The Dirtiness and Disgustiness at Lazy Dog. It is all Legal.
Dog hair mixed with dishes. Human hair, dirt, and debris mixed with silverware. Melted crayon on silverware. Cleanliness goes to the dogs at California chain restaurant Lazy Dog.
This is the second 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 articles 1 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.
My workplace battles and the patricians’ lack of care and consideration for their employees were not the only reason for my thinking negative of Lazy Dog. Lazy Dog is a Goddamn dirty and disgusting restaurant! At Lazy Dog, human hair is in the silverware caddies that silverware is stored in where we busboys grab from to make roll-ups. There is melted crayon on the silverware. There is dog hair on the linen napkins and the dog bowls that are put in the bustubs with the dishes. When we busboys sweep the patio or clean up dog pee or even dog poop when it happens, the same brooms, squeegees, and brushes that are used to clean the inside of the restaurant from the front of the house to the back of the house are also the same ones used to clean the dog hair, dog pee, and dog poop from the patio. This is all normal. This is standard for the restaurant. This goes on at all Lazy Dogs because this is standard operating procedure for Lazy Dog. It is a national issue and it is an industry issue — the restaurant industry. And it is all legal. All Lazy Dogs are built with a patio where dog owners can bring their dogs to dine with them. Dogs of all sizes are allowed. In the patio, we have a silver cart where the bustubs are kept to bus tables in the patio. [See patio bustub cart photos]
At Lazy Dog, we give out paper dog bowls to the dogs for water and to serve them food. Lazy Dog has a little dog menu for the dogs. [See paper dog bowls]
The same dishes and linen napkins that are given to diners inside the restaurant are also the same ones given to diners in the patio. When there are dogs around or when you are in the vicinity of dogs, dog hair gets everywhere. It is unavoidable. Dogs are allowed in the patio, so dog hair gets on the chairs. [See dog hair on chair photos] To fully see the dog hair in the horizontal dog hair photos, do not look at them on the app. Look at them on the website. On the Medium website, you can turn your phone sideways and view the photos as they were shot and intended to be viewed, as a horizontal photo. On the Medium app, you cannot turn your phone sideways and view them as normal widescreen photos.
It gets on the linen napkins. [See dog hair on linen napkins photos]
It gets on the floor. It gets on the table depending on if they are big dogs. It gets on the menus. [See dog hair on menu photo]
And it gets on the dog bowls — naturally. When busboys bus tables in the patio, there are not a set of different procedures for the patio due to the presence of dog hair. Everywhere. Nope. Not a thing. They throw everything in the bustubs with the dishes. The linen napkins which are covered in dog hair, are put in the bustubs with the dishes. See these photos, those dog-hair-covered napkins are in there.
The busboys put all the paper dog bowls that the dogs drank water out of and ate out of, in the bustubs with the dishes. [See dog bowls circled in bustubs photos]
I never did that. I always absolutely thought that was disgusting to do that. Deplorable. I always walked to the bar which was on the other side of the wall, to throw them away. I did not have to walk far. I always thought that the busboys were stupid and lazy to do that. Like how do you not care? What is wrong with you? Are you not human too? Do you not eat out at restaurants too? Do you not care about cleanliness? Do you not care about other people? Do you not care about living in a clean society? The linen napkins, I put those in the bustubs too. I had no choice. Where else was I going to put them? I could not throw them away like I did the dog bowls. Moving on to the silverware caddies. This is the takeout station. This is where we busboys make roll-ups. Do you see the silverware caddies on the shelf that are circled,
those caddies are where busboys put the clean silverware after they have been washed to make roll-ups. By the way, I have no idea if they really are called caddies. I just always called them caddies. What are they called? That always fascinated me. At Lazy Dog, the dishwashers (the person) are responsible for washing the silverware. We can wash the silverware if there is no dishwasher (the person) back there. It could be because he is on break, the PM dishwashers have not come in yet, or he is currently putting away the clean pots and pans in the prep kitchen. We dump the nastyass silverware from the tubs that they collect in onto a rack. [See silverware tubs photos]
We also grab all the scattered silverware from the floor that goes everywhere when they are thrown down the silverware shoot. [See scattered silverware photos]
The photos that I just showed you have nothing to do with Lazy Dog. This is a problem with the restaurant industry. Not with Lazy Dog. We spray them before running them through the dishwasher (the machine). When they come out, that is when we sort them in the silverware caddies by separate forks and knives. I always called it sorting it. Where we put the forks and knives in the cups. [See silverware sorting photos]
Do you see how I call them silverware caddies too? That is what I call the thing that the silverware is put in on the shelf when we make roll-ups. I do not know what they are called either. That has always fascinated me as well and baffled me. What the hell are the industrial terms for these restaurant industry items? Then we run those through the dishwasher (the machine). Once they come out, then we take them to the takeout station and fill up those mysteriously unknown-called things. One side is the forks and the other is the knives.
