What Finally Did Me In
Down with the trash I go. This is how it all comes to an end. Alex Salazar — Busboy at Lazy Dog in Montclair, CA | 2019–2024.
This is the third 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 2 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 getting fired is not integral to this story at all. It is not part of the main problems that I had with Lazy Dog and my having it in for them. My getting fired is not why I hate them. I hold no ill-will against Caroline Hughes and I have nothing against her personally. I did not like her and I think she was a bad general manager but she is not the reason why Lazy Dog is a horrible company. She is not part of the problem. But I felt that if I did not explain why I got fired after I wrote these articles that it would be odd. For all the people who read my articles, and invested in them and my little saga about my time working there and what went on there, I felt that I owed it to them to explain why I got fired. I got fired because I threw away the metal-catching trash can lids. They are the main photo. Those are placed on both trash cans in the dishpit to stop silverware and ramekins from being thrown away, however it was mainly for silverware. The following photo is the only photo I have of them on the trash cans. [See trash can with metal-catching trash can lid on it]
It never occurred to me to take photos of them. We lost silverware a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean exponentially, because waiters and waitresses would end up unintentionally throwing them away when clearing their dishes in the back. When waiters and waitresses have taken dishes from customers after they have finished eating or when they have prebussed their tables, they take their dishes to the dishpit and clear the dishes. The silverware gets thrown down the silverware shoot in the tubs where they collect.
The ramekins get put in the ramekin bucket.
The food, tissue paper, paper napkins, and beverage napkins get thrown away. The linen napkins get put in the linen bag. And the dishes are put on the dish table. Well, sometimes when they are in the process of taking all of this off the dishes, sometimes silverware gets obscured in the tissue paper, paper napkins, beverage napkins, and/or food and ends up getting thrown away. Or it will be obscured in the linen napkins and put in the linen bags and taken to whomever the linen vendor is to get washed. The way that this is avoided is by; when it comes to the linen napkins, squeezing the linen napkins before they are dumped in the linen bag; and when it comes to the food, tissue paper, paper beverage napkins, and paper dinner napkins, not throwing away everything together at once as one big pile. Meaning pushing everything off the plate or pie tin into the trash can. But instead, lifting up, moving over to the side or inspecting food, tissue paper, and paper napkins on the dishes before throwing them away; individually grabbing the tissue paper, beverage napkins, and paper napkins and then throwing them away; or squeezing or rummaging your fingers through what is on your dish and then proceed to throw it away. There were many things that pissed me off about Lazy Dog. There were many things that disgusted me about Lazy Dog. But in my time working there, there was only one thing that puzzled me. One thing that puzzled me. One thing. And that was the Goddamn silverware situation. Excluding Karla Maldonado in this, just in the time of Analena Parris to Caroline Hughes, the amount of silverware alone that was ordered in between those two women in the year and a half that they were the managers there was shockingly fantastic. Just order, after order, after order, after order, after order. Non-stop orders of silverware. It was shockingly fantastic. Just the silverware situation. We lost so much silverware, after we had just ordered a bunch of silverware. Then we would order more silverware. I mean we would lose so much Goddamn silverware. Fantastically shocking in the amount of silverware that we lost. We could have gotten a full new order of silverware and it would be magically gone by the next weekend. If you do not believe me, you could ask the other busboys. They can attest to us always being low on silverware. Juvenal Figueroa is one of the original busboys that opened the restaurant with me in December 2019. The constant never-ending loss of silverware that the restaurant constantly endured, and just the massive amount of silverware that we lost was a frequent topic amongst him and me every weekend. He and I worked every weekend. Every weekend, this would be a frequent topic of conversation that he and I would bitch about, about the restaurant’s inability to curb the constant loss of silverware, their inadequacy, and their horrible management. I always thought it is such a waste of money to order all this silverware, and it is not even my money. And it is such a waste of material that goes into making this silverware because it is just being thrown away. And I never understood how Corporate did not mind spending so much money on silverware. You think they would want to get to the bottom of it. Mostly it was just annoying. The biggest annoyance of being a busboy at Lazy Dog was the silverware because management and coworkers would constantly bitch at us for needing roll-ups but we would not have enough silverware to make roll-ups. And the silverware situation was out of our hands. We did not have the power to control that. Another mysterious reason for the loss of the silverware although I do not know how much of an impact it had, was the drain near where the dishwasher (person) stands near the dishwasher (machine). [See drain photo]
Silverware would end up in there. This is a picture I took without the drain cover on there. From my understanding, the drain cover is always on there. It is not always off. It just happened to be off at the time of this photo’s taking. At least that is what I think. But anyways, in 2023, when Analena was the manager, a plumber came to snake the drain because it was clogged or overflowing. One or the other. The drains in that place were always having problems. He stuck a camera down there and he said he saw mounds of silverware down there. In fact, he even pulled out some silverware, and not just silverware, but cooking utensils. So evidently, stuff gets down there in that drain. I do not know how but it does. I do not know how much silverware was down there. He just said a lot. I honestly do not believe that contributes a big part to the loss-of-the-silverware problem. I think that really they are just being thrown away. It is a constant never-ending battle. If those morons at Corporate were not Goddamn stupid and incompetent, they would have been able to have figured out the cause of the constant loss of so much silverware. They would have instructed every manager at every Lazy Dog to hold meetings with the waiters and waitresses on the proper procedures when clearing dishes to prevent the loss of silverware, and to continuously remind their employees over and over of the procedures until it stops because one meeting over something immediately goes over everyone’s head. You have to constantly bombard employees to get something through their heads and force them to comply. And you have to take action to punish employees if they do not comply. Or at the very least ask us busboys if we might know why this is happening since we are the ones there on the ground and who deal with the silverware. To combat the problem, those brainless inability-to-think buffoons introduce these godforsaken, cumbersome, clunky, job-impeding, job-slowing-down, anti-busboy metal-catching trash can lids to be put on top of the two trash cans lining both sides of the dishpit. The grinders stop anything that is metal or iron (don’t know exactly) from being thrown in the trash cans by catching them in the magnetic grinders. These were first introduced when Karla Maldonado was our general manager. I do not remember what year this was. They only lasted for a couple of months. The restaurant gave up on them. We busboys hated them. You see those big grinders in the middle? [See grinders circled photo]
Those things prevented the trash from going into the trash can. We busboys had to push down the trash that we threw in there every single time. Everything that we busboys emptied from our bustubs and threw into the trash can, it did not easily go in there. No. We had to manually push it down, and the trash would get backed up easily and constantly. So that enabled more having to push it down. Look at all these bustubs. Remember these from the first article.
