The waitress, who’d been skulking at the back, avoided the chef’s eyes. She seemed on edge, unknowingly biting her nails as the meeting went on. The chef ended the meeting, but as everyone walked out, he asked her to remain.
He thanked her for working the day, hoping she’d continue with the same spirit. He then asked her how she was doing, hoping everything was all right. What she’d share would more than break his heart.
When Chris decided to open his own restaurant in London, he only wanted to see his dream of being a chef come to life. He’d worked in the service industry for years, entering the food industry in his early twenties.
After almost two decades of training and on-the-job experience, he finally opened his place. He had no clue what a terrible thing it would all bring.
Chris had always been a hard-working man. At forty, he’d worked his way up from an aspiring chef to an actual chef with a restaurant under his name.
He’d also taken the time to build his family, with a beautiful wife who taught botany in the local university, two sons in middle school, and a daughter about to go to college. He had no clue how a simple day at work would threaten everything he’d worked so hard to achieve.
Like many working dads across the globe, Chris had found the perfect balance between his work and family. But he wasn’t only a dad at home but at work, given how close he was with his employees.
“My workmates mean everything to me,” Chris shared in a post on social media at the beginning of the year. “I wouldn’t be anything without them. I would never let anything happen to them.” Unknown to him, the worst was about to happen to one of his workers.
Among Chris’s dozen workers, Audrey had been among his most valuable. The twenty-two-year-old had proven her worth as a waitress at his restaurant, seeing countless commendations from the many customers she served.
A college student juggling work and her studies, she’d proven to be a quick study, hard worker, and team player. It was no surprise that Chris’s heart broke after she revealed what that customer had done to her.
This heartbreaking incident occurred just a few days toward the end of summer. Many people came to Chris’s restaurant looking to have a good time with their families.
The place was packed, and as the owner, Chris couldn’t be prouder. His staff made him even prouder at every turn, and everywhere his sight landed, customers smiled as they ate and talked. Chris had no clue what was truly going on amid the beautiful chaos.
The day was going on splendidly. To make matters even better, one of the customers, a mom in his early forties, had racked up a $1200 bill, which she happily paid for.
Chris knew he had to thank her in person, given that he’d never received that amount of money from a single table. If only he knew what was really going on.
As the day closed, Chris converged with his team to thank them for their hard work and commitment. But although the meeting went on well, he couldn’t help but feel like something was off.
Needing to get to the root of the matter, he asked everyone how the day was. His employees were quiet initially, a few saying they enjoyed the day’s work. But soon, the harrowing truth would come out.
Audrey, who’d been skulking at the back, avoided Chris’s eyes. She seemed on edge, unknowingly biting her nails as the meeting went on. Chris ended the meeting, but as everyone walked out, he asked her to remain.
He thanked her for working the day, hoping she’d continue with the same spirit. He then asked her how she was doing, hoping everything was all right. What she’d share would more than break his heart.
Audrey promised her boss she was okay. But the tears in her eyes and quivering lips told another story. “What is it,” Chris asked. Were her folks in trouble, or was it school related? Was this something to do with work?
He assured her his office was a safe place, reminding her that she wasn’t just a mere employee to him but a close family friend and someone akin to a daughter. He wasn’t ready for what she shared.
Audrey wiped her tears and opened up about what had happened to her that day. Chris was dumbfounded to find out that it all happened under his nose.
One of the customers had been rude to Audrey, going as far as groping her and making insensitive remarks. They disrespected Audrey throughout their stay, ruining her day at work. But what was even worse was the customer’s identity.
Audrey identified the customer as the same woman who’d spent over $1000 at the restaurant. She hated that the woman looked like an upright and respectable person. How could she do such unspeakable things to someone half her age?
Hearing Audrey speak and seeing how traumatized she was by the ordeal broke Chris through and through. He knew he needed to do something about this issue.
Chris paid for Audrey’s cab home, asking her to take the rest of the week off. It’s the least he could do for now. Alone in his office, he pulled up the day’s payments and found the woman’s email address.
After pondering the best way forward, he got to write an email that would set everything straight. Hopefully, such a bad thing would never happen under his watch again.
Chris began his letter with a simple greeting and got down to business. “I wanted to firstly thank you for choosing my restaurant for your meal tonight,” he wrote. “I understand you had the biggest bill we’ve ever had on one table here.”
“Unfortunately, throughout the evening, I was made aware that your party’s behavior was inappropriate towards Audrey, who runs front-of-house. She has told me that as a 22-year-old-girl, she was talked down to and disrespected by you.” But the email had only begun.
“I have spent the last hour having conversations with her that break my heart, make me feel like a bad employer and a terrible dad, having my own daughter,” he continued.
“Please provide your bank details, and I will refund your entire bill of £1100 minus £100 that I believe you should have tipped Audrey, which I will pay directly to her, as you left no tip. I would thank you to never return to my restaurant. Audrey means a lot more to me than money. Please, be better.” Disclaimer: To protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