Besides the dishwashers (the person), we are the only ones that wash the silverware, sort them (that is just what I called it. General phrase was just “do the silverware”.), and fill up the silverware racks/caddies — whatever the hell they are called — for us to do roll-ups. So you would think that since we busboys are responsible for everything related to the silverware that we would be required, by Corporate, as a part of our job, to wash the silverware caddies. Nope. Nope. Nope. Busboys are not required to wash the silverware caddies. It was not required of my job but I always washed the silverware caddies because they were dirty and disgusting. I am not stupid and blind like everyone else is. I see things. I realize things. I notice things. I think. And I care. I noticed that they were dirty and disgusting. They had human hair, dirt, and debris in them. [See silverware caddies photos]
None of the other busboys did this. I was the only one that did it. I would just rinse them with hot water. I did not run them through the dishwasher (the machine) because every time that I did that, they would come out with these little tiny specks of food. I thought that was gross. I just ran them through the dishwasher (the machine) and they still come out dirty. What a disgrace. So I just started rinsing them with hot water. Sometimes I did wash them. Every now and then I would grab soap from the Pantastic bucket and a scrubbing pad and wash them. Next up, the silverware. Silverware is always dirty and disgusting in the restaurant industry. Always. Always. Always. The restaurant industry is the worst industry. But here, I am only talking about the silverware in relation to melted crayons on them. Not the overall restaurant industry issue of the silverware being dirty. When a busboy is emptying his bustubs, he throws the silverware down the silverware shoot. [See silverware shoot photos]
I have no idea if those slots where the silverware goes in is actually called a shoot. I just called it that. You know, like a trash shoot or a laundry shoot. The silverware lands in the tubs which then gets dumped on a rack to be rinsed and then run through the dishwasher (the machine) to be sorted in those cups and run through the dishwasher (the machine) again. You know what I am talking about because you have already seen these photos. Trash gets thrown down with the silverware and ends up in the tubs due to either one of two reasons, by the handful or by the glass. Let’s go out onto the floor. You are a busboy. You are on the floor with your bustub and you are at a table right now that you are about to bus. At this table, you will encounter 22 oz. glasses. In these 22 oz. glasses, there will be ice, which is not a problem because it is water. It will melt. There are always straws. And sometimes there might be lemons in there. There will be beverage napkins. There might be paper dinner napkins. There might be crayons along with crayon boxes. There might be chicken wing bones or eaten ribs on the plates. There might be paper kids’ menus. When we bus tables, we put the silverware in the glasses. It makes for good organization. Some busboys will put the napkins and the crayons in the glasses with or without silverware. It makes for extra organization. It makes for good organization and less mess instead of just having it strewn all over your bustub. If we are in a hurry because we are slammed and we are trying to just knock out the tables, we just throw everything in the bustub. Organization be damned. When we are slammed and you hit a table, you get in and out. You do not care about organizing your bustub to fit as many dishes as you can or putting silverware in glasses. No. You throw everything in there, hit another table, and then go to the back to either hand it off to a busboy to do or put it in the black cart in the ice room. Our bustub is full, we cannot hit anymore tables, so now we go to the back to empty our bustub. You see this strainer pan off to the side that is circled?