Imagine being swamped with so many tables. You are in the back trying your hardest, moving your fastest, trying to empty your cart of these bustubs, and then more busboys bring you more bustubs to empty. You are trying to move your fastest like Speedy Gonzales, hurrying up to empty those bustubs, and those grinders are holding back the garbage from going down, and you constantly have to stop to take the few seconds to push it down. You could be back there for 2 or 3 hours sometimes just emptying bustubs because that is how busy the restaurant is. No, I am not lying and I am not exaggerating. Was that a constant thing being stuck back there for 2 or 3 hours emptying bustubs because we got slammed? No, being back there for 2 or 3 hours straight was not a constant thing. But it was also not rare either. Yeah, it only takes a few seconds to stop and push down the trash, but those few seconds add up when you are swamped with so many bustubs and you are trying to empty them as fast as you can. And imagine having to do that every Goddamn time you threw trash away! And those lids prevented the trash cans from being able to fully fill up. It took up the top space of the trash cans for the space that trash could fill up, so we had to take out the trash more. I do not know who got rid of them and where they went, but during Karla’s tenure, they only lasted a few months. We never saw them again until Analena Parris came in. They were brought back I believe it was spring 2023. From the time until I threw them away on May 25th, 2024, that was the longest stretch that we had ever had them. This dragged on for over a year and I had had enough of them. I was not the only one. As time went on, we busboys would just take them off and put them in the dumpster room. The main photo of this article, that is them in the dumpster room. I could come to work and they would be on there, and then hours later, I would go in the back and they would be gone because some busboy had removed them. We all did it. They would not stay on all day. I threw away the metal-catching trash can lids on Saturday, May 25th, 2024. I threw them away in one of the dumpsters. My hope was that they would just get thrown away with the trash when the truck came to pick up the trash. On that day, I was on what I called a slack-off strike against my third and at-the-time current manager Caroline Hughes, which was for the entire weekend. My slack-off strike was held on Friday, May 24th, 2024; Saturday, May 25th, 2024; and Sunday, May 26th, 2024. I was the hardest-working busboy at Lazy Dog. I was. Testimony from the waiters and the waitresses, the hosts and hostesses, and the food runners to even John Nunley, one of my busboy coworkers, would attest to this. John, on the weekend of my slack-off strike, said to me that out of all of the busboys, I would be the best one to train other busboys because I do not cut corners. Throughout my time working there, numerous coworkers told me that I was the best busboy there. I was complimented frequently for how hard I worked. They told me that I was dependable, that they could rely on me, that I was fast, that I did not slack like the other busboys did. I was always on it as a busboy. I was always on the floor. I was always checking the restaurant. I never slacked. I always followed the procedure of cleaning tables. I wiped off the crumbs on booths or chairs if they were some on there. I always swept underneath the tables if there were trash. I always did the table setting afterwards. I always took the bar glasses to the bar. Not all busboys did this. Most definitely slacked. When it comes to taking bar glasses to the bar, John was a good busboy in that regard. He always took them to the bar. The one thing that defined me there was that I was always tending to the slide. The heart of the restaurant where the waiters and the waitresses would make their drinks and where the line was that the food was put out to be delivered to tables was called the slide. I was the busboy who always, constantly, all the time, round the clock, was refilling the ice and restocking the glasses. I even did more than that that was not required of my job. When I brought out the stacks of racks, they would have racks of 22 oz. glasses, water glasses, water jugs, ramekin bowls and coffee mugs, and soup bowls. Busboys are only required to restock the glasses and the jugs. That is it. We are not required to restock the coffee mugs, the soup bowls, or the ramekin bowls. When I brought out the stacks of racks, I would just restock everything that was in there. I did it because it was part of the stacks of racks, so I figured why not. I would restock the mugs, and I would put the ramekin bowls and the soup bowls on the line. And, I also consolidated the racks. I would check if the racks were full. If they were not, I would fill up all the racks in a stack in the slide to make sure they were all full instead of just putting the racks of clean dishes on top. To me that was just disorganized. By consolidating the racks, you are not only able to put out more dishes on the slide because you are filling up empty spaces in the racks, but you are also eliminating all the excessive unnecessary racks that are there because you can take the dishes that are in one to fill up another one that is not full. It is about organization. Everyone noticed this about me. The waiters and the waitresses, and the food runners always thanked me for my constant refilling the ice and restocking the dishes. They complimented me for always taking care of it. They would sometimes quip to me that the other busboys are lazy and don’t refill the ice and restock the glasses. Caroline Hughes knew this. In fact, she learned this fairly quickly about me. From the moment Caroline started, she immediately noticed that I was the one who always tended to the slide. It was in January or February when one time I was pushing a stack of racks to the slide and she told me, “thank you for your rack dedication”. My “rack dedication”. Those were her words. To me. And she had only been our new general manager for a month and a half, two months. So my constant tending to the slide was quickly noticed by her. It became a well-known reputation of mine that she picked up on fast. All of this was for good reason, when you are a manager at Lazy Dog, you are constantly monitoring the line in the slide, so you are noticing your employees coming in and out of the slide all throughout the day. That was how she was quickly able to see me always being there tending to the slide. There also had been a few times where I had been swamped with bustubs in the back and she had seen me emptying out those tubs fast and she complimented me and thanked me for working so fast and doing a good job. The reason for this being because I was usually the fall guy, so to speak, for the other busboys to give me their bustubs when we were backed up on tables. I would be back there emptying a bustub or two bustubs or I would have a cart back there, and they would leave me their bustubs so they can go grab another bustub and go back out there to hit the floor. And because I would usually be the default busboy where everyone would drop off his bustubs to me, this is how she would always see me being back there, swamped with bustubs, and emptying them out fast. Point being, she knew I was always working, I was the hardest working, and I was never slacking. So naturally, I would not expect to be picked on. I would be in the takeout station talking to another busboy, and mind you, this was not when the restaurant was busy and needed us busboys. This was after we had made a round. Everything was good. The restaurant had been checked. There were no tables. The bar and the slide were not low on ice. The glasses did not need to be