Safety Concerns & Racism Accusations Against Local Restaurant

A former IHOP employee is calling out the restaurant with allegations of racist working conditions. This is one of those things that you just can’t believe really happened until you see it.

According to Spectrum 20-year-old Egypt Mayo quit her job at IHOP and made allegations that the restaurant was treating African American employees unfairly. According to Ms. Mayo, she had to quit her job because they were forcing her to work in an unsafe environment. Ms. Mayo said, “I was vomiting, I was sick, I went home early, I came back that morning and they let me know I was working outside again”. Ms. Mayo continues, “That’s when I took the video and left. Nobody can work seven hours outside in 90° weather”.

Ms. Mayo recorded a video of her work conditions that went viral. In the video, Ms. Mayo shows her African American co-workers working outside under a tent, in the blazing heat, while her Caucasian co-workers worked inside in the air conditioning.

Ms. Mayo explained that the scheduling was done by a manager who is still in training. When the manager was questioned about having the African-American employees work outside, the manager allegedly told Ms. Mayo that the African-American employees were outside because they were good at it. What does that even really mean?

When an on-duty manager was asked about the allegations, he referred all questions to IHOP’s Media Relations Department. The Media Relations Department acknowledged the situation and said that the problem has been rectified, by placing curbside pick up in the air-conditioned lobby.

This is bad management a good supervisor would have had rotating shifts. Especially in the restaurant industry where it can get just as hot in the kitchen as well. Who knows if racism was the actual motive for this if it was, I doubt the manager would ever admit it. Based on his statement " they were good at it" he seems pretty suspect.

My concern is for the worker, she is out of a job, and has the potential to being outcasted from the restaurant industry for being a racist whistleblower. Will this make it hard for her to find a new job? It’s hard to believe that this is still happening in 2020. This video looks really bad.