That is for the drinks. That is for the straws, ice, and lemons, and other trash that might be in the glasses to be dumped. You are not supposed to dump the drinks in the gutter, because that trash goes to the sink which the dishwashers (the person) have to clean out. [See gutters circled photos]
The trash does not go in the gutter. It goes in the trash. Obviously. When that strainer pan gets full then we dump it. I told you earlier that trash gets thrown down with the silverware for either one of two reasons, by the handful or by the glass. This is ‘by the glass’. When busboys are bussing tables, they will put silverware and napkins, crayons, and crayon boxes in the glasses. It makes for great organization and there is nothing wrong with this. It is smart bussing. It is a great technique. The problem is that all the busboys, except for me because I am not stupid like everyone else and because I am Goddamn better than everyone else, dump the entire glass down the silverware shoot! They do not take out the silverware. Instead of taking out the silverware and throwing that down, and then dumping the trash from the glass in the strainer pan or in the trash, they dump the entire glass with the trash and the trash ends up in the tubs with the silverware. The second reason is ‘by the handful’. When busboys are emptying their bustubs, once they have removed the bulk of the dishes and get to the bottom where most of the silverware is at, they will grab silverware with their hands and then proceed to throw them down. This allows for a large amount of silverware to be grabbed at once and for instant grabbing of silverware, but when they do that, they are grabbing trash as well with the silverware. They are grabbing bones, napkins, straws, lemons, crayons, and crayon boxes with the silverware, and all of that together is going into the silverware tubs. When the dishwashers (the person) go to wash the silverware, they dump the tubs on the racks, and when they run those racks through the dishwasher (the machine), the trash gets washed with the silverware which is Goddamn deplorable. [See trash with silverware photos]
It has been worse than this. I just do not have photos of it. Holy mother of God. I could not believe that the busboys do this. It truly just… Oh my Lord. They do it for two reasons. Stupidity. Stupidity. Stupidity. And Laziness. Laziness. Laziness. This is how trash ends up being washed with the silverware. In this trash, sometimes there are crayons in there. When crayons get washed with the silverware, because they are in the dishwasher (the machine), heat you know, the crayons will melt on the silverware and this is what happens. [See melted crayons on silverware photos]
Other photos of crayons ending up in the dishwashing room.
Photos of crayons on the tables before they have been bused.
Whenever this happens, I would always soak the melted-crayon-covered silverware in silver power. It is a presoak for dishes before they are put in the dishwasher (the machine). They are (supposed to be) used for the silverware and the ramekins. Soaking them in silver power is the only way that the crayons fully come off. I mean that stuff is powerful. It eats that stuff off and when you take the silverware out, they are shiny and spotless and just beautiful. I am the only busboy that did this. The other stupid busboys would just throw them in the dishwasher (the machine) like it is nothing. And it does not properly come off. The silver power properly cleans silverware that has melted crayon on it. ‘By the glass’ and ‘by the handful’ silverware dumping is the cause for trash getting washed with silverware. This is also the cause for crayons getting melted on silverware, however, restaurants giving out crayons to children is the cause for the presence of crayons in the dishpit. I had brought the ‘crayons getting washed with silverware’ problem to a manager before and I was rebuffed. I was on shift one night waiting for the silverware to come out of the dishwasher (the machine) so I can do the silverware. I believe this was 2022. Some silverware had come out with melted crayon on them and I had gotten fed up with it. I took the silverware and I went to the office and grabbed a piece of paper from the printer. I wrote a note addressing the problem and stating why it happens. I put the note on the desk in the office with the silverware on it for the managers to see. On the note, I specifically did mention that management needs to talk to the busboys to get this to stop. God I wish I had taken a photo of this. Jessica Stewart is one of the managers at Lazy Dog Montclair. She saw the note I left in the office with the melted crayon on the silverware, and she did nothing. I asked another manager, Jillina Mahtesian, what Jessica did when she saw my note, because Jillina also saw my note with the silverware, and she saw Jessica seeing my note in the office. She told me that Jessica just scraped off the hardened crayon on the silverware, and threw it down the silverware shoot to be washed like it was no big deal. She did not tell Karla Maldonado, who was the general manager at the