Lizzy Donker, Editor-in-Chief
Several McClurg Dining Hall (Clurg) employees have come forward with allegations of workplace mistreatment including public humiliation, lack of confidentiality, retaliation towards those who speak out, an us-versus-them power dynamic and an overall lack of compassion. Clurg’s upper management denies the claims, calling them mere “opinions.”
A Clurg worker supplied five pages of complaints to The Sewanee Purple on condition of anonymity, saying they believed conditions for employees needed to be addressed but feared being retaliated against or fired if named. The complaints compiled by the worker included:
“When crew has gotten in trouble they send them to the dish room and everyone knows exactly what has happened. They are sent to work in the dishroom to embarrass them and degrade them.
“When managers are called out for not doing their job they retaliate by making the one that called them out do more things. Example– like making them sweep and mop the whole dining area everyday.
“We have had on and currently have people that are homeless and trying to better themselves that are having a hard time. The managers would not let them eat food before they left, but made them throw it away instead– we understand we cannot take food home– but this person could have ate before going home but was told he already had a break that day! Where is the compassion?
“A special needs person was fired and escorted out of the building for being late for work– they have been a long-time employee.
“Nothing is confidential. Even in a meeting with upper management the whole cafeteria knows before the end of shift.
“Cannot go to management or upper management cause all those that have are retaliated upon. They turn everything around on us that complain.
“Many lately have quit because of treatment of managers and upper management– why? Why not treat us better?”
Brent Tate, Assistant Vice President and Director of Sewanee Dining, disputed the worker’s complaints. “There are aspects of the statements which seem to be people’s opinions about things, as opposed to operational issues,” Tate said. “Dining really makes an honest attempt to keep everyone happy at the end of the day. We make an honest attempt to provide all that we can to the students, as far as their experience is concerned, and we do the same for the staff. I’m sure there are times that we fall short, but the main thing that we stress is communication.”
In an interview with The Purple, the first anonymous Clurg worker who compiled the document said many of their coworkers feared “getting on the radar” of management.
“If you do something maybe that just wasn’t up to par, or maybe you didn’t know or maybe you just messed up, you get on radar,” the worker said. “They keep you on radar, and they nitpick, constant nitpick, and they look for things to find to get you in trouble.”
The worker recalled one of their co-workers saying they felt sick and their blood pressure might be spiking. The anonymous worker said that staff repeatedly asked management if paramedics could be called.
The anonymous worker said management refused, instead asking if anyone in the dining hall had a blood pressure cuff. The worker said their ailing co-worker was then told to eat a grapefruit to help lower her blood pressure. But when the coworker did so, the anonymous worker said, management said, ‘You need to pay to eat, to eat the grapefruit.’”
After leaving work that day, the anonymous worker said, the co-worker went to the hospital and suffered a heart attack. “I don’t understand what their reasoning is for making them pay [for grapefruit] that day, whenever they’re already having trouble; you know, there’s no compassion.”
The anonymous worker said that their co-worker continued having health issues, including multiple strokes, but when they reported feeling “off” to management, management responded, “this is going to count against you.”
The worker recalled another employee with mental health issues who was followed around the dining hall by reprimanding and “nitpicking” management. The employee finally blew up, the anonymous worker said, and was forced to leave and write a letter of apology to the entire dining hall staff. “They read it [out loud] to the whole restaurant, gosh, all the crew members.” Subsequently, the worker said, that co-worker was “punished” by being forced to work in the pots in the back.
“And everybody knows that if you get in trouble, either you’re put in the dish room, or you’re put in pots,” the worker said. “It’s degrading.”
Another dining hall employee, who also spoke to the Purple on condition of anonymity confirmed these allegations, and shared other instances of maltreatment. In one instance, the second anonymous worker described how another coworker who was homeless and living in a tent had health issues. While staff pooled their resources to help that co-worker buy a camper, management did not share the same level of compassion.
“They had fixed the fried chicken that day, and [the homeless co-worker] said, ‘I won’t have to worry about finding something to eat tonight.’ So, they went ahead and fixed [him] the plate, and they wouldn’t let him take it with him and made him throw it away. [They] said, ‘You already had your 30 minute lunch.’”