restocked. I would have been talking to him for like a minute or two. I mean it was small talk. We were not engaged in a conversation. She would immediately come up to me and ask me what am I doing? Am I working? Questioning me. She would question me in an interrogative way as if she knows I am a lazy employee. You know as if I have that reputation. As if she had to stomp out that behavior because I was a lazy employee so she had to be on me. I was known for always working. For never slacking. This was known throughout the entire restaurant. She knew that, so I thought that was odd. There was an incident in which Matthew Luis, another busboy/waiter, was standing in the hallway leading into the slide. From what I remember, I believe I was standing in front of the POS system looking out into the restaurant because I had already done a round and there was nothing to do. And I believe I was also talking to Jillina Mahtesian if I am not mistaken. I was close to Jillina. She, Jessica, Marissa, and Analena were my favorite managers at Lazy Dog. Jillina and I shared a bond for our love of soda. Jillina Mahtesian told him that he cannot just stand around. That he has to do something. And then she turned to me and said that that does not apply to me. That she would never tell me that because she knows that I am always working but that she has to tell Matthew that because he stands around a lot. You could ask her yourself. I am not lying. When you are a great, top-notch employee, you earn privileges and passes at work, like being treated like you are a great employee and not be grilled for when you are standing around or talking to someone for a minute or two. As evident by what Jillina Mahtesian said. But Caroline would always be on me for talking to a busboy in the takeout station like it was busy and I was slacking or like it was known that I was a lazy employee so she always had to question why I am just standing around and not doing anything. I thought to myself, “Yo, you know everything I do, you know who I am, you know I do way more than the other busboys do, why are you constantly on me for talking to a busboy for a minute or two?” At this point, I already did not like her and it had nothing to do with her constantly being on me for talking to a busboy after having made a round. I had two other unrelated previous little issues with her before the slack-off strike but that is not important at all to this. It is unnecessary to discuss because I do not have anything against her personally. She comes off like she is blind and oblivious to her statements and her actions. Like she did not have an awareness of what is going on in the restaurant right now pertaining to what she was saying to us or how she was reacting to something. She overreacted to things. When she would be on me for talking to a busboy and questioning me for why I am not doing anything, she would make it seem like it was busy. The way that she reacted. But it was not busy. These incidents occurred at times of the restaurant when we are not busy at all. They occurred either after lunch or before the dinner crowd arrived on a Friday or a Saturday, or they occurred after the brunch rush on a Sunday after everyone from Brunch had gone and all the bustubs were cleared and there were no tables to be cleaned on the floor. There was an incident involving a busboy. In late April I believe it was, she kicked the busboys out of the takeout station where busboys do roll-ups. She said it was to give takeout more room to do their orders because takeout was getting hit with more orders recently and that they were messing up a lot of the orders. [See takeout station photo]
In the photo, the left side with the black circle is where takeout does their orders. The right side with the red circle is where we busboys do roll-ups, as evident by the shelf where the two silverware caddies are on the shelf. Her statement that takeout needed more space because they were getting more orders was very bizarre because they were not getting more orders. They were not any busier than a normal period. I had been working there for four and a half years. I have been there, in the takeout station, making roll-ups when they are at their worst. When they are jam-packed with orders and they have so many bags crammed in that little section, packing them, trying to get them together so they can deliver them. Just insane with so many orders. The past couple of weeks that Caroline was referring to, it was not like that at all. She overreacted. The amount of orders that they were getting was just the normal amount. So she kicked the busboys out of the takeout station and forced them to move the silver cart and do roll-ups on the side where they do not belong. [See takeout station where the location is circled]
I was not being put on roll-ups at that time. One day, Andrew Andrade, one of the busboys, was doing roll-ups on the side. Marissa Lawson, one of the other managers, noticed that Andrew was close to hitting his head on the corner of the metal shelf. [See corner of the shelf photo]
She got scared for him, so she went to the dumpster room to get some cardboard to cover the corner because she was honestly worried that he was going to hit his head. She is not the boss, Caroline is, so she could not override Caroline and put him back in his rightful spot. What was poor Marissa to do? Caroline Hughes taped the cardboard that Marissa brought around the shelf edge near his head to prevent a potential injury for a safety hazard that she created. That incident is on camera. I could not believe that a boss would actually tape cardboard around something to prevent a potential injury to one of her employees for a safety hazard that she created, and for putting him in a physical position that he is not supposed to be in to do his job. Did she not realize what she was doing? That act seems like something that an irresponsible and reckless lower-ranking manager would do until the boss steps in and is like, “yo, what the hell are you doing? That is not right at all”. On Sunday, May 19th, 2024, there were seven busboys on that day. It was after 4 o’clock so everyone from brunch had already cleared out. Any bustubs left from brunch had long been emptied. And Valentin, another busboy, was set to come in soon. I went up to Juvenal to tell him that Valentin is going to come in soon and when he does, there will be eight of us on until Juvenal leaves, which was incredible and unbelievable for there to have been that many of us on. That was unprecedented. Two new busboys had been hired so they were training that day. But even then, if the trainees were not training that day, there would still have been six of us on when Valentin came in, and that was unusual for a Sunday at that time. Normally by that time, the 11 o’clocker would have already left, and Juvenal, who is the opener on Sundays, also would have already left, but for some strange reason that day, neither Juvenal nor the 11 o’clocker had left when they normally would have been gone by that time. So I told him that there are so many of us on. I did mention that there were two trainees training that day that added to the number. And then I think I asked him what time he was leaving. This conversation took place in under a minute or around a minute, I believe. It was really quick. And Caroline immediately got on me for why I am talking to Juvenal. Why I am not working. I went to the changing room because I had to pull up my underwear, retuck in my shirt, and fix my jeans. You know I had to re-adjust my clothes. When you are working hard for a few hours, your underwear and your jeans slide down and your shirt is not fully tucked in anymore. I was growing pissed off as I was re-adjusting my clothes and when I had finished, that had set me off. I got