TASK Read this account of a job relationship in the USA . Give it a title
I am going to piss a considerable amount of people off with my comment. I guess I should get ready for the hate mail from my conservative friends. I am a conservative by the way, but I am just answering a question.
I will preface this by saying I believe in “the wall” and closing borders. But 20 years ago, was a different time. Everyone hired illegals at the time, so I am not ashamed of my actions.
After grad school I fell into managing restaurants because the money was great. I opened a new Italian restaurant in 2000 and staffing was difficult. Minimum wage was $6 / hr. I was making $18 / hr. as a general manager, my assistant was making $16 / hr. and my third asst. manager was making $15 / hr.
We couldn’t staff the kitchen so we started hiring anybody. I think I had a dozen Hispanics using the same ID. I still do not understand how they cashed their checks.
We made our pizzas in a wood oven that required quite a bit of maintenance. The person would come in and clean the oven, cut wood, stack the wood, and served as a bus-boy through lunch. We also had a maintenance worker who came in to mop the floors, clean the bathrooms, wash the windows, and also serve as a bus-boy during our lunch hours.
Finally, I had my dishwasher named Eusevio; he had I wife back in Mexico and 7 daughters he was putting through private school. He worked from 8 am until 2 pm with me and walked down to Walmart 2 miles away to work the 3 pm to 11 pm shift. He had previously (in Mexico) wrestled alligators for tourist to make a living) so he was in good shape and a very hard worker.
Several week after we opened the guy who cut the wood quit and we couldn’t fill the job. I asked my two assistants to step up and chop the wood (which I was doing as well) and they both told me “no.” One morning when I was chopping wood for the day, Eusavio showed up early, and took the ax from my hand, indicating that he had “this” job and for me to get back to managing. I let him. After a week of him doing both jobs, I doubled his salary to $12.
A few weeks later the guy who did all the cleaning maintenance quit and we couldn’t fill the position. I asked my assistant managers to step up, come in early, (like I was doing), and mop the floors and clean the bathrooms. They refused.
One day, prior to opening, I was mopping the floors and Eusevio showed up even earlier than before, took the mop from my hand and motioned for me to go handle more important things. I did. And I added another $6 dollars to his hourly wage. He was now making exactly what I was per hour ($18), and two and three dollars more per hour than my assistant managers.
My two assistant managers soon stumbled upon payroll and were mortified that the dishwasher was making more than them. They suggested that we demote Eusavio back down to $6 per hour and take the additional $12 per hour and split it up among the three of us; I would have none of that. I told them that Eusavio was doing three minimum wage jobs and the fact that both of them refused to mop floors, clean toilets, chop wood, clean the oven, bus tables or do dishes, then they didn’t deserve a raise.
They threatened to quit on me as managers and tried to blackmail me. I told them, if they did that, then I would have to teach Eusevio English and train him how to do both of their jobs. I added it up and said, “he is currently making $18 and hour, if you add both of your wages into it he will be making $47 an hour. Do you really want to see that?”
They didn’t quit, but they were pissed. They notified the regional office to let them know what was going on. My regional manager was appalled that I was paying my dishwasher $18 an hour and threatened to fire me. I told him that he wouldn’t have to fire me and that I would quit if he changed Eusevio’s wage. I told him he was doing three jobs and deserved to get paid for them fairly. He didn’t fire me and they (Corporate) let Eusevio keep his job at the wage I had given him.
I was never able to communicate with Eusavio and he was never able to communicate with me because neither one of us spoke the same language. Still, that didn’t keep us from hanging out, having a few beers, and watching football games sitting at the bar on the weekends. I’d buy him a round and he would buy me a round. We communicated through “cave-man” speech, with many facial and hand gestures. But I would rather hang out with him than any of my other co-workers, because he always had my back while many of the others didn’t.
I had to move on to a new job at one point and that same week I had bought a car and was getting ready to sell my old Volvo station wagon. Eusevio showed up late to work one day and told me that his pickup had been stolen the night before. The next day, I handed over the title to the Volvo along with the keys. He hugged me for a very long time, with a tear in his eye he wished me well in my new job, but I had no idea what he was saying. I still miss the guy 20 years later and wonder how his 7 girls he was working so hard for turned out.