time, about the problem. She did not tell her that I made that note and presented evidence of what I was talking about. Nothing. I thought, how do you not care? How do you not find that appalling and unacceptable? How do you not find that disgusting? That goes against the cleanliness of a civil clean society. And you are a manager. I understand that you have no power because general managers at chain restaurants have no power. They just enforce the rules that corporate passes and do what they are told. But you could at least tell the general manager of the restaurant and hope that she will tell the district manager who will then bring it up the chain of command. Not just ignore it. Like what the hell is wrong with you? People do not care about anything. People do not do anything about anything. I do not get it. Karla herself does not care too. Before I went to my normal schedule which had been my current schedule until I got fired on May 31st, 2024, I used to open on weekdays. My normal schedule after that was; Fridays: 12 o’clock — 8:30, Saturdays: 12 o’clock — 8:30, and Sundays: 10 o’clock — 6:30. Before the pandemic, opening shifts started at 8 on the weekdays and 7 on the weekends. After the pandemic, that changed to 9 on the weekdays and 8 on the weekends. That was years ago. I do not know what it is like now. I would come in at 9. I think it was sometimes 8:30 too if I remember correctly. One of my duties was to wash the silverware that had been left from the night before. In the restaurant industry, when a restaurant closes, any unwashed dishes that are left over are wrapped in trash bags to be washed the next day. [See leftover dishes wrapped in plastic photos]
This is what hardened and crusted dishes look like after sitting overnight.
The silverware gets put in bustubs. This is what it looks like when the silverware is put in the bustubs from the night before.
You know it gets late and the dishwashers want to go home. I do not blame them. I have no problem with this. The problem comes with the restaurant industry procedures for the next day. These are the dishes left over from the night before that need to be washed. They have been sitting there overnight so all the food has hardened and crusted on them. The way that they should properly be cleaned is to soak for a bit and then scrub them. But no, because the restaurant industry is the poorest, most incompetent, and worse industry, the dishwashers (the person) just spray them with the power hose and run them through the dishwasher (the machine), and that is considered clean and good enough. The same goes for the silverware. The silverware will have dried, hardened, and crusted food on them, which is understandable because they have been sitting overnight. Just running them through the dishwasher (the machine) does not properly get them clean. You have to soak them. So, because I care, and notice things, and realize things, and think, and am not stupid like everyone else and am better than everyone else, I would fill up the bustubs that the silverware are in with hot water with both silver power and the Pantastic soap. The silver power dispenser and the Pantasic soap hose automatically dispensed with hot water. Depending on the amount of silverware, I would have to separate them and put the other half in another bustub to be able to soak them because the bustub they are in would be filled to the brim. This double combination would leave the silverware so clean that it was stunningly beautiful. Just beautiful. We are talking shiny silverware ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. I would come in, clock in, and that would be the first thing I would do so they could soak for a good hour, hour and a half while I did my other opening duties. By the time it came to wash them, they were already so dead clean. They were spotless. They were shiny. They were beautiful. You do not even have to rinse them. I would just immediately start putting them in the cups and run them through the dishwasher (the machine). This is not a requirement for opening duties for busboys at Lazy Dog. Busboys are not required to soak the morning silverware, left over from the night before, in silver power and Pantastic soap before they wash them. These idiot busboys who do not care and do not think just run them through as is, and the Goddamn idiots who run Lazy Dog who are too stupid to care, realize this, and know what the hell is going on at their restaurants, do not make this a job requirement of opening busboys. I told Karla that silverware should soak overnight one morning because the silverware is gross because it sits out overnight and the food dries and hardens. She said we cannot do that because it creates bacteria with food soaking. In retrospect, I do not know why I said that. I should have just said that it should be required of busboys to soak the silverware in the morning when they start their shift before they wash them. I do not know why the hell I said that. I do not know what the hell I was thinking. I do not know if I was just trying to be extra clean. But you do not need to do that because soaking the