Waitress Or Weightress?

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MrsSpringsteen

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If these allegations are true, well how do creeps like that get away with that? Who do they think they are? And why is there a web site that tracks the weight of waitresses?

I'm posting the whole story because it's from the NY Post

September 12, 2006 -- Two ex-waitresses at a trendy East Side bar are serving up a heavy-duty, $15 million sex-harassment lawsuit, accusing their former bosses of ordering female employees to be weighed as part of a bizarre scheme to keep tabs on their poundage.

"They told me I needed to get on the scale," said one of the women, Kristen McRedmond, about her humiliating experience in a manager's office at Sutton Place Bar and Restaurant in July.

"I told them I'm not going to be part of your sick game," recalled McRedmond, 27, who said she physically resisted when a beefy manager tried to pick her up to get her on the scale while another manager looked on.

"I just felt so violated."

McRedmond and fellow former Sutton Place waitress Alexandria Lipton, 25, both said the scale episode came a few weeks after a top manager at the Second Avenue watering hole had walked around with pen and pad in hand demanding to know how much all the waitresses weighed so he could record the results.

"The manager, Neil, came over to me and asked me how much I weigh. I said, 'I don't know.' He looks me up and down, and he goes, '135' . . . Then he writes down my weight," Lipton said.

Both women said only female workers were singled out for the weigh-ins and questions about their weight, and that it was done without explanation. And they claim the managers would criticize waitresses - but not waiters - for ordering fatty fried food for their own dinners

They also claim that waitresses' individual weights were tracked on a computer spreadsheet - and the results placed on a Web site that tracked the weights of waitresses in other establishments in the city. "I've been doing sexual-harassment law for 20 years, and this has to be the most egregious case of degradation to women that I have ever seen," said the women's lawyer, Rosemarie Arnold. "It's unbelievable."

Arnold and her co-counsel, Joseph Tacopina, today are filing suit on behalf of the women in Manhattan Supreme Court against Sutton Place and its owner, Richard Kassis, as well as managers including Neil, who is listed as "Neil Doe" because his last name is unknown.

The suit accuses the defendants of sexual harassment and illegally firing McRedmond and Lipton after they were overheard complaining about the weigh-ins, which, it says, had severely upset most other female workers.

Sutton Place's lawyer, Joel Simon, denied the allegations, calling them a "nice piece of fiction," but declined to address them point by point, and also declined to say why the women were fired. "I believe that once the facts are known, it will be seen that the individuals were fired due to their own fault, and not to do with anything related to these allegations," Simon said.
 
If these allegations are true, I'd love to see a settlement that would put that place out of business for good.:mad: Hopefully, some of the other waitresses will come forward, too, if this actually happened.
 
Someone posted this comment on gawker

This is why I absolutely love New York. Anytime I think about moving to another city, a story like this comes along and snaps me back to my senses.

But seriously though, this has been going on for a while. Maybe not quite as, um, directly as a bouncer actually placing the waitress onto a scale, but my ex was a cocktail waitress at quite a few of the trendiest establishments in NY and it was basically understood that your weight was being watched closely.

I don't know why anyone would be shocked by this story, except for the brazeness of it. It was only a matter of time before it got to this point. Political correctness is Already Over anyway.

And besides, who wants to look at a fat waitress?


Sarcastic perhaps (I hope, but who knows), but since when are all NYC restaurants Hooters? "Understood" is no excuse for harassment and is not a legal standard, and how can thinness be a requirement for being a waitress?

But women have bad self images and body image issues because of their own mindsets, not because they're up against situations like this- right? Trying to make a living and subjected to humiliation and harassment like that. And from men.

Of course it's possible that these allegations are untrue or exaggerated, anything's possible. But the managers will do anything to refute them and to cover their own butts, considering what they are being accused of and how it will affect their business. I wonder how comfortable the other waitresses will be in talking about it.

Scary thing is, I am not surprised at all about a situation like this.
 
What's really unsettling is the Web site comparing the waitresses' weight with that of waitresses at other establishments in the city. It shows this isn't an isolated incident at one bar. Apparently other places in NYC are requiring their waitresses to report what they weigh too.
 
Why the hell does weight always have to be an issue? :mad: Really repulses me that this happens anywhere! If this story is true than I hope the waitresses get what they deserve for the humiliation they went through.
 
What's almost as shocking is that the sexual harrassment lawsuit is costing 15 million dollars.
 
Ellay said:
What's almost as shocking is that the sexual harrassment lawsuit is costing 15 million dollars.

I believe they are asking for 15 million, it's not what it is costing the waitresses

Why shouldn't they ask for that much? That kind of hurt and humiliation damages you for a lifetime-your self esteem, your relationships with men, your career, your day to day living, and so much more.
 
LarryMullen's_POPAngel said:
Nice. :down:

And people wonder why so many women have eating disorders and bad self image.

Exactly - its things like this that cause so many women to worry about their weight. What should it matter about that womens weight, how is that affecting her job (unless she is very overweight/underweight and cannot do her job properly). :mad:
 
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