15.5, as a dishwasher in a supposedly upscale pizza restaurant earning minimum wage. I lasted 3 weeks -- it was Hell on Earth and a health inspection/OSHA/EEO nightmare. The job was insanely busy for two dishwashers, but they cut to one. At least 35 bins of dishes/hour plus all the kitchen pots/pans/etc. The cook was certifiably psychotic. In three weeks I experienced:
- Large kitchen knife hurled in my direction by the cook because he was pissed he burned something
- Cast iron skillet hurled at the pile of dishes and glassware because he was pissed about something else, causing an explosion of glass and ceramic all over and around me. Of course I got to clean it up even though already swamped
- The cook scraped off a steak he dropped on the disgusting floor, and served it up
- Someone sent their meal back because it was undercooked, so he cooked it some more then spit in it and sent it back out
- Busboy had thrown out a rotten rack of ribs in the dumpster outside, that were completely covered in mold. The cook yelled at him, called him a "f*ing idiot" and said the ribs are fine -- he took them out of the dumpster, put them on a baking rack, hosed them off in the sink, slathered bbq sauce all over them, cooked them, and served them
- Called all the Mexican busboys "Taco" or "Jose", no matter what their names were
- Sexually harassing the female waitresses and hostesses (overt stuff like grabbing them or telling them he'd like to f* them)
- Live, exposed electrical wires coming out of the floor, that were frequently mopped over (wet)
- Another dishwasher (different shift) mixed chlorine and bleach in the mop bucket, creating a nice cloud of chlorine gas
- I had to violate child labor laws every night, working later than allowed in order to finish all the stacked up dishes
- When I quit, he called me a f*ing pansy, you f*ing quitter, why don't you go home to your f*ing mommy and cry.
Too bad I didn't know better back then to have that place shut down. I didn't want all my other high school friends who worked there to lose their jobs.