silverware in hot water with the Pantastic soap and silver power for an hour or an hour and a half, cleans the hell out of them. They come out clean, shiny, and beautiful. So I do not know why I would go overboard and suggest that they soak overnight. But that is not the point. As soon as I told her that, she should have been smart enough and she should have cared to realize that this is a problem and come up with a solution, and she should have been the one to come up with the idea of soaking the silverware in the morning and told me, “well why don’t you just soak them when you come in?” But no, she just said you cannot soak them overnight because that allows for bacteria to grow, and walked away and forgot about it. How do you not care? How do all you people who are managers not care? How do all you people who run chain restaurant companies not care? How do you not know how your restaurants are run and what goes on in your restaurants? How does anybody not freaking care? People do not care about anything. People do not do anything about anything. People do not think. Am I the only person who cares and thinks and realizes things? Am I the only person who is not stupid and blind? What is happening? Finally, when we clean the patio. Not when we bus tables in the patio, when we clean the patio. We sweep the patio just as we do the inside of the restaurant. The patio is no different. It is still part of the restaurant and the floor still gets dirty. The big difference is the patio is covered in dog hair. It is not always noticeable. Sometimes it is noticeable where you cannot miss it. Like if a big dog was brought and you can see all the hair all over near the table. Especially the table stand. So when we sweep the patio, we use the same brooms as we do the inside of the restaurant. Hair, as you know, gets all tangled and caught in the bristles of the broom. We are bringing that dog hair inside the restaurant when we sweep the restaurant. The whole restaurant shares all the brooms. We use those brooms to sweep the dining room floor. The cooks use those brooms to sweep the kitchen floor. At Lazy Dog, the cooks call it a line sweep. The prep cooks use those brooms to sweep the prep kitchen. The dishwashers and we busboys use those brooms when we sweep the dishpit. Those dog-hair-covered brooms are used throughout the whole restaurant. That is disgusting. That is not right at all. Doggy accidents in the patio. Sometimes, a dog will pee in the patio. When this happens, you grab a red or green bucket. The red bucket is for sanitizer. I have no idea what the green ones are for. You just grab one, and then you fill it up with either sanitizer, the wash ‘n walk, or the concrete cleaner. You then grab a squeegee and head to the patio. You pour the cleaner on the dog pee. Then after you have lifted the black gate-covering tarps, those black covers whatever they are, you grab the squeegee and push it out into the dirt. You could use the brush if you want to. Every now and great then, because this is really uncommon, this is not something that you can hold your breath and wait for, a dog will poop in the patio. So, you either grab a dog poop bag which is on the sidewalk on the property, or paper towels, and pick up the dog poop as you would cleaning up after your dog like you were out taking him for a walk. Then same thing as the dog pee. You grab the bucket and fill it up with either the sanitizer, the wash ‘n walk, or the concrete cleaner. In this case, I would hope that a busboy would use something stronger than sanitizer and have common sense to use either the wash ‘n walk or the concrete cleaner. I would grab the brush because a dog pooped on the patio. You need to thoroughly clean the spot where the dog pooped. The brushes are what the cooks use to clean the kitchen when they close. I would imagine that other busboys would use the squeegee and not see the gravity of the situation. I do not know. I would use the brush. There are no clear-cut, hard-written rules on how to clean up dog poop and dog pee in the patio. You just do it on your own. Regardless if there were dog poop or dog pee. Let us say that no dog peed or pooped. But let us just say that a drink spilled earlier, and the floor was sticky. You would still grab a bucket, choose a cleaner of your choice, and then grab the brush or the squeegee. There may not have been any dog pee or dog poop, it was just a dried spilled drink, but there has been dog pee and dog poop on that floor before. Even if there has never been a dog that peed or pooped on there before, there have still been dogs laying on that floor. There is always dog hair on the floor no matter what. That same brush is used by the cooks to clean the kitchen when they close. Those same squeegees are used by the dishwashers, the head cooks, and us when we squeegee water on the floor in the ice room and the dishpit. That is dirty and disgusting. What instruments can be used for the patio and what instruments can be used for the inside of the restaurant is not regulated. You can grab and use whatever you want. They are all shared for the whole restaurant, inside