I just wrote my comment on this particular issue. I had a coworker complain that I made more than them and Boss tried to shame me for it.

Weirdly though I became the manager at my next place and had no problem sitting someone down and telling them why they weren’t making as much as their counterparts and when they’d get their scheduled raise and how they could improve and possibly get a bonus raise based purely on merit.

Some people get salty, some people rise to the occasion. The ones that rise to the occasion are dedicated, they’re receptive to constructive criticism and eager to show you they want to improve. It’s just as much a breathe of fresh air for me to see them so happy that they actually got a raise and I wasn’t just blowing smoke up their asses as it was for them to actually get a raise.

After two raises to two different people I had shown my owner that his money was being put to good use because we got long standing, dedicated employees that went above and beyond. He never questioned it again after that when I proposed a raise for a coworker. Good man, and a good team.

I’ve basically made a career out of serving and bartending. I took a 5 year break to do the stay at home mom thing but my first job getting back into it loved me at first.

It was a very interesting dynamic because it was my first job outside the city I grew up in but it was like riding a bike and I picked it up and immediately impressed them on the first night I was only supposed to be training.

Problem was was that they started firing my coworkers for the most questionable reasons. Then the trophy wife owner would show up to every court hearing for unemployment with forged signatures on their “policy handbook”. A lot of underhanded tactics were used. One of my very good friends was fired on his birthday.

But everytime they’d give me a raise to placate me so I wouldn’t leave. I could write a novel about that place because that’s how my mind works but I won’t.

Long story short, I responded to a server/bartender Facebook group at one point and mentioned my hourly for serving and for bartending. A coworker happen to see my comment and must have complained. (She couldn’t have ever earned the raises I got even if I got them on merit, but she’s a squeaky wheel and sits on a stool when her patrons need their beverages refreshed and plates cleared)

Boss lady made the mistake of messaging me that “it was agreed that you would not talk about your pay” which wasn’t true. She’d whisper to me that I got another raise but never actually said not to say anything, and also- you don’t get to dictate what I speak about on my own personal Facebook account.

I removed my comment just to unruffle feathers however I saved my boss’s message and linked her the exact federal/state article that forbids her from reprimanding me.

That’s when they tried to get me for minor shit. It was absolutely transparent what they were doing but I recorded everything and kept track of dates, times, incidents, message screenshots.

I saw the writing on the wall though and there was another place that had been wanting to poach me for a good while.

I was planning on fighting them earnestly for unemployment and take a month or two off before I started with the new place but they got desperate when their daytime bartender left so I got matching wages if I put my two weeks in and started ASAP so I did.

It was an absolute blessing. That next place treated me well and I was there for about 6 years until they closed their doors for good. Still miss them. I would have missed my old bosses too, if they didn’t try to do dirty the way they did because I genuinely loved them and I wish there wasn’t that bad blood. I don’t regret anything though. They brought it on themselves being so two faced and underhanded.

Man sketchers are awesome. I have a pair that I’ve re-bought consistently for years because they were the perfect fit, comfy, and were nondescript. Now they’ve discontinued them so I have to see if I can order them online.

I remember when I was kid though. We always had hands-down, goodwill, and k-mart clothes. But one of my Pop’s jobs was a janitor at the “rich” school district and he’d watch the lost and found box and wait for the shit he brought in to expire.

Once it was in the bin for more than a month it got “donated”. Half of that stuff went to the kids of the people that worked there. My brothers and I being some of them. So Pops scored me a pair of Air Nike when Jordan was at the height of his career.

Wouldn’t you know it? One dude on the play ground had to ask why I was wearing a Walmart T-shirt while wearing Nike shoes. Seriously, kids are fucking brutal.

I learned long before that that I was “poor” so I learned how to play it off and flipped the script. “Are you that superficial that you give a shit? It never even occurred to me to look at what you’re wearing but now that I am, all you are is a wigger” (slur for a wannabe in my era/location). He left me alone the rest of our school career.

I’m in my forties now but somewhere in my thirties he hit me up on Facebook and apologized for being a little shit. Turns out he had a bit of a crush on me and that’s how he showed it amongst other reasons. He was newly divorced when he reconnected with me so I had to turn him down (that the only reason you’re apologizing, dude?) but he was much nicer about everything this time.

Kids can be nasty but many of them grow up. Anytime you can stand up to adults in front of your kids it’s teaching them how to stand up to their own peers. Show them every example you can of how to handle what they’re dealing with. How you stand up to your family, friends, and peers, is how your kids learn how to do the same thing.

You can’t buy yourself out of bullying. Even rich kids get bullied. Confidence in yourself and empathy for others are a far better lesson to teach the next generation.

-Curly

-Onion Ring (isn’t really tater but I love them)

-Waffle

-Shoestring

-Sweet potato

-Zigzag (crinkle cut)

-Wedges

-Tots

Honestly though if im only stuck with the last three I won’t even eat them-