Unidentified man checks off item on David R. Henderson’s bucket list.
Crispo’s photos show a man in a blue shirt, working behind the counter as if it’s no big deal. Crispo didn’t get his name, but suspects he was a regular visitor to the restaurant. “He just saw this other person in a bad spot and just jumped in,” he said.
Responding to an inquiry from AL.com, Waffle House Director of PR and External Affairs Pat Warner said it appeared there’d been a little miscommunication over the duty roster that night. Some workers who’d been scheduled to work the first half of the shift left as planned, but nobody arrived to cover the second half. That created “a little gap,” Warner said.
He said that security camera footage did show that the mystery man and a couple other guests had washed dishes and bussed tables, while the lone associate handled the orders and the food prep.
This is from Lawrence Specker, “Covered: Waffle House customers step in to fill gap at Birmingham restaurant,” Alabama Life & Culture, November 7, 2019.
In the summer of 1967, at age 16, I ran the dishwashing machine at the Minaki Lodge for most of August. I had a blast. I still would have liked, though, and would still like, for a short time, to be a bus boy and maybe even a waiter. (Although don’t trust me as a server; I would probably drop that big tray more than once.)
READER COMMENTS
john hare
Nov 17 2019 at 6:31pm
I’ll bet the insurance company threw a fit. At least they would in my business. A few decades ago it was possible to use somebody for a few hours and pay cash and done. Not 100% right but standard in my area. No more.
Todd Ramsey
Nov 18 2019 at 9:02am
I believe this is a violation of minimum wage law (if the volunteers weren’t paid).
David Henderson
Nov 18 2019 at 9:30am
Todd, Unless the minimum wage law has changed dramatically since I last checked, volunteering for a for-profit firm doesn’t violate the minimum wage law. Indeed, here’s what I pointed out in a lecture to some federal judges in the 1990s, when the minimum wage was $5.15:
Think about the message the federal government is sending: If you get a job, you can work for $0 an hour or for $5.15 an hour or more. But don’t let me catch you working for any wage between $0 and $5.15.
Dylan
Nov 18 2019 at 10:56am
I’m not at all an expert in this area, but I don’t think that is completely accurate, or at least isn’t how things work in my state.
I know a number of years ago I volunteered to help run a conference and there was some kind of mix between for-profit and non-profit status. Some of the people that volunteered were moved to the registration desk, and that position apparently required a different handling, and we became employees rather than volunteers. That work was a lot more pleasant than what the volunteers were doing (handing out flyers on a cold NYC winter’s day for hours to pedestrians) so I doubt they would have paid us if they weren’t somehow required to.
More recently I’ve been working with hiring interns for a registered non-profit, which is easier than a for-profit business, but still involves a fair amount of paperwork. You can do the same thing for a for-profit business, but the regulation there seems very strict, and something like helping with dishes or bussing tables would be pretty unlikely to fall within the scope.
Still though, I’d hate to think that someone spontaneously jumping in to help out once would be the kind of thing that would get the Department of Labor bent all out of shape.
David Henderson
Nov 18 2019 at 11:54am
You reminded me that I might be out of date on this. I’ve written about your point here.
MarkW
Nov 19 2019 at 7:36am
Todd, Unless the minimum wage law has changed dramatically since I last checked, volunteering for a for-profit firm doesn’t violate the minimum wage law.
Not surprisingly, volunteering for a for-profit firm definitely does violate minimum wage laws in California. Other states may still be saner. It’s not quite the same, but I’m reminded of being at a small local bar/restaurant near our cottage in northern Michigan where one night a mom (not actually an employee) had come in to cover the rest of a shift for one of her teenage kids.
RPLong
Nov 19 2019 at 4:27pm
I worked as a busboy one summer during college. I can absolutely confirm that it is an extremely fun job. Toward the end of the summer, I was promoted to other jobs, including line cook. That was fun, too, but not nearly as fun as bussing tables. I have very fond memories of that summer.
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