Photo: TikTok
Bombshells' server shares how management issues left her (and her wallet) to freeze.
By Hawthorn Martin — Written on Feb 13, 2023
For most servers across the country, Super Bowl Sunday is a perfect day to pick up a shift. But for Tik Tok user @ Jeninaaxoxo, that wasn’t the case.
“I’ve been serving since I was 19, and I’m 23… and I had the worst shift I’ve ever had.” Jenina explains, her eyes teary.
During a 6-hour Super Bowl Sunday shift, she only made $6 in tips.
Jenina's first video shows her dressed the part, ready for a big day at Bombshell's, a chain restaurant with several locations across the US.
She writes that she was given a section of outdoor tables, despite it being 57 degrees outside, and was told she has to stay outdoors even though she has no customers.
In a subsequent video, Jenina gets into the nitty-gritty of how she only managed to make $6.
Right at the beginning of her shift, Jenina noticed that there were 23 servers on the floor, a fact that would already make it difficult to get a table, and on top of that, her section was outside.
Since very few people wanted to sit outside, the server’s plan was to wait up front by the host and try to convince patrons to come to sit in her section.
However, she was quickly approached by a manager who had other plans. “She was like, why don’t you go outside? And I was like, it’s kind of cold. And she’s like, why don’t you go check if the outside bar needs anything?”
After checking and returning indoors, another manager sent her back out, instructing her to stay outside for the entire shift, even though her work uniform offered little protection from the cold.
After expressing to a manager that she was cold, a manager asked why she didn’t buy a Bombshells jacket, which is the only kind of jacket you are allowed to wear on shift. The jacket, however, was $40.
“I already haven’t been making money,” Jenina explains. “I have bills.”
She decided not to buy the jacket, and just had to stand outside in freezing weather.
Some customers noticed her discomfort, and asked why she wasn’t inside warming up, upon which she had to explain that she literally wasn’t allowed to. Any time she returned indoors, a manager would redirect her right back outside again.
Since it was cold out, no one wanted to sit in her section, and so she ended up with almost nothing to do for a whole shift from 4 to 10 PM.
“I only had one table, and it was a pity table that another server gave me.”
Her single table tipped $10, but Jenina’s tip share was $4, so she actually ended up leaving with only $6.
And then, after that exhausting experience, she wasn’t even allowed to leave right away.
“I had all my side work done. They’re like, go up to the manager, she’s the only one doing checkouts.” Jenina went up to the manager to ask to get checked out so she could leave, but the manager refused. “She’s like, ‘we’re not cutting anyone. Stay until 2. You have to stay until 2.’”
Jenina was upset at this point and eventually found another manager to do her checkout so she wouldn’t have to stay for hours longer.
“I left with $6, and I’m never going back there again. I hate that place. I’ve never worked somewhere so terrible”
Other commenters on Tik Tok sympathized with her and encouraged her to find better work elsewhere.
“23 is an absurd amount of servers and the fact that the managers had to ask if u were a server is insane i would ghost that job entirely.” One commenter wrote. Jenina agreed, and responded: “yeah i decided i’m not going in today.”
“I’ve worked at bombshells before & yup they always put way too many servers on the floor for no reason,” another agreed.
Another wrote: “Bro I would’ve quit on the spot I’m so sorry.”
Several commenters suggested that she would find better work and pay in fine dining.
Jenina provided an update on her situation, confirming that she would be looking for another job.
And it seems that sharing her experience could work out in her favor as several commenters reached out with job openings.
"I'm really grateful that people are doing that," she says of her job offers, "You guys don't have to and you're doing it out of the kindness of your heart and I really appreciate that."
Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer living in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.