Another former worker who spoke with The Purple on condition of anonymity confirmed the claims on the five-page complaint list. That worker, who left Clurg a year ago, recalled an instance having a pan full of hot grease spilled on them while they were working at the allergen free station. “All levels of management wanted me to continue working,” they said, “even though I had burning hot grease in my shirt, pants, shoes, and socks.” That worker added that they were only allowed to go to the restroom to change their clothes after another cook argued with managers on their behalf.
Workers also reported not being allowed to use the restroom when not on break and being followed into the restrooms by managers telling them that “they need to get back to work.”
“You wouldn’t believe how many women here have had UTI’s because they hold and hold and hold. They understand if you have to go, but they will give you a hard time about it,” the second anonymous worker said.
The former worker said they were once followed into the men’s restroom by a female manager while on their break, and were subsequently summoned to management’s office to be given a verbal warning.
Tate denied that workers were being prevented from using restrooms when needed. “We do ask that they handle their restroom breaks during down times,” he said. “But if you have to go to the bathroom you have to go to the bathroom. There’s nothing more or less than that.”
“It’s workers versus management,” the second anonymous worker said. “You don’t feel comfortable talking to them… It creates a very hostile work environment.”
Workers attribute the us-versus-them dynamic in the dining hall to rules prohibiting managers from eating with other staff, spending breaks with other staff, or hanging out with staff members outside of work hours.
Tate, Sewanee’s Dining Director, denied that Clurg workers and managers were prohibited from socializing after work. “We do not control what staff do off the clock. That is not a rule. At the same time, while they are at work, it’s not we don’t allow, it’s we like to keep a separation and an understanding of who management is and who is not so that when there actually has to be some management that has to happen, that there isn’t a blurring of the lines of the relationship between that staff member and that employee.”
Asked if that might create an us-versus-them dynamic, Tate said, “It definitely does. I think what we do to try and combat that is we try to acknowledge staff at the same time…We try really hard to let staff know how much they’re appreciated.”
Tate added that appreciation is expressed through accolades such as awards for perfect attendance and employee of the month and other regular positive gestures for staff.
Though the second anonymous worker confirmed concerns that being assigned to the dish room made workers feel like they were being treated “like a dog,” Tate denied that was a form of punishment. “Our dish room staff are the most important staff in the dining hall at the end of the day.”
Tate added that there is an effort to maintain confidentiality about individual staff issues.
“We have to be very careful about how we disseminate information. It can be misconstrued as something other than that, but it’s more to try and keep what’s confidential confidential. At the end of the day, everyone works together, everyone talks together, and very similar to in any small town, word travels.”
Asked about the anonymous employees’ allegation that individual staff members have been called out in front of the entire dining hall staff, Tate said that only occurs when something involves or is relevant to the staff as a whole. “We will bring it up to the entirety of the staff and let them know that this type of behavior, not the person, but this type of behavior is something that we need to address.”
Jodie Garner, a long-time employee of McClurg dining hall who was recently fired, said she shares the anonymous workers’ concerns because she experienced them. “I worked at McClurg for six years, and for a long time I really loved my job. But things changed, and what used to be a good place to work turned into a place I dreaded going because of the way management treated me.”
Garner recalled being unfairly written up for putting nutella on a pizza at the pizza station–something she said she didn’t do but was blamed for because she was assigned to that station on that day. Garner said she was also called out at a staff meeting. One of the managers “even gathered all the employees together and said in front of everyone that I was responsible,” Garner said. “It was humiliating.”
The first anonymous worker who compiled the complaint list recalled the event happening at a crew meeting, “She [Jodie] sat there and cried the whole time because everybody knew who she was.”
Garner said she was fired after returning from Spring break last year with her nails done– which she and other workers told The Purple is a violation of McClurg policy. “I wasn’t even on food line at the time, I was housekeeping, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. I had already cut them down short, but [two supervisors] sent me home anyway,’ Garner said. “Then, out of nowhere, I got a phone call on my day off telling me I was fired. No warning, no explanation—just like that, six years gone.”
Garner added she tried to appeal her dismissal to Clurg management and the University’s Human Resources Office without success. “It felt like employees like me had no support at all.”
Though asked to comment on the employees’ concerns, officials with HR did not respond by The Purple’s Sunday deadline.
“I gave a lot of time and hard work to that job,” Garner said, “but instead of being respected, I was bullied, written up unfairly, and embarrassed in front of others. In the end, I was thrown away like I didn’t matter.”