Emily Begley

Emily Begley, a college student studying musical theater, is a hostess at an upscale restaurant on Newbury Street. With a tight schedule surrounding rehearsals and performances, Begley works with other students as a hostess for the flexible hours and good pay. After working there for six months, Begley has both witnessed and been vulnerable to harassment from management and patrons. “In terms of things that have made me uncomfortable, I’ve had my fair share,” she says. Of the least offensive, but nonetheless uncomfortable, Begley remembers her and a fellow hostess being incentivized with a cash-bribe to open up a table. “A guy came in and asked for a specific table but that table had a reservation, and she said ‘no I’m sorry but I can seat you right here,’ and the guy complimented her and told her she was beautiful and gave her a twenty [dollar bill], hoping that the table would open up,” says Begley. While it’s not uncommon for customers to overstep boundaries, it doesn’t negate how strenuous it can be to uphold professionalism and satisfy a client—two of your most important obligations when identifying into service work. About the duality of herself that exists in and outside of work, she said “I just feel like I step into a certain persona for two hours and that’s not me, that’s not Emily—that’s just someone who works at the Capital Burger. It’s kind of a coping mechanism in some ways.” She compared the disassociation she feels from herself and work comparable to imagining oneself in a video game, something her and her coworkers often joke about to make light of their shifts. 

Begley also shared that she’s witnessed harassment committed not just by clients, but by management, too. “There was a manager working there for a year who was the cause of a lot of peoples’ uncomfortability for a lot of reasons,” says Begley. “A big thing was his interactions with the female staff. Another hostess that got hired said that he told her she was very inviting and charismatic, and he maybe used the word ‘sensual’ in describing her, and then there was a whole slew of behavior after that.” She adds, “but customers are a little different because I feel like in the restaurant industry there’s this thing like ‘the customer’s always right’ and you can’t really do anything about it.” 

The lines become blurred because of an emphasis drawn on treating regular customers with the utmost personability. This relationship speaks well of an establishment, but is more often than not at the expense of those who have to serve them. In their article published for the Harvard Business Review, “Sexual Harassment Prevails in the Service Industry. Here’s What Needs to Change,” reporters Johnson and Madera point to another contributor of CSH, in that “restaurant culture still praises the customer as ‘always right.’” A study conducted for the article found that “managers perceived the same sexually harassing behavior as less negative when it was done by a customer than by an employee.” 

Begley sums it up nicely, and speaks for all women when she says “I would love to be protected in my workplace by, I think, an element of benefit of the doubt on my end and what I’m saying. In terms of how to deal [with it], unfortunately, until the world changes the restaurant industry will come with it.”