and outside. None of this violates Lazy Dog policies. It is all allowed. That is how the job is done. There is no regulation regarding bussing the patio or cleaning the patio, having to wash the silverware caddies, how a busboy can empty his bustub, the proper techniques for emptying a bustub, and what to do when there is melted crayon on the silverware. Busboys at Lazy Dog are not required to throw away the paper dog bowls. They are allowed to put them in the bustubs. Busboys at Lazy Dog are not required to wash the silverware caddies. Busboys are allowed to grab silverware by the handful when emptying their bustubs. Busboys are allowed to throw the entire glasses down with dumping silverware. Lazy Dog does not have proper techniques for busboys when they are emptying their bustubs. Busboys at Lazy Dog are not required to soak the silverware in silver power when there is melted crayon on the silverware. Lazy Dog does not have separate brooms, brushes, and squeegees to clean the patio. That is the way that Lazy Dog is and the way Lazy Dog is run. Just deplorable. Just dirty. Just disgusting. In the name of my article and in the beginning of this article, I said that it is all legal. Yeah, because it is all legal. What goes on at Lazy Dog is not illegal. It does not violate any laws. It is not illegal for dogs to be brought to patios of restaurants OR it is not illegal for linen napkins to be given out in patios where dogs are allowed OR it is not illegal for dog-hair-covered linen napkins from patios where dogs are allowed to be put in the bustubs with dishes. What I mean by my use of “or” here is that all three are legal but one of them should be illegal to prevent this. It is not illegal for dog bowls to be put in bustubs with dishes. It is not illegal for crayons to be given to children in restaurants OR it is not illegal for busboys to grab silverware by the handful when emptying their bustubs and to dump the entire glasses with the silverware down the silverware shoot. What I mean by my use of “or” here is that both are legal but one of them should be illegal to prevent this. It should be illegal for dogs to be brought to patios at restaurants, cafes and any eatery. These stupid, dirty, and disgusting dog owners do not need to bring their stupid dogs to eat with them. It should be illegal for crayons to be given out to children at restaurants. It is not a restaurant’s responsibility for entertaining your unparented, ill-behaved, let to run wild, undisciplined, crying, screaming, shouting and running-around children at restaurants that you 21st-century bad parents do not know how to parent. I never brought up any of these dirty and disgusting conditions to Corporate because that would have been a total joke. What would have been the point? They are not going to listen to some stupid busboy. They are not going to do anything. They are not going to change the way they do things and change the way things are just because I complained about something. Give me a break. I am at the bottom. I am a nobody. I have no power. I do not matter. Corporate does not listen to you when it comes to the way a company is run or changing company policy. I knew that even before I took them on for the bustub and the shelf issues. Those were serious issues. Those spurred me to action. Yeah, these are serious issues, they are about cleanliness, but they were not serious issues for me to take on the company over. Give me a break. In life, you have to pick your battles. I was not going to jeopardize my job over that. The only time I actually complained to Corporate over something disgusting and threatened to go to a government agency over it was over the automatic soap dispensers in the men’s room. Before the pandemic, we had manual, what I consider normal, soap dispensers in the men’s restrooms. I hate automatic soap dispensers. I hate automatic faucets. So Goddamn stupid and annoying. Difficult and fussy. After the pandemic, they removed those and put automatic soap dispensers. Those automatic soap dispensers were so Goddamn horrible and poor. Holy mother of God. Talk about the poorest, cheapest sensor for a sensor-activated soap dispenser. It was so difficult and fussy to get them activated. When they first put them in, no lie, it would take 10, 15, 20 different hand movements to get the motion-activated sensors to dispense soap. It was really bad. However, because I work there and I was there 4, 5 days a week, I became a pro at how to get the automatic soap dispensers activated. I was in there using the restroom, or reapplying my sunscreen then washing my hands. I was in that restroom often so I figured it out. Customers on the other hand, are not in there often. They are in there for that one time. They do not have the time to figure out how to get an automatic soap dispenser activated by doing a certain hand movement. I would be in there doing a restroom check because we busboys are responsible for checking the restrooms — making sure the paper towels, soap, and toilet paper are stocked — and I would see the men having a very difficult time trying to get the soap dispensers