I am doing an externship for the CIA, and my boss, a world reknown chef on the TV Food Network is not paying.
He isn’t paying me and other employees for all the overtime they work, claiming he will pay people under the table, but then shorting them over half of the money he owes. It’s tough because I want to keep him as a good reference and contact for future employment, how do I approach this issue?
You don’t.
This guy knows how valuable working with him is. If you figure you are more likely just to GET a job after you graduate than you would if you hadn’t gotten an externship with him, work it out money-wise vs. if you hadn’t gotten the externship. For example, straight out of CIA, your average earning potential will be about $30,000 to $40,000 (tops) per year. An externship with him may mean 10,000 more per year. If you only have a 3-month internship at $2000/mo, then you’re ahead $4000 the first year.
Recommendations and good references from this guy are likely to land you a better paying and more prestigious job, in the end. It beats no job at all.
February 12th, 2010 at 5:08 am
You decide which is more important, the money or the reference. I would let it go, the reference is far more important and the externship is fairly short. Welcome to real life in the restaurant world.
References :
February 12th, 2010 at 5:13 am
You don’t.
This guy knows how valuable working with him is. If you figure you are more likely just to GET a job after you graduate than you would if you hadn’t gotten an externship with him, work it out money-wise vs. if you hadn’t gotten the externship. For example, straight out of CIA, your average earning potential will be about $30,000 to $40,000 (tops) per year. An externship with him may mean 10,000 more per year. If you only have a 3-month internship at $2000/mo, then you’re ahead $4000 the first year.
Recommendations and good references from this guy are likely to land you a better paying and more prestigious job, in the end. It beats no job at all.
References :
My brother the chef, whose highest-paying job was for $50,000/yr after 10 years experience out of culinary school, and he did an externship at a Fairmont hotel (comparable to a Four Seasons).
He’s now back to making $15/hour.
February 12th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Bobby Flay is a jerk.
Whenever someone is holding a good reference over your head, I guarantee they won’t give you one regardless of how much you suck up to them. If they do like you, they will get mad about your leaving.
Keep records contact the other workers and do a lawsuit. They will owe you three times what you are due for withholding pay and it will cost them in PR. People with money who cheat people who are broke are the worst. Have a chat with a lawyer now to prepare for a class action suit. Starbucks was sued so this person can be sued.
I know a guy who went to school with Bobby Flay and they said he would do coke on the cutting boards.
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