Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

  

 

One evening our entire staff went to a local restaurant for dinner. I had already spoken to the Manager of the restaurant in advance so that we could reserve a table for 15 people. This manager was so nice, once we got there she was nice in person. It was a large group and we all had food and ordered drinks as well. A few of us ordered a desert to take with us. This restaurant was not a cheap place to eat either. No one in our group paid less than $25 plus gratuity was added since the group was over 8 people. We ate and enjoyed each others company for close to 2 hours it was an added bonus that the waitress was nice and sweet. We all noticed how every time we laughed and talked other people and waitress/waiters stared at us. I did notice along with others how cold it was and we asked several times for the heat to be turned on, the manger came and tried to fix it; they never tried to make us comfortable. It was in December and it was cold outside. The point of this whole story is that once  we left I received a phone call because I had given the manager my name and place where we worked when I called to make reservations. I was out shopping and was surprised she was calling me since we had just left. She told me that some people in the group hadn't paid their bills. I immediately was outraged because I had witnessed everyone pay for their food plus gratuity plus extra tips. I assured her that no one skipped out on a meal and she said yes, the waitress is missing a few of the tickets because they hadn't been paid. I told the manager to double/triple check  I would call to check and how stupid that would be since she had my number and place of employment for all of us. She said she understands but the tickets need to be paid. At this point I was furious, I told her to double check with the waitress and call me back as soon as possible. Then after speaking with her I called a co-worker to let her know what had just happened, she was upset too. My co-worker said that doesn't make any sense because they know where we work and have your name and number. It was taking so long for the manager to call me back so I called her back and she said "I'm sorry, we found the tickets they were stuck to other tickets." I then said so were you going to call me back to tell me this because I'm vey offended. The manager finally apologized and said she would mail me some coupons for 15 people, she asked for my address; needless to say I never received those coupons. Some months passed I went back with a co-worker and I asked for the manager and told her who I was and what happened; she said she had mailed those coupons already. While I was there she ended up giving me some coupons for free appetizers and of course when I went back to use them months later the restaurant was closed for good. This was a bad situation and I felt horrible to know someone thought me and some of my co-workers would skip out on a bill. The way this manager spoke to me I knew what it was all about, we were the wrong color. It happens every single day and it's sad.