out and I went up to her on the line as she was pouring tortilla soup and I said to her, “When I am talking to a coworker, do not…” She immediately interrupted me and said, “Alex, Alex, Alex, I am trying to focus on [forgot what she said]”. She said if I want to talk about this that we can talk about this in the office. That ended the conversation. I thought, you are always picking on me for not working, I will show you what happens when I do not work. I came up with the idea of going on what I called a slack-off strike. A slack-off strike is to publicly announce to your bosses and your coworkers that you are going to deliberately slack-off on duties that you are responsible for to stick it to your boss or your bosses for not recognizing all that you do at work and treating you like you slack off, and to draw attention to what would not get done if you did not do it. So it is like you know, you treat me like I slack off, so okay, I will show you what it is like if I do not work. See how you like it. I took to Hotschedules for the second time. Hotschedules is where you go at Lazy Dog to post messages to your coworkers or for management to address the staff at the restaurant. I had taken to Hotschedules for the first time the previous year in 2023. Some idiot had dumped a dustpan into one of the bustubs in the patio. I brought in the patio cart so I could swap out the empty bustubs for the ones in the bar. I went to grab the bottom bustub to dump what was in there into one of the other bustubs. There were no dishes in there. I had thought that it was just food and crumbs in there. I dump it, and I find out that it is dirt, dust, hair, and even broken glass. Someone emptied a Goddamn dustpan in there. I could not believe someone who is human would lack the common sense and the basic innate knowledge to know what a bustub is used for, what a dustpan is, and to not empty that into a bustub. Boy did that set me off. That was when I took to Hotschedules for the first time asking ‘Who emptied the dustpan into the bustub?’. It is funny, a year later, and I just noticed a typo in my message. I spelled “lair” for “hair” in “dirt and lair together (gross!)”. God how stupid of me. Clearly I must have been pissed off and did not proofread. I posted that on July 27th, 2023.
Boy did that garner me more of a reputation amongst my coworkers. I was the talk of the town for that weekend. After my protest and now this, that made them think of me more as a… Well, to be honest, I do not know what words they would use to describe me. I am not exactly sure how my coworkers saw me. I for sure have my guesses of how they saw me and how they would describe me. I think I am correct. Pretty much, by the time of this; post protest, Hotschedules message, and letter of contempt, I was known for stuff like this by the time of the slack-off strike. That had come after I asked everyone to sign my letter to try to get Corporate to reinstate the bottom shelf just 4 months earlier. I posted my announcement of my slack-off strike on Hotschedules on Monday, May 20th, 2024 around 11:30 in the morning. Before I sent the message, I sent 13 photos to 20 coworkers that accompany the message so everyone can understand what I am talking about, and so they can circulate amongst everyone at Lazy Dog. These were the 13 photos.
This was my message:
Subject: Alex busboy — slack-off
To all the waiters and waitresses, my busboy coworkers, managers, and food runners, this upcoming weekend; Friday, May 24th, Saturday, May 25th, and Sunday, May 26th, I will be slacking off in what I call a slack-off strike. Think of a sick-out when employees intentionally call off in protest of something; either for labor shortages or over a new company policy — you hear about it on the news — well instead of calling off, I will be slacking off at work. What prompted this is our general manager that we have had for less than a year, Caroline, whom has been giving me problems. I had never had any problems with any of the two GMs that we had before Caroline came in. I am the best busboy at Lazy Dog. I do way more than all the other busboys do, I always have, and I do more than my job requires me to do. I carry the weight of the restaurant of all the stuff that we busboys are responsible for. Many of you from the waiters and waitresses to the hosts and hostesses have told me that I do more than the other busboys, that I am always on it, that I am reliable, that they can rely on me, and that I do not slack like other busboys do. And I know what I do and what everyone else does not do. I do not cut corners and I do not do things halfass. There are things that I do that no one else notices and that no one else cares about but I do, and that is not required of my job by corporate but I do. The silverware caddy that the silverware goes in that we busboys grab from to do rollups, I rinse the debris, dirt and even the hair out of those. Do not believe me about the hair? Look at the photos. There are 4 showing hair. None of the other busboys do this and this is not a job requirement. I do it because I am the only one that notices things, thinks, realizes, and cares. Those nasty-ass, ‘tortilla soup, and macaroni and cheese’-crusted soup bowls that just sit in the gutter and gather because we do not have enough soup bowl racks or that sit in the rack waiting to be washed, I soak those in pans using the Pantastic soap from the bucket on the floor where the little hose is connected to. I do not do this continuously throughout my 8-hour shift because I do not have time all day, but the reason why those bowls are half-of-the-time clean is because of me. Otherwise they would be dirty all the time. For a second time, none of the other busboys do this and this is not a job requirement. I do it because I am the only one that notices things, thinks, realizes, and cares. That nasty-ass silverware, any silverware that has hardened food on them that I notice when I am doing rollups, I soak those in the silver power. The silver power is located where the dishwasher stands and sprays the dishes with the spray hose. Why? Because throwing them down the shoot where they will sit dry is not going to remove the hardened food. For a third time, none of the other busboys do this and this is not a job requirement. I do it because I am the only one that notices things, thinks, realizes, and cares. When the silverware has melted crayon on them, I soak them in the silver power because that is the only way it comes off. The other busboys just throw them in the dishwasher. Do not believe me? Look at the photos. For a fourth time, none of the other busboys do this and this is not a job requirement. I do it because I am the only one that notices things, thinks, realizes, and cares. Don’t know what I am talking about? Hotschedules does not allow you to attach photos so I have sent 13 photos to Lluly, Danielle, Steven, Debra, Lihaulani, Jasmine, Savannah, Richie, Reanna, Patrice, Nikki, Nicholas, Maximus, Khloe, Kekoa, Katie, Justine, Heavenlee, Christina, and Celine. To whomever did not receive the photos, you can ask them to show you the photos so you can see what I am talking about and so they can circulate these photos. Stocking the slide with the bowls and the ramekins. It is not my job to do that. I take those racks out to the slide, I take out all the soup bowls and the ramekins from the racks, check them if they are dirty, and put them on the line. For a fifth time, none of the other busboys do that and this is not a job requirement as a busboy. I do it because they are with the glasses so I figure why not? Next, refilling the ice and stocking the slide with glasses. That is part of my job but I am the busboy who is always doing that. I am the one who is on top of that. I am always refilling the ice in