| I used to work at Buca di Beppo a couple years ago. I just wanted to mention the reason why I left, as well as the entire wait staff. It was for one reason and one reason only: The "general manager", Cindy Jones. I could name countless instances against this individual, too many to count to be honest. But I'm just going to point out the few that come to mind... The first one that comes to mind is her subtracting hours for employees' pay. Luckily, every time an employee clocks out, it prints out a little receipt of that employee's logged hours for the week. I happened to keep those receipts with me. On numerous occasions, I would clock out with over 30 hours worked in one week, with still 1 or 2 shifts remaining in the work week. On the very next shift, I would work an additional 6 to 8 hours, and clock out of course. "30 hours" total my receipt would say. Dumbfounded, I went back and looked at all the previous times I had clocked out, and they were all changed by a manager. For instance, if I clocked out at 11pm, it would now say "9pm". When brought to Cindy Jones' attention, she would always say it's a "computer error", or "the computer doesn't allow an employee to get overtime." This happened several more times. Same excuses over and over. She'd say that "corporate" is handling it, and that I'd get a check sent to me at home. I told several other employees about this situation, and they all began to monitor their hours. After letting everyone know about it, they all soon realized it was indeed happening to them as well. Cindy Jones, however, still blamed a "computer malfunction." The next incident, or incidents I should say, deals with the "mandatory tip-outs", where the waiters would have to tip-out most of the rest of the staff. Per Cindy Jones, she claimed Buca di Beppo "now required wait staff to tip-out more", meaning the wait staff, out of their own money, had to pay many of the other employees. This came as a shock to the entire wait staff, considering we all now had to pay 3% of our sales to the bus boys, 3% of our sales to the bartender, a straight $5 fee to the food-runner, a $3 fee to the dishwasher, another $5 fee to what Cindy called "the sweeper" (an employee who was paid to sweep the floors), and also an "event-coordinator fee", which was half of our tips from a certain party that this so-called event-coordinator "coordinated". Needless-to-say, over half of our tips were gone to our tip-outs. On a good night, let's say EVERY table tipped a 20% gratuity, (which never happens), if our sales were $1,000 and we subtracted all of our tip-outs, we would MAYBE make $70. Another problem was the lack of utensils and glasses we had. The restaurant wouldn't even be busy, however we would run out of silverwear and drinking glasses. Cindy Jones absolutely refused to order more. She wanted to keep her costs low to get her end-of-the-year bonus. So, not to gross anyone out, she would have us RE-USE dirty silverwear! She would have us clear a table, then simply rinse the forks and/or knives underneath a sink, only to replace them right back on a table for the next seating. This was absolutely DISGUSTING! We had no time to have the silverwear go through the dishwasher, so she would have a "wash" station, which was basically a hand-washing sink, where all the dirty silverwear was simply rinsed, then placed back on the table. Tablecloths were also not being replaced. People would spill spaghetti sauce, colas, coffees, etc. all over the tablecloths. However, we were forbidden to throw them in the dirty linen basket for two weeks, no metter how disgusting they were. Again, Cindy stressed "keeping costs low." (Obviously to no one's benefit but her own). That brings me to my next problem: the mold infestation. Buca di Beppo is built and designed to look like a "basement", hence no windows are in the entire building. Mold began to grow everywhere in the entire establishment: all over the beer taps, in the coolers, on the ceilings, underneath the tables, in the booths, and of course, the tablecloths. The entire staff, including myself, kept coming down with sinus infections and the flu over and over again. Our restaurant would always get hammered when it came time for inspections. Also, the wait staff were also the janitors of the building, because the night cleaning crew was "fired". Us waiters were required to mop the floors, and as well as use Wood-cleaning products to wipe all the walls, railings, and picture frames around the restaurant. Another big issue was with Buca gift cards. We were required to first check the balance of gift cards given to us by customers, and then close out the payment. One occasion, a couple's bill was $82.18 (I still have the receipt and gift card transaction). They left two $50 legitimate gift cards on the table to pay, and left the building. When I checked the balance of the gift cards, there were indeed $50 on each. However, when it came time to closing the payments, the gift cards were denied, and it had an error code. After several attempts of trying to close out the payments, Cindy said that I was responsible for the $82 bill. After arguing with her for over an hour the reason I should pay the bill, she finally agreed that she would send the issue to corporate, and I would get reimbursed the money after they find the problem. She told me if I did not cough up the $82 bill that night however, I would "no longer have a job", her exact words. So, I agreed to have corporate "take care of" the issue. A couple weeks went by, and I heard no word about my $82 I was supposed to get back to me. After asking Cindy Jones about it for the umpteenth-time, she said "it's under investigation with corporate. It may take awhile." After another month of waiting, I brought it back up to her attention. She told me that Buca will be sending me a check for the $82 that I paid within the next 30 days. Well, 45 days went by, and still no check. This time I called corporate myself. Unsurprisingly, corporate had no idea what I was talking about. I brought up the gift card issue, the issue with tipping out every single employee, and also the time clock issue. Corporate was shocked to hear what I had to say, and I had told them that Cindy Jones was telling all of us that she has been contacting corporate about all these issues, and lying to us. She was pocketing hard-earned waiter cash and keeping it for herself. Less than one week later, i was happy to see police along with corporate come in to the establishment escorting Cindy Jones out. She was fired that day, which happened to be the greatest day of my life. Now, I heard Cindy Jones worked in North Carolina at another restaurant, and was fired from there too for theft. From what I heard, she is now working at yet another restaurant in North Carolina. If you work for Cynthia "Cindy Jones", a 6-foot 5-inch, 300 lb. amazon of a woman at a restaurant... BE AWARE! |
