The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United is a non-profit organization in the United States that works to “improve restaurant workers’ lives by building worker power and uniting workers of various backgrounds around shared goals and values”. Their website explains their vision as a “society that treats restaurant workers with dignity and respect and an industry that prioritizes racial and gender equity and strives to increase the standard of living for all working-class people”. The restaurant industry is notorious for enabling toxic behavior in the workplace and sweeping abusive work environments under the rug, so ROC United works to “overcome the obstacles racism and sexism place in their way by helping them understand their rights and advocating for political representation through organizing, educating, training, and agitating”. 

We reached out to ROC United on TikTok to hear how common they think it is for restaurant owners to have mindsets like the owners of the diner in New Jersey. "It’s unfortunately very common for restaurant management and owners to scapegoat workers for their inability to find people who want to work for them," they told Bored Panda. "Restaurant workers are tired of making poverty wages and they’re tired of the mistreatment, and they’re taking the power back. They’re standing up for themselves and holding employers to a higher standard."

We also asked ROC United if they could explain a bit how their non-profit helps bring an end to toxic work environments in the restaurant industry. "To date, ROC United is proud to have activated more than 500,000 low-wage restaurant workers, nearly 1,000 employer partners, and tens of thousands of consumer allies across 11 staffed chapter offices," they told us.

"Over the last 20 years, ROC has celebrated many victories, including: helped pass minimum wage increases and eliminate subminimum wages in more than 10 states and 20 cities, played an instrumental role in winning policy advances on paid sick days, wage theft, and eliminating the tipped minimum wage in more than 15 states and several cities nationwide, distributed more than $1 million to over 5,000 restaurant workers who lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, won dozens of workplace justice campaigns against national food chains, including more than $230,000 settlement in unpaid back wages with the Bartmann Group in Minneapolis, secured a victory in ensuring tips belong to the employees who earned them, partnered with about 1,500 responsible employers to promote the “high road” to profitability, trained more than 10,000 low-wage workers to advance to higher-paying restaurant jobs through our CHOW Institute workforce development & training program."

Lastly, we asked ROC United what they would recommend restaurant workers do when they encounter situations that make them uncomfortable at work. "If something makes you feel uncomfortable at work, it usually means something isn’t right. Trust your gut. Restaurant industry culture has a tendency to make you believe that you need to shoulder these issues on your own. Jot down everything you’re experiencing, including time and date stamps, and start researching your workplace rights. If you need assistance and want to learn more about your workplace rights and what you can do if your rights are violated, reach out to us!"

ROC United is making waves throughout the food service industry in the US by creating several innovative programs, including CHOW, or Colors Hospitality Opportunities for Workers. CHOW offers free, professional training of front and back-of-house skills to employees in seven US cities: New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Michigan, Oakland, and Los Angeles. The program focuses on providing opportunities to people of color, undocumented workers and women, so they have the skills they need to enter the restaurant industry set up for success. Participants are also educated on how to identify and address segregation and sexual harassment in the workplace, so they can protect themselves and others from abusive environments. 

The sign in the original TikTok shared by a diner in New Jersey seems laughable at first glance, but it is only the tip of the iceberg of toxicity. It’s no wonder that their employees quit when management has a mindset like that. Thankfully, organizations like ROC United are working hard to change restaurant culture, and hopefully, working conditions will continue to improve for service industry workers everywhere. Let us know in the comments what you think about the sign in the video or if you have ever worked in a toxic restaurant.