the slide. I am always stocking the slide with glasses. And another little thing I do, I consolidate all the glasses, jugs, and mugs in the racks. I take off all the racks that are on top to check all the racks underneath and any racks that are not completely filled, I will fill them up so they are all even and completely filled. I am the only one that does this. So, this upcoming weekend on the 24th, the 25th, and the 26th, I will be slacking off. I am going to be a lazy busboy who does not care and who slacks off. When I have no tables to clean, I am going to be standing in random parts of the restaurant. I want all of you to purposely and intentionally see me slacking off, being lazy, doing nothing, and being a bad busboy. If any of you, from managers to waiters and waitresses to my busboy coworkers ask me to do the ice or glasses, I will refuse and say no sorry, I am on a slack-off. I am not going to refill the ice. The bar is exempt. I am not going to restock the slide with glasses. I am not going to make sure anything is clean. I am not going to care if anything is dirty. I am going to have so much fun this weekend just slacking off and being lazy and I want to make sure that all of you see me being lazy. Again, my slack-off is on Friday, May 24th, Saturday, May 25th, and Sunday, May 26th. I am tired of her picking on me as if I am a bad busboy who is slacking off and puts no effort. She clearly knows this. She always sees me in the slide constantly checking, stocking, and refilling. Even when she first began, she immediately noticed this because her exact words to me one time were, “thank you for your rack dedication.” This is a worker revolt. On the part of me.
I came to work on that Friday, May 24th, 2024. On my way there, I wondered how this was going to go down. I wondered if the managers were going to say something to me. If they were going to bring me into the office and have a talking-to with me. They did not. There were numerous coworkers that supported me. Chief among them were the waiters and waitresses. The waiters and the waitresses at Lazy Dog always had my back. When I protested outside the restaurant, they supported me. There were a few of them that called what I did iconic. When I posted my slack-off strike message on Hotschedules, one coworker in particular, she will not be named and her position will not be stated to protect her identity, called me an icon. [See text message screenshot]
She was all for my slack-off strike and she went in all in on it. She posted post-it notes around the restaurant where the waiters and waitresses frequently are at like the cabinets where the sauces and the condiments are kept, and the POS systems. I do not know if she posted different sayings other than the two that I know. One of them said “Slack-off 2024” and “Got milk? Slack off”. Although I do not believe they were written in this fashion. I do believe they were written informally for post-it note messages such as “slack off 2024” and “Got milk slack off”. The waiters and the waitresses were always the ones who supported me and were on my side when I was not even a waiter. The busboys never were. Obviously I understand that they are not going to be on my side for my slack-off strike. I called them out and basically said that they are lazy and that I am the best busboy there. I made them look bad. So that is understandable. But I would have thought that at least John and Juvenal would have said something to me. John knew that I was the hardest-working busboy there. Juvenal did not like Caroline either. He had had a run-in with her. She removed him from opening on Sundays because she said that he was lazy, and that pissed him off. Juvenal is not an employee who is lazy or slacks off. He never left the restaurant and chilled in his truck like George did. Another busboy. When he clocked in at 3 on Fridays, he immediately went to work. He would start washing silverware or check tables. Whenever George would start at 3, he immediately would just go to his truck because the restaurant was empty. That was not true what she said about him. Juvenal was not lazy. She did not know what she was talking about. She knows nothing. So I would have thought that at least Juvenal and John would have said something to me. But no, they were cold to me when I came in on Friday. They did not talk to me. Even when I came back to work after having protested and gotten my reasonable accommodation, they were cold to me. I remember Juvenal and John acting like I had not been gone for a month. They did not acknowledge that I was back. Not even a simple, “oh you’re back” to me. It was always the waiters and the waitresses who supported me and were on my side. My busboy coworkers, forget them I guess. On that Saturday when I threw them away, I was feeling very rebellious and very badass for being on my slack-off strike. I felt like, I was sticking it to Caroline, I felt like I had power. Also, I was just fed up with those Goddamn lids. So that prompted me to throw them away. We busboys had been taking off the trash can lids for what, close to a year now? I had taken them off several times over too. I was a part of it too. David is one of the kitchen managers in the back. Of all the times that we took off the trash can lids, and took them to the back, and had them off the trash cans for either the entire day or for hours, he never said anything. Never. Never. That one day, in that one particular moment, he just so happens to ask me immediately after I come back from the dumpster room having put them there, where are the lids. Like come on. Are you freaking kidding me? Now? In this one moment. And on the weekend of my slack-off strike. Of all the times when I have taken them to the dumpster room, of all the times when the other busboys have taken them to the dumpster room and come back when I am in the dishpit as well, this is the one time when you just so happen to ask as to where they are. Why are they not on there? Blast! I just lied and said I did not know. I honestly did not think that anyone would check the dumpsters. Then about like an hour or two hours later, when I went in the dumpster room for something, probably to get another rag, I saw them on the floor, next to the dumpster that I had thrown them in. I knew I was caught. Towards the end of my shift, I get pulled into the office by her. I immediately knew what it was about as soon as she asked me to come to the office. She had Jessica Stewart there as a witness. She had only gotten a few words out before I interjected and said that I was the one that threw the lids away. I was forced to write a statement detailing what happened right then and there. I did not have time to think about how to properly put it as writing requires. So I had to spit out what I could on the spot. And because I had to hurry and write it there, I could not take the time to write beautifully with good handwriting and to write legibly. I finished it and then a little bit later realized that I need to get a copy of what I wrote. I want it for evidence. Caroline printed it out for me. This is what I wrote. [See statement photos]
I honestly did not know if that was it for me. If it was over. If I was through. I thought that it could go both ways. That I could be suspended or fired. There was a part of me that felt no, this is it for me. I am going to be fired. But then still there was that part of me that was like, well who knows. It is not for sure. I was still pissed off. I was pissed off over Caroline and the slack-off strike and I was pissed off about those Goddamn lids. I wanted them gone. I wanted to do something else. I wanted to push it. To push more of my activist status. More of my rebel status. So I called for a call for action of defiance. I sent it the next day on Monday.
