Co-written/production with Tyler Harris and Graylon Turner
Originally published in Spring 2022
The WCU Dining Services have not met the expectations of restaurant employees and student customers.
WCU Dining had problems finding enough people to work for them since Fall 2020. Many restaurants like Steak and Shake, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Which Wich and Brown cafeteria remained closed last semester.
In spring semester 2022 Brown cafeteria opened up but only for lunch and dinner on weekdays.
WCJ talked with a mix of anonymous and named student workers who have complaints about how employees are used and treated. These sources would not give their identities for fear of being fired for speaking out. Students who have a good work environment recognize the favoritism happening within Aramark and Dining Services.
WCU Dining Services is partnered with Aramark which is a food service that is centered around healthy eating and provides jobs for college students and management. Many sources have agreed that this may be because of the stories arising from working with Aramark.
Jeffrey Marshall, Residential District Manager for Catamount Dining, addresses the issue of employees dissatisfaction. His job is to oversee the food services at WCU including student workers’ and customers’ concerns.
“We are short of people and this puts added stress on all our student workers. They are here for an education and working short-staffed is very stressful…I am very proud of our team, including all of our student workers, that have gone above and beyond to continue to work even with the added workload,” Marshall said.
Some employees have voiced their opinion on the work schedule and working conditions. Many student-employees are working closer to full-time hours due to the lack of employees. This has led to situations where one source had to run a location with only two people working while expected to perform normal tasks.
One student stated that working for Aramark is a mediocre experience where they don’t remember the last time they were able to have a break and that the management in other restaurants on campus is not well received by the student workers.
Some employees are asked to work at multiple restaurants throughout the day to cover understaffed locations which adds stress to workers.
“We promoted several hourly associates into management level positions and continue to bring new people in to join our team. I have created several committees within our area to better communicate to our associates,” said Marshall.
Marshall explained they are in the process of bringing a new Human Resources Manager to help with training/hiring at WCU. He also introduced the Employee Appreciation Champion, VOC (voice of the consumer) Champion, and Diversity Champion.
Different sources, positive and negative perspectives, explain that the popular locations have seen solutions to their issues like scheduling, number of staff, scheduling, etc. Some locations like dining halls and less popular restaurants, still have workers whose interests are not being met and voices are not heard.
Workers have encouraged friends to post on social media about these issues because some workers signed a contract that states that if they write a negative statement about the company, there would be punishments. An anonymous source mentioned that this was seen as a serious offense within the workplace.
Student-employees for Chili’s can’t leave their shifts until late at night or early in the morning hours. One anonymous source claims that they resigned from their job at the local Chili’s because the work schedule interfered with their academics.
“It was too hard to excel in school with six different classes while working from 5 [p.m.] to 12 in the morning. They just expected me to know how to take orders on the computer. I wasn’t put through any training,” said an anonymous source.
In a survey made by the reporters Saydie Bean, Graylon Turner, and Tyler Harris with 33 WCU college students, twelve students said they were not happy with the current conditions and recognize what has been happening with student workers.
Like the concerns in this article, the survey shows that the general student population noticed student workers are understaffed, overworked, and have issues with management. When asked about any changes students have seen, the majority replied no.
Although changes have been made to the dining experience at WCU, there are still numerous concerns that need to be addressed for the betterment of student workers and student customers.
Most of the reporting for this story was done in November and December of 2021. Article had to be taken down for re-editing due to a source having trouble in their workplace for their involvement in article.
