A video showing a manager at MTO Cafe in Downtown Las Vegas shouting at an employee and posted on Twitter went viral over the weekend. The expletive-ridden video, posted by employee Allyson Abelido, starts with manager Young Lee berating a female employee for not working hard enough and telling employees not to tip her out. “That is not right. That is my tip money, and I deserve my tip money. And I’m taking it with me,” the female employee responds.
At one point, one of the other employees on the video repeatedly says, “I’m shaking,” writing, “My other coworker and I were rolling silverware, too scared to speak up for her.”
Another employee steps in to say, “That’s not nice,” while Lee yells back, “I don’t give a fuck about nice. You guys don’t do shit when I’m nice.”
The female employee then leaves through the back of the restaurant, where Young follows her and continues to berate her. The female employee repeatedly says, “Get away from me.”
Lee continues to yell at the female employee in the two-minute video, telling her, “Nice or not, I can say whatever the fuck I want. He continues, “I do whatever the fuck I want, absolutely.”
“Work harassment is 100% real. Here is a video of my coworker being VERBALLY ABUSED by out manager. This is today at MTO Cafe (downtown location),” Abelido wrote to introduce the video on Twitter.
Abelido says the incident started when Lee walked in after a busy shift. “Backstory: It’s the end of a VERY busy shift, and the restaurant is already closed. My manager STORMS IN, and screams ‘ALLY, GREAT JOB, ONLY YOU WORKED HARD TODAY’ (This is out of pettiness, to make my other coworkers feel like shit).”
She then writes: “My coworker proceeds to defend herself (as she should), and explain that we all worked today. The rest of the video you can hear him screaming at her, and demanding that we don’t tip her out (we did of course).
“I wish I can say this was an isolated incident, but as an employee for almost 6 years, I can guarantee you this has happened before. We get berated SO MUCH, that we have almost become numb to it. But I’ve had enough.”
MTO Cafe responded on Twitter: “We do not believe in treating our team members this way and unequivocally stand with our team. We have taken the necessary steps to swiftly terminate the manager. We apologize to our team as the actions of this individual do not represent our values.”
But the backlash from the video posted Saturday night with 295,000 views was swift and immediate.
Customers, and angry people, headed to Yelp to flood the business’ page with dozens of one-star reviews commenting on the abusive treatment of employees. Co-owner Ben Sabouri responded to reviews with, “We have taken the necessary steps to swiftly terminate the manager. We are deeply saddened and disturbed by what has come to our attention today. Here at MTO Café, this goes against our core beliefs and values as a company, owners, and team. We do not believe in treating our team members this way and unequivocally stand with our team. We apologize to our team as the actions of this individual do not represent our values.”
Abelido says on Twitter that she did quit. “Yes, I did quit. Yes, Lisa did too (the woman in the video), as well as a majority of the FOH staff after this incident.”
Below, the video that is not suitable for work.
Work harassment is 100% real. Here is a video of my coworker being VERBALLY ABUSED by out manager. This is today at MTO Cafe (downtown location). pic.twitter.com/U4pMnEfOu0
— Allyson Abelido (@_allysonkate) May 27, 2019
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