Subject: Call for action of defiance for all busboys and waiters/bartenders to show solidarity
This message concerns corporate and the metal-catching trash can lids. We busboys have had it with those lids on the trash cans in the dish pit to catch any silverware or ramekins from being thrown away. They have been there for a year now which is the longest period they have lasted in this restaurant. When Karla was the general manager, they barely made it past a few months. Their stay for a year now is ridiculous. Those lids make our job as busboys of emptying mounds of trash from bustubs difficult because they clog the trash from falling into the trash cans and the trash gets backed up instead of going into the trash cans. We constantly have to push the trash down. And those metal grinders, they prevent the trash cans from fully evenly getting filled. Many of us busboys remove these lids and put them in the dumpster room. You busboys reading this, you know who you are. You have done this just like me so do not act all innocent and naïve. Those lids just slow us down and they are an unnecessary nuisance brought on by those retards at corporate who are too stupid and clueless to know anything. The people in power at corporate do not know this because they do not do our job. We do. The reason why they were put there in the first place is to prevent the continued loss of silverware that would get thrown away from the waiters and waitresses. Why? Because when they have pie tins and dishes, filled with food, tissue paper, and paper napkins, or linen napkins, when they grab that to either throw it away or put the linen napkins in the linen bag, they do not squeeze the linen napkins to make sure there are no silverware in there, or they do not properly inspect said food, tissue paper, and paper napkins on said pie tins or dishes before throwing them away. Thus leading to silverware or ramekins being tossed in the trash. If those retarded morons at corporate who implemented those trash can lids were not stupid and clueless like all people at the top are, they would know this and they would have instructed the general managers at Lazy Dog, from Karla to Analena to Caroline, to hold mandatory meetings with the restaurant staff mandating that they must either inspect food waste before throwing it away or squeeze napkins before throwing them in the linen bag. But they do not. Instead they put these fussy, clunky, job-impeding, inconvenient metal-catching lids on the trash cans that just screw us busboys over instead of getting to the root of the problem and actually doing effective leadership because the people in power are a bunch of retards who are too stupid and clueless to know anything about anything and to do anything about anything because the people at the top, whether the people who run companies or the government, are useless buffoons who sit on their thrones high atop their towers. We are the busboys. We are the ones who do this job. Not them. We have the right to take agency of our job and reject policies and procedures that affect us, that unnecessarily make our job difficult and impede our performance, and that we do not approve of. If management at Lazy Dog Montclair does not remove those unjustly-imposed metal-catching trash can lids by June 14th, I propose that all busboys, and all waiters and waitresses and bartenders to show your solidarity, start throwing away silverware in protest until the trash can lids are removed. This is not an “I will” statement. This is an “I propose” statement expressing a want or desire, not an official act to be undertaken on the part of restaurant staff, so no one can be implicated. We busboys have the power because we are the ones who bus the dishes, they do not, so we can very easily sneakily dispose of silverware in defiance against them. When the people in power who rule over us are stupid and clueless, or are corrupt, or are repressive, or enforce policies or procedures that impede us and that we do not approve of, we the people at the bottom have the right to revolt against them. WE DO NOT HAVE TO OBEY THEM. War, revolution, protests, strikes, civil disobedience, riots, uprisings, sits-in, walk-outs, blocking entrances, storming and taking over buildings, and acts of defiance, those actions by the strong-willed and the revolutionaries (people like me) are what changes things and changes the world. Submissiveness by the weak and those with the inability to think is what keeps things the same and keeps the stupid and/or corrupt at the top that rule over you in power along with keeping rules or laws in effect. Julius Caesar was stabbed to death on the Senate floor, and Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France, was beheaded during The French Revolution. The point I am trying to make with this? The people that rule over you can easily be brought down by action by the people at the bottom. The point that I am trying to make with that? We the people at the bottom keep the people that rule over us in power. That is the point that I am making. The smart like me know this. The stupid do not. THROW THE SILVERWARE AWAY.
If I were not going to get fired for having thrown away the trash can lids, I knew that message was going to do it for me. I had a very hesitant feeling before I posted that message. I had a feeling telling me not to post it. I knew that this was going to be it that was going to get me fired. I would say the majority of me knew that I was already going to get fired for throwing away the trash can lids so why would I give a damn about posting this final act of rebellion. The minority part of me thought no, I was not going to get fired but posting this is going to get me fired. But I wanted to post it. I did it for four reasons.
1. I knew I was going to get fired so I wanted to go out with a bang.
2. I wanted to see how far I could push it. How far I could take it. To see how much of it I can get away with. How far I could push my activist, rebel status.
