Restaurant ethical certification?

April 29, 2009 6:14 PM

How can I find out what restaurants (or other stores) treat their employees well?

There are periodic scandals about restaurant owners keeping tips, bullying the staff, not feeding their employees all day, etc. And I've heard this sort of thing can be well-known in the business - waiters know which other restaurants stiff their employees, etc. How does someone not in the industry get this information? Is there a website anywhere with this information - the equivalent of "Rate Your Professor" for waitstaff? Is there some sort of 'ethical treatment' certification around, or list of 'best places to work'? Something with a more general bent would be useful too, for stores other than restaurants. I'm looking primarily to figure out what places I would want to support with my business, so rules of thumb are appreciated too.

In case it makes a difference, I'm located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thanks for your help!

posted by Lady Li to human relations (3 comments total)

Maybe this?
posted by contrariwise at 6:20 PM on April 29 [1 favorite]

In my experience, places where the workers aren't relying on the good will of management are much better off. Try these.
posted by Unioncat at 6:49 PM on April 29

I'm looking primarily to figure out what places I would want to support with my business, so rules of thumb are appreciated too.

No web resources, but I'd say as a strategy, look for places with relatively little turnover. In the service industry, this basically says everything. Your local watering hole on its third bartender over the past year? There's probably a reason for that. At my two favorite local places, the staff has remained more or less constant over the last two years, which is sort of astonishing, and says quite a lot about how they're managed.

As some more anecdata, there is another famous place in my neighborhood that can't hold onto their staff to save their lives; having known at least three former employees, this is apparently because the owner is such a complete douchebag. What's hilarious is that there's another establishment two blocks away that constantly poaches these disgruntled employees. Mainly by not treating them like shit.
posted by Skot at 11:43 PM on April 29