The great uniform debate.......

The one thing I know about restaurant uniform shirts, getting new ones will not make us more money.

We don’t really care what we wear, as long it doesn’t cost us much money. We currently wear black button down shirts with a tie. We can pick up these shirts at a thrift store all day long for 2 or 3 dollars. Ties, you can pick them up for a dollar, or less. If you hit the thrift store on Friday or Saturday, it’s even cheaper. For less than $20.00 you can have 3 or 4 shirts to rotate.

So….when management tells us that we are getting new shirts, that don’t require a tie, we are fine with that, until they tell us the shirts will cost $20.00, and we have to buy them from the restaurant, and they will have a logo on them. Now the rebellion starts.

A couple of servers said that if we are required to wear something with their logo on it, they, by law, have to supply us with the first shirt. This is all hearsay at this point. Now the research starts…….I googled it, found minimal information, one article that had to do with minimum wage, and the cost of the shirt and not going over a certain amount, well, there is math involved.

We had a staff meeting yesterday, and they told us that would supply us with the first shirt. Yay! See, when you work a slow lunch shift, and don’t even make $20.00, you’re very reluctant to give up the money for something that is purely the whim of the owner. Gee, new shirt or gas in your car to get to work……what’s more important?

Also, if you’re working a couple of double shifts in a row, that doesn’t leave any time to do laundry. Again there is a choice to be made…..spend $40.00 or $60.00 so we can have a few shirts to rotate, and be short on our rent or car payment…or just keep wearing the same shirt over and over again…..”Sorry, I’m short on the rent, but I had to buy new uniform shirts,” doesn’t cut it, with any landlord or mortgage company!

Good thing these shirts are black, and won’t show all the crap that gets spilled on them.