3. I was pissed off. Plain and simple. I was not thinking smart and using good judgment, and I wanted to call for something wild and outrageous. I wanted to push my activist and rebel status. No one was actually going to do it. I am not that stupid. I may be stupid but I am not that stupid. But I wanted to do something wild, rebellious, and outrageous. I wanted people to see how activist-y and rebellious I am. How, disrupting-of-the-system I guess I am. How much of a fighter I am. That I do not take crap lying down. That I do not take crap from the people above me or from the powerful. I do something. Everyone else does nothing.
4. I WANTED CORPORATE TO SEE THAT WE DO HAVE THE POWER. That is the Goddamn point. Duh. A der. No der. If I actually did get a significant number of employees to take part in the act of defiance of intentionally throwing away the silverware where it did negatively impact the restaurant, we could force them to remove the lids from the trash cans. That is what activism is. That is what a revolt is. If you have a sustained movement or revolt then you can force change. That is what revolutions, uprisings, strikes, protests, civil disobedience, sit-ins, picketing, marches, and boycotts do. That is what changes the world.
I wonder if having thrown the trash can lids away alone would have gotten me fired. I wonder if I had never posted that message, if I were still going to get fired. I will never know. As soon as I posted it, I knew I was going to get fired. I was a dead man. I had sealed my fate. I may have been stupid for posting that because I was not serious about it and no one was going to do that. It was only done for show and to look big and tough. But what I said was right. And I was in the right for posting it. Those godforsaken lids should never have been placed on there. The people who run the company are stupid and incompetent. They do not care about us, and they are too stupid and incompetent to find out what is causing problems. I texted Nicholas, one of the waiters there. His last text to me was:
But the thing is, I do take it too far. I cannot help it. I am an activist. I always take it too far. I Goddamn do. It is in my nature. I am always trying to push it. I do not pander to people and give in and suck dick like everyone else does in our pussy pandering society. I was waiting for Lupita Salvador to call me that week to tell me that I was fired. But Friday morning came, and nothing. There had been no phone call. I thought, wait, did I honestly escape getting fired. Did I honestly get away with this? I was going to check Hotschedules the night before to see if I was still on the schedule but I forgot. It was during breakfast that I remembered, and I grabbed my IPad and logged into Hotschedules, and it confirmed what I had known all week, yes I had been fired. I was removed from the schedule. All the weeks that I had been scheduled were clear. I emailed Lupita and asked if I have been fired, why has no one called me? About an hour later, both Lupita and Caroline call me in a two-way call to officially tell me that I was fired. The way Caroline put it was, “we are parting ways”. Lupita had said that during the week, they were contemplating calling the police over my message. I honestly could not believe that. How stupid. I told her that was absolutely ridiculous that Corporate actually took that as some credible threat. Based on what? That stupid bitch Lupita Salvador said it was because of the times we live in. The times we live in are mass shootings. It is of men, going online, posting manifestos of how they hate whatever and they want to kill whomever, and then they actually carry out their plans and shoot up some public place. The times we live in are the idiots of this idiot country who support mass shootings and allow it to happen because “Americans” are part of what I call The Cult of The United States. We do not live in a time of mass killings of politicians and government leaders. People are not killing in droves Senators on Senate floors of state capitols or on the Senate floor of The Federal Government. People are not beheading in droves presidents or governors or government officials. What were they going to tell the police, that I plan on killing Caroline on the Senate floor of Lazy Dog? That I plan on beheading Caroline in The Lazy Dog Revolution. First of all, I have nothing against Caroline personally. I did not like her as our general manager. She was horrible. But I do not hate her. She is not the problem. The Goddamn morons at Corporate are the problem. Second of all, if I were to stab anyone on the Senate floor or behead anyone during a so-called revolution, it would be the stupid and clueless patricians at Corporate. I was making the point that you can fight something and you do not have to put up with something just because you are a nobody, powerless, and are at the bottom. I was making the point that, whatever the way that things are, however something is, however life is, it is not permanent. It is not the way that it is just because that is the way that it is. No. Things can be changed. Things can be brought down. People at the top can be brought down. We the people have the power. Governments run the world but people rule the world because governments are kept in power by the people. At any given time, the people of a nation can rise up and overthrow their government and dispose of their leaders. Translate this to anything in life. Anyone who is in power, at the top, in charge, whether you are talking about the people who run a company, they can be brought down. That was a valid intellectual point. That was a valid intellectual analogy. I may have been extreme in this case, using the executions of an historic dictator and a queen, but it was a valid intellectual analogy. If commoners are too stupid to realize that then that is not my fault that they are stupid. Not my fault that I am not stupid like everyone else and that I am better than everyone else. I am not submissive like everyone is and takes life for what it is. I know better, I see past that, and I fight to change it. My point and my analogy are true. They also barred me from going to that restaurant as a customer because I am perceived as a dangerous person. You know what, screw you. Caroline, you are a horrible general manager. You know nothing about what you say or do. Lupita Salvador and Shelley Reed, you two are stupid bitches. Two dumb hags. You are both just pawns and tools for the patricians. Serving the patricians and not there for us employees. The patricians at Corporate are whom I hate. They bar me from the Lazy Dog in Montclair when the people whom I hate are not there. They are at headquarters in Costa Mesa. I am sure Caroline was happy that I threw away those lids and got myself fired to get rid of me. But the fact remains, she is a horrible general manager. And that was it. I was fired.
That capped my four and a half years of working there. Who would have thunk it that the metal-catching trash can lids would have done me in. I got myself fired. I threw away the trash can lids. If Analena had stayed the general manager and Caroline had never come in, I would not have initiated a slack-off strike, I would not have been so pissed off, and I would not have let my anger get the better of me and I would not have thrown those Goddman lids away. But again, I threw away the trash can lids. I got myself fired. No one else. Not Caroline. Not Corporate. Me. It is on me. And then they (The California EDD) denied me unemployment because I “broke a reasonable employer rule”. Unemployment is for when you quit, are fired, or get laid off. I have the right to my unemployment. I worked there for 4 and a half years. I put in my time there. I had taxes taken out of my checks. I have earned my unemployment. I was like, you know what, screw you. I did not bother to appeal.
