Crepe Studio, located in Charles Street Market, has experienced managerial changes since its establishment in the fall, and employees are concerned about wages and loyalty to the business.
Since the spring semester, the establishment has been operating under new management, and an anonymous employee spoke about how employees have been struggling with inadequate staffing and getting paid on time as the business has been establishing itself.
“We have a lot of things that we need to do. We’re a new-come business. We’ve only been here since this past August, so we’re still trying to work out the flow of different things,” he said. “We have new employees now, new managers. They don’t know everything that needs to be done yet. They’re still learning.”
The employee, who has a background in the food industry, also said he’s often frustrated by the shortage of staff at Crepe Studio.
“I’ve been here since late August and I’m not a manager — I’m just one of the chefs — but I get frustrated because we don’t have enough people,” he said. “I used to manage a restaurant, so I know when you need more people. I’m frustrated because I understand that my boss can’t really afford to hire more people because our business isn’t at what we want it to be yet.”
The worker said that the low pay he receives has recently led him to seek other job opportunities.
“I can’t tell you exactly how much we get paid per hour, but I have told my boss that with the next break coming up, I will be looking for other employment elsewhere because I have a daughter. I cannot afford to live on what I am making currently,” he said. “We should be getting more than what we are. It’s not minimum wage, but we’re not in the double digits yet which is really irritating.”
Furthermore, wages are often not paid on time.
“We had the issues where we had several different people in charge of payroll, some people in charge of scheduling, one person in charge of payroll, one person in charge of writing checks. We were put on the payroll at the end of the week and would end up waiting for two or three days because one of the owners who charged the payroll would not have information ready for the people writing the checks,” he said. “We were supposed to get our checks on Thursday, and I know that I didn’t get my check one time until a week later.”
According to the employee, the previous manager would have workers work overtime without an increased pay rate.
“We had one man here, and for about two months while he was here, I did not have one day off because I was scheduled one day off a week and the day before that he would tell me, ‘Oh, we need you to come in anyway’ because we were understaffed,” he said. “We weren’t getting our overtime here, so I’d be working 60-70 hours a week and that’s 20-30 hours overtime that I wasn’t getting. I was getting my standard rate, which I was not okay with.”
In addition, there have been numerous walk-outs by employees as a result of low work ethic and frustration with management.
“Some people just don’t care. We have had a few people walk out,” he said. “We have one employee — she had asked for a week off for her birthday, she was told ‘no,’ she was told she could take the day and the day after off, but she chose not to come in anyway... It’s just lazy on their end and then people [are] just not showing up because of past issues with them getting their paychecks and getting overtime.”
While these were problems in the fall semester, Crepe Studio now has new management for the spring and is trying to improve worker conditions.
“The old manager left about a month ago. It was right after we came back from winter break, but there was almost an immediate change after he left,” he said. “Things got a little bit more difficult because we didn’t have somebody who was fully in charge [during Intersession]... When he left, the things he was doing weren’t getting done, so we had a little lapse on who was running what.”
Since the arrival of the new management, there have been indications of improvements in employee working conditions. For example, the employee spoke about wage improvements.
“The new manager gives us a record of our hours so we could look over them and make sure everything’s correct. The other [old] managers weren’t doing that, and when I looked at it, I noticed that I was missing one day, and he sat with us, went over it about what happened and everything was fixed,” he said. “So there’s no issue anymore on when we’re getting paid or how much we’re getting paid or hours missing because he makes sure that everybody knows how many hours he has recorded to him and with any disputes. We can sit down and talk about it.”
However, a second anonymous source working in middle management spoke about how the difference in cultures between management and employees caused rifts and tension within Crepe Studio.
“With the culture differences, in my country if I am under somebody, then I have to listen to them carefully. Here it is not [like that]; they want to be their own [people],” she said. “I got in charge here, and I didn’t like to work here because they did not think about the customers’ feelings. When I got in charge, I showed that employees have to do that. For example, customers have to wait for 15 minutes. If I am a student and I have to wait for 15 minutes, I don’t want to come back here. In that case, I have to say that you guys can grab any drink for free.”
When asked about employee and customer satisfaction at Crepe Studio, Vince McPhail, resident district manager with Bon Appétit wrote in an email to The News-Letter that students were satisfied with the services of Crepe Studio, but Bon Appétit was not responsible for employee satisfaction.
“At the last two Dining Meetings hosted by the Residential Advisory Board (RAB), students have been overwhelmingly positive, praising Crepe Studio’s food, quality, service, and pricing.” McPhail wrote. “Regarding employee satisfaction, Crepe Studio manages its employee relationships directly... and in doing so is responsible for following all applicable employment laws.”
McPhail also clarified that Bon Appétit does not directly manage Crepe Studio.
“Crepe Studio is a separate entity contracted by Bon Appétit Management Company, which oversees limited aspects of the operation,” he wrote.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.