf issue is in the same realm. So we are past the age of rooting out workers’ rights violations as business decisions and everything that comes after is from a lesser-modern-extent perspective? We are now post-8 hour work day, post-not being worked to death, post-fair wages, post-implementing safety measures, that all issues that come after are just lesser that do not matter and that do not deserve a fight? And then on top of that, I have been given conflicting information. Both Angelos and Lupita Salvador said it was removed due to liability and ease of access. Susan Reed said that it was to house our rice cookers. Lupita Salvador said that we can put our stuff on the top shelf. Susan Reed says we cannot put our stuff on the top shelf. I am in the restaurant industry. I have no protection. I am not protected by a union. I have no one to speak for me. I have already gone to HR and they have closed the matter. I have a claim here. It is not a business decision. You are wrong in that regard. The issue may be stupid but the principle is not.
I am not going to bash him for not responding to me because I do not really feel that way towards him. I initially did think he was an idiot for not getting it but that dissipated. He did not believe in me and he did not see what I see. A lawyer has to believe in your case and see what you see to take you on as a client and take on your case. I did contact two other law firms. I filled out their intake questionnaire but they never responded to me. After that, it was over. There was nothing left to do. I had done all that I could. I just put up with standing on the chair to reach my stuff. I never got over my little battles with Lazy Dog. The rage that I have against the stupid and clueless patricians who sit high atop their throne at Corporate has persisted. The shelf issue in particular because it is ridiculous when you think about it that it is about a shelf, but it is not just about a dumb shelf. It is not nothing. It is the principle. It is the bigger picture and the larger issue. When you go to apply for a restaurant job at a chain restaurant, their entire corporate culture, the way that their “careers” pages are set up, the way that they portray themselves to prospective applicants, is that this is a great place to work. Fun is how they present and sell it to you. Sometimes they will literally state that it is fun. That working here at this chain restaurant is a great place to make friends and have fun. “Fun” is the defining word of the restaurant industry. That is like their buzzword that they use to get you in. They will say something like, “how would you like to work at a place where you can make money and have fun”, or “how would you like to work at a place where it is positive or you are supported and you can make friends”, or “how would you like to work at a place where you feel valued or feel good about doing…”, something like that. It is something along those lines. It is that kind of nature of the crap and propaganda that they spew. And, the number one thing that unites them all, their number one selling point that they use to present work as fun like we are all children, is they always have photos of employees smiling. But then you get in there, in these chain restaurant jobs, and it is nothing like that at all. It is the complete opposite. You have no say. No power. No voice. You are not valued at all. The stupid and clueless patricians who sit high atop their thrones running these companies know absolutely nothing about what goes on at the restaurants, what we go through, and what it is like to work at the restaurants. We are supposed to be happy and have fun at work? How are we supposed to be happy and have fun at work when they make it so unhappy and miserable? To people of the outside world, these problems may seem insignificant, but to those of us who are busboys and who work at chain restaurants, these are serious problems. No one ever told me this but I always imagined people thinking, “dude, why do you care this much for something that is not that serious? This is just a job to put you through school, for you to make your money while you work to something better”. It is for good reason that I would think about people thinking this. I believe that this would be the common consensus amongst most people. “You can’t use bustubs and you lost a shelf. Just deal with it. This is not going to be your life. This is just a job to make your money so you can work to move on to where you want to be in life”. That is not the Goddamn point. Clearly it was lost on you. This is still my workplace. This is still where I come to make my living and support myself. This is where everyone comes to make his money and support himself while he works towards something, towards building his life, to get his career off the ground, to get to where he wants to be in life, while he is going to school. Whatever. That does not mean that we the poor plebeians at the bottom have to put up with a bad workplace, with poor working conditions, and with bad leadership and decision-making making our workplace a miserable and unhappy one and robbing us of a dignified and civilized workplace. That does not mean that we have to put up with the people who run the companies that we work for and who control our jobs unjustly hampering our ability to do our jobs quickly and efficiently, dictating the tools that we need to do our job, and dictating how to do our jobs without any say from us when we are the ones who do the jobs. Not them. That is the point I am getting at. That is what I am driving at here. Worker repression and mistreatment, we don’t have to put up with any of that just because this is a job to make our money to get us to where we want to go. That is beside the point. That is a stupid and lazy argument. If that were the case, all workers’ rights and protections would never have been a thing. No 8-hour work days. No minimum wage. No safety protections or equipment. Unions would never have been formed if people thought like that. It is not just about a Goddamn bustub or a Goddamn shelf. Working in the restaurant industry sucks as it is. You have no power, no say, and no rights in your job. You have no say in how your job is done and how your job is regulated when you are the one who has knowledge of the job because you are the one who does it. They do not. All of us who work in the restaurant industry at chain restaurants, we are on the ground dealing with the nonsense, the inadequacy, and the insufficiency of the restaurant industry. We busboys do not need our job made difficult and stomped on by the idiots who run the companies. Life is already hard as it is. When you are young, and when you do not have a career or are not in a profession, modern life is unaffordable. You cannot afford to be young, be on your own, not live with your parents, support yourself, go to school full time, have time to study and do homework, and make it. Rent for a one-bedroom apartment being $1,400, $1,800, $2,000, whatever the hell it is. Plus you have a car payment, car insurance, credit card bills, then utilities, gas, food, toiletries, general household expenses, and spending cash to live and enjoy life. And then on top of this, you go to work where you have to deal with petty, stupid, miniscule, and ridiculous things like bustubs or shelves because those who rule over you are stupid and clueless. The belief that it is not a big deal, that it is just a job that you go to to make your money, that your working conditions and your workplace environment do not matter, and the belief that my having fought for the bustubs and the shelf was ridiculous and a waste of time on my part, no that is not the way that it is. No that is not normal. No it is not that I am not normal and that I am stupid. That is the culture. That is the culture of our society. That is the culture of The United States. We just value making money without caring about having a dignified and civilized workplace. We value not speaking up and speaking out. We value not doing anything. We value not having protections in place for protecting restaurant workers. Everything is not the way that it is because that is the way that it is. Hell no. It is part of the culture of society. And the behaviors and the structures and the systems are reinforced by the culture. Until the smart, the sophisticated, and the intellectual break free from this and change it. That is where we activists come in. Only the stupid cannot see this and realize this and know this. I spoke up. I put my best fighting foot forward and I tried to do something. I am not in the wrong. Everyone else is in the wrong. The society that I live in and the culture of the society that I am stuck living in is in the wrong. And everyone else in society that cannot see that and realize that, they are stupid and blind. I AM NOT!
https://medium.com/@alexsalazar6748/what-finally-did-me-in-0a28bb123401