I am sad that I got fired. I am sad over how everything played out. I was set to transfer to the Lazy Dog in San Diego in Mission Valley. I start school in San Diego so I am moving there. I honestly saw myself working at Lazy Dog for three, four, five more years. I had not planned on leaving anytime soon. Well, transferring to the Lazy Dog in San Diego is no more. I have conflicted feelings for Lazy Dog. I have hatred for the company but that is because of the people who run the company. I know this may be a lame descriptor but I think Lazy Dog is a cool restaurant. I cherished my time working there. I really did like being a busboy at Lazy Dog and I did like working at Lazy Dog. WHICH IS WHY I FOUGHT FOR IT AND BECAUSE I HAD THE RIGHT TO. I like being a busboy. It is not for everyone. Andrew, the busboy in the corner shelf incident, hated being a busboy and hated working there. I loved my schedule. I truly did. 100%. I loved working from 12–8:30 on Fridays and Saturdays and 10–6:30 on Sundays. Other restaurants do not have 12 o’clock shifts. I loved that I worked 8-hour shifts at Lazy Dog. I could leave earlier if I wanted to. I just had to ask but I did not want to. And, especially, I cannot go without mentioning this, I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved that busboys ate for free on their break! Busboys at Lazy Dog are allotted up to $21 or $23 towards one free meal during their break. Originally it was $21 but then Marissa said she thinks that it went up to $23 because of inflation. So, I am not sure. I cannot get myself to throw away my aprons. My work shirts, I use as house shirts. This had been the norm for me even long before I got fired. They are nice shirts. On Sunday, May 26th, 2024, my last day of work, the shipment of the new summer t-shirts had come in that day, and Jillina was giving all the employees their new shirts. Employees are given two shirts every t-shirt season. T-shirt season begins in late May and ends sometime in mid — late September. This is this year’s t-shirt.
This was last year’s t-shirt.
Lazy Dog is a great restaurant for busboys to work at because they give them a free meal on their break and they are not a busboy abusive restaurant. We have a contradiction here folks. Throughout my entire 3-article series, I have been ragging on Lazy Dog for not caring about their employees and that they do not have consideration for their employees, and here I am telling you that they are a good company for busboys. Yes that is true. However, if we were to just isolate the busboy job of bussing tables, and in comparison to other chain restaurants, Lazy Dog at least respects the position of being a busboy and what it is. Lazy Dog is not a busboy abusive restaurant. They do not make busboys take on the job of being a waiter or a food runner. Do not apply at Puesto or P.F. Changs. I applied for a busboy position at the Puesto in San Diego in Mission Valley. Puesto is a California Mexican chain restaurant. https://www.eatpuesto.com/ I had a phone interview with the assistant general manager. She told me that busboys there are forced to run food too. A busboy and a food runner are two different jobs. It is not a busboy’s job to run food. That is a food runner’s job. It is one thing for a restaurant to ask a busboy for a favor or to help out for a bit because they are in a dire situation, a dish needs to be taken right now right now, a big table is very important, or maybe because the restaurant is super slammed or crazy busy, or maybe they are down a food runner or two or something is going on. Something. But it is another thing to officially make a busboy also act as a food runner or a waiter by the company as part of his official job. I had an interview at a P.F. Changs in San Diego, and the manager whom interviewed me said that the prior week, the company had gotten new ownership. And the ownership completely restructured the company. They made waiters and waitresses now be responsible for bussing their own tables and running food, and they made the busboys be responsible for delivering the tables’ food as if they are waiters. He said now, busboys come out with that giant tray with all the plates on there, to bring the food to the table. That is a waiter. That is a waiter’s job. That is what a waiter does. Not a freaking busboy. I thought that was absolutely ridiculous. That is abusing the busboy position. Puesto and P.F. Changs are busboy abusive restaurants. They officially made the role of being a busboy to also be a food runner and a waiter. No restaurant has the right to officially make the busboy position also act as a waiter and a food runner. If you are a busboy looking for a busboy job or if you are looking for your first job as a busboy, apply at Lazy Dog because Lazy Dog is a better company than Puesto and P.F. Changs. They do not abuse the busboys. Lazy Dog at least has the respect of treating the busboy position as a busboy position. Not officially making the busboys at the company to also be food runners and waiters. They do not make the busboys do anything else but be a busboy which is clear dishes and clean tables, sweep the floor, refill the ice in the slide and the bar, empty the bustubs from the bar, restock the slide with glasses, take out the bar trash, and make roll-ups. Also, occasionally get more 22 oz. glasses for the bar. That is it. That is what a busboy is responsible for doing at Lazy Dog. That is all that a busboy should be responsible for. Also, busboys at Lazy Dog eat for free on their break WHICH I ABSOLUTELY FREAKING LOVED!!!!!!! I believe that is a privilege that is well-deserved for busboys at Lazy Dog. So yeah, if you are going to get a busboy job, get a job at Lazy Dog because they are not a busboy abusive restaurant and you get to eat for free on your break which busboys deserve. Going back to the company as a whole, after the bustub issue and the shelf issue, Lazy Dog is a horrible company to work for. They do not care about their employees. It is a company run by total stupid, blind and incompetent people who do not know anything about what goes on at the restaurants and they do not know what the hell they are doing. I do not know who the people are that run that company. I do not know who all the executive people are. I do not know who the people with the decision-making power are, but they are stupid. They should not be people in executive positions or with decision-making power at a corporate office. They are all idiots. They do not deserve to be stabbed to death like Julius Caesar on the Senate floor or beheaded like Marie Antoinette in a revolution, but they do deserve to be fired. I on the other hand did an excellent job. I am the greatest employee that Lazy Dog ever had. They just do not know that.
