Boss Does the Right Thing by Katerina Beaverhausen

editor’s note:  In in the hospitality industry creepy customers can be common. Uncommon is a boss who defends a worker’s right to be treated decently. Goes to show the customer is not always right.

In my early 20’s after living a private school ivory tower childhood I arrived at a point in my life when my dream job was to wait tables. To get down and dirty with the “real people”, make some easy cash and learn about great food, wine and jazz music.

To learn about working and meeting all kinds of people. Character building. All the while going to graduate school. I thought it was win-win. So, I worked at the Dakota Bar and Grille back when it was in Bandana Square. I had high ambitions in academia, so when these two professors I knew, one from Hamline and one from the U where I had done my undergraduate studies, came to the Dakota, I was thrilled.

Dakota Bar and Grille Jazz Venue

I’m thinking, I am honored to wait on intellectual superstars, people I respected … naturally I wanted to impress.

I’m waiting on them, everything seems fine. Until they got loaded. This was when the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal was going on. I was swamped that night with full tables and I couldn’t handle them all. Busy night. When I asked “Will there be anything else?” they both started laughing. I didn’t know what was happening. I never flirted with them by any stretch of the imagination but it didn’t matter. One says, “My friend wants you to BE his Monica.”

I kind of lost my composure. Mumbling something like “Um, OK I will bring um check” I fled to the kitchen and could feel tears building like a hurricane. I realized I was in over my head. Maybe it was PMS, maybe it was a moment of clarity but I did what I had never done before. I folded. I marched right into my manager’s office, crying and slapped their ticket on the table. I said, “I am not going back to this table. Have someone else finish it.” I went back to the break room to regroup. My manager got the story. Then … in a rare act of solidarity by the part of a boss, he went to the table and asked them to leave. “We don’t think this is the right place for you.”

Wow. People can surprise you. Watch out for labels. Win-win.