to work. So I would go up to them and show them the specific hand movement technique that you need to do to activate the soap dispenser. I perfected the right hand movements to get them to work. It was that difficult and fussy to get those damn soap dispensers to work. It is a soap dispenser. Not brain surgery or rocket science. You should not have to perfect the right hand movements to get a soap dispenser to work. About half of them I would say could not get them to work. The other half did and they washed their hands. The half that could not get them to work, they just gave up and left without washing their hands. These men had come out of the stalls having just pooped and wiped their butts. I could clearly tell and hear that there are men in the stalls pooping. You can clearly tell they are not peeing. That is dead obvious. Everyone knows what it sounds like when you are peeing in a stall. And I thought it was so gross that these men just came out of these stalls having pooped and wiped their butts, because, you know, um, we are all human, we wipe our butts after we are done pooping, and they did not wash their hands. And it was not because these men are dirty and uncouth and have no hygiene, it was because they could not get the soap dispensers to work. Something which should not take any effort. I did not blame them at all. I 100% did not blame them because of how difficult and fussy and just all-around poor those automatic soap dispensers were. This went on for about a year. After a year of this happening, I had had enough. I could not tolerate this anymore. I had to say something. You know, you just finished pooping and wiping your butt, and you are going out there in the world and touching things. Uh, so disgusting. Unsanitary. Not conducive to a proper clean society. I emailed Lupita Salvador to inform her of what was going on and I threatened to go to the health department if they were not removed and replaced with manual soap dispensers.
It worked. They did actually remove them and bring back the manual soap dispensers. That was the only battle I won. That was a serious issue that did spur me to do something. These men are going out there in the world with fecal matter on their hands. That goes beyond just mere disgusting. The dog hair and the melted crayons and all that, that is disgusting but that was not serious enough for me to do something. To put in some kind of effort or put some kind of plan in motion.
As I was writing this, I realized something that I did not think about explaining. If bustubs were banned, how are other busboys going out there on the floor busing tables with bustubs if they are prohibited from using bustubs? When I came back to work with my reasonable accommodation, that pretty much opened the door to the other busboys using the bustubs. The rule was softened there. Analena was strict about the no-bustub rule. She held firm in adhering to that rule. Whenever she saw the other busboys using a bustub, she would immediately tell them they could not use it. The other managers did not care. Jessica, Jillina, and Marissa never told any of the busboys anything when they used them, so when Analena was not there, we knew it was a free-for-all. Analena was one of my favorite managers there, but I did like the days when she was not there because then the other busboys got to use the bustubs, so they could help me bus tables fast. We could knock out more tables. This continued when Caroline came in. Caroline never said anything. It is funny because Angelos Panagopoulos is always there. He is the district manager for the area that covers Montclair. Regardless if Caroline came in or not, he will always be there from time to time, having meetings with the general manager and checking in on the restaurant. He saw the busboys using the bustubs and he never said anything. I am glad he never said anything. It is just funny and odd because it goes against the corporate rule, why are you not saying anything? Has Corporate eased up on the rule? Have they softened on it? Do they not care? And out of all of this, if this is true, then why did I have to go through all of this to fight for bustubs? And why did they have to ban them to begin with?
I want to make it very clear for my selection of the main photo of my article. This is something that is very uncommon and very unlikely to occur. I worked at Lazy Dog for four and a half years. I believe, if I remember correctly, that this only occurred one other time before this photo. I believe it did happen one time before. I cannot quite remember. I chose this photo to encapsulate that cleanliness goes to the dogs at Lazy Dog. I chose it to symbolize all the dirtiness and disgustiness that goes on at Lazy Dog and how unregulated the restaurants are. You read my article. I did not write about dog poop bags in the bustubs. Dog poop bags being put in bustubs does not occur at Lazy Dog. It is a rare occurrence. Again, I just chose the photo of this very rare occurrence to symbolize everything. It is so rare and it is so uncommon.
https://medium.com/@alexsalazar6748/what-finally-did-me-in-0a28bb123401
