On August 10th 2008 I went to work at the Restaurant. The staff had been recently upset over and unfortunate incident in which two server trainers actually had an altercation which came to blows. The police were never contacted and this seriously destabilized the work place dynamic.
A female manager who had been harassing me came to work late, and proceeded to make a lewd remark 2 feet from my same sex partner of over 5 years. I walked away very shaken and upset. My partner did not and confronted this manager, whom immediately threatened to fire him. He quit on the spot. A male manager came to the outside patio to tell me that my partner "had been fired and was not allowed on property" and added "that if I had anything to say about it I could go home and speak with the manager later." Very shaken i went to get my book bag from the back office. The male manager actually grabbed me and threw me out of the restaurant.
Even though the company assures a through investigation they did not. They swept this incident under the rug like they do so many others. The Operating Partner never helped in the situation, and the Culinary Partner who's own wife works in the back office would have never stood for his spouse to be spoken to in the way I was. It was unprofessional, unethical, immoral. And showed an extreme lack of honor.
The HR department head in the main office in Arizona never checked out the situation to depth, and my partner was never even spoken to. So how is it that they have a complete picture of the situation is anyones guess. BEWARE this company is not capable of following its very lofty and wordy motto's and credo's and should you work there be prepared to be victimized without due process. I worked in this place for 20 months, I was made a trainer, and I even trained without any measure of compensation. The training program is ill thought out and the gapping holes in its managerial infastructure leave much to be desired. If you are working there I wish you better luck than I had. Personally I would like to have the 20 months of my life back and work for a more noble and honest organization.