Working in the foodservice industry isn’t easy by a long shot. Most servers in North America are forced to work long hours for very little pay. Not only that but the vast majority are sexually harassed on a daily basis .
Some people, usually men, think that this is nothing more than a harmless joke — it isn’t. To get a better idea of what I’m talking about, have a look at this viral video that shows a customer’s inappropriate feedback about their Olive Garden server.
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Jacob Dagger (aka @cyberdrugzz) is an aspiring musician and TikTok content creator.
If Jacob’s name sounds familiar, that’s probably because he’s a former contestant from the popular reality TV talent series, The X Factor . Jacob was on the same season as former girl group Fifth Harmony and placed 31st in his grouping overall.
These days, Jacob is still working on his music and waits tables at the Olive Garden in order to pay the bills. The vast majority of his TikTok videos involve poking fun at the job he loves to hate.
Recently, Jacob posted a video of an Olive Garden comments card after noticing that the feedback was highly inappropriate.
The document appears to collect all the comments from a given day, most of which are pretty standard boilerplate. “Great service,” one reads. “Our waitress was fantastic ,” another guest wrote.
But between the lines of glowing comments and compliments, one piece of feedback stands out above all the rest. If you look closely at the middle of the page, you’ll see that a certain immature customer had the audacity to write “I’d eat her ass;).”
Jacob titled the video “The way Olive Garden really don’t check their own feedback.”
Jacob was asked in the comments whether or not the inappropriate feedback was brought to the manager’s attention.
According to Jacob, he said that all his boss did was shrug it off and laugh . He goes on to say that their female manager was no more help, as all she does when situations like this arise is block it out and pretend that it isn’t happening.
Since Jacob posted the video, the clip has been viewed more than 1.8 million times.
The majority of fellow TikTok users were downright outraged by the sexist and insensitive comment.
One person who goes by the handle @raptvneverbrokeagain wrote, “Nonstop sexual harassment in the food service[sic] industry. You can’t even spin this as a harmless compliment.” Another TikToker bluntly said, “That’s gross and so are some of these comments.”
However, as incredulous as it is to say, there were those who felt that the whole thing was one big giant joke.
A TikTok user who goes by the handle @zeltus wrote, “is that unlimited like the soup and salad or does that cost extra?”
Another user wrote, “I’m trying to figure out is this a positive review for the server or a negative review about the food?”
Contrary to what this immature minority believes, comments like these aren’t funny at all. Rather, they’re clear-cut examples of the blatant sexual harassment that persists in the service industry today — especially toward young women.
According to a recent survey published by One Fair Wage, the number of women who are subjected to harrassment in the workplace is staggering.
The survey found that tipped workers who receive a minimum wage are far more likely to be harassed than their non-tipped coworkers. More often than not, it’s the customers acting inappropriately, but this isn’t always the case.
When taking into account tipped and non-tipped workers, more than 44% of women in the service industry said that they had been harassed at one time or another by a manager, supervisor, or restaurant owner.
The final results of the survey concluded that roughly 71% of all female restaurant workers have been harassed at least once in their lifetime.
“This percentage is the highest of any industry reporting statistics on sexual harassment. Indeed, it dwarfs any other,” the survey says.
Sexual harassment shouldn’t be a part of any job description. Women are not sexual objects and it is blatantly wrong for men to treat them as such. It isn’t funny, it’s not a joke, and it absolutely needs to stop.
