The CEO Of Hooters Is Shocked, Shocked! To Find Disrespectful Behavior At His Restaurants - Hooters undercover boss - Jezebel
The CEO Of Hooters Is Shocked, Shocked! To Find Disrespectful Behavior At His Restaurants
Hooters CEO Coby Brooks' turn on Undercover Boss: "There are lines you don't cross." Good to know at a company whose female employees have to sign their assent to "joking and innuendo based on female sex appeal." [Mediaite]
Send an email to Irin Carmon, the author of this post, at irin@jezebel.com.
Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.I do not understand the appeal of this place. The wings are terrible! I went there once when I was with three other people who wanted wings (I don't really like them - too much work for too little payoff) and it was the closest place. I had a salad. It sucked. How do you eff up a freaking salad? My friends agreed the wings were overpriced and meh and none of us has been back since.Is it really worth the effort to eat bad food just for the opportunity to ogle women? I am baffled. Reply
Frankly, I thought people would be more concerned about the segment dealing with the restaurant manager who was a former waitress. She seemed to be doing a great job handling all her responsibilities, and had a good rapport with her staff -- so you'd think the lesson would be that they should promote more "Hooters girls" to management positions. But at the same time, the CEO seemed concerned that she was "tired" and "stressed," and got her to admit that as a single mother she wished she could spend more time with her kids.In the end, the company (or the TV show) gave her family a free vacation, which she seemed very excited about... and then we learned she was also gifted with a "less stressful" position at the company. We never learned whether that new position was actually a demotion, or how she felt about it. But the upshot seemed to be that women, and especially single mothers, shouldn't take on "stressful" work, even when they're really good at it. Reply
As a Jezebel reader who actually works at Hooters, I'm slightly offended at the lack of respect in many of these comments. Some of these women (like me) are working just to get through school and, in this recession, are just lucky to have found a job at all. This show has given a very narrow perspective of how it is to work at these establishments. Our managers treat us like people (not just a representative of the Hooter girl image), and if any guest treats us in a way that makes us feel uncomfortable (including such comments with "innuendo"), we let our managers know and the guests are asked to leave. And as far as being "safer in a strip club," I find that incredibly offensive, and I'm shocked at the narrow-mindedness that has been displayed on this comment-board. ReplyDorilys approved this comment
Many years ago my boyfriend and I were running along the coast, he was wearing a Hooters t-shirt that he had got from one of his business trips to Dallas.We passed a group of 16 year old boys who hollered at him, "Nice shirt".
I turned to him and said, "So, your peer group likes your shirt!"
He never wore that shirt again.
He got it. He did not want to be a member of a group that included those 16 year old boys.
He also told me about all the "Gentleman's Clubs" in Dallas, aka Titty Bars that business men take their clients to. Reply
labeled: CRAZY AUNT KANYE promoted this comment
Wow--I just read a news article today about a former Hooters employee stalked and murdered by one of her customers who had a pattern of harrassing her at her job there. Sad.
[www.aolnews.com] Replyonestrawplz promoted this comment
I like the fact that they put that in the contract. It gets it out up front what the story is in that restaurant, and then as a potential employee you can take it or leave it. This is if you didn't already realise that by working at a place called Hooters you were trading in on the appeal of your breasts.If you can't take being put on show or being mildly harassed, the place is definitely not for you. (And I couldn't and wouldn't do it, nor would many of us.) But adults have free will, and some choose to sign the contract. So I find it hard to pick holes at them. I'd never go there though, I find the whole thing uncomfortable and tacky. Lots of people don't, though. Reply
I just read the handbook linked at the Smoking Gun, and wow. Aside from agreeing to be sexually harassed, these poor women have to wear suntan pantyhose. No woman would inflict that on another woman.I went to Hooters when I worked at a company filled with 24-35 year old men. We had lunch meetings there. This is why I now work for myself. I always left a big tip to make up for what assholes my colleagues became after a few beers. Reply
As much as I wish that the President of Hooters had done more to the pig, at least he was repulsed by the behavior in the first place. What if he weren't? ReplyHermione Danger (aka ucelluccia) promoted this comment
I think this local news story is relevant here. I haven't decided if I agree with this writer's conclusions.
[www.orlandosentinel.com] Reply
Purely from a business perspective, this mode of operations is dumb. Hooters is one moral panic away from being unacceptable. If I were the CEO I would enforce the strictest regulations possible to keep the front room behavior out of the back room, and to keep the front room within the bounds of what the hypocritical American public deems acceptable. Replyla.donna.pietra promoted this comment
I have always loved this picture. I love that the Hooters girls are offering the protesters drinks. ReplyEdnasEdibles promoted this comment
I wonder how much of this show is real. VH1 and Bravo has sort of made me assume all reality TV is about as real as professional wrestling. Does Jimbo really run a Hooters? Was making hot girls do degrading things while being filmed something CBS thought up? There's no way any CEO would allow a show like this to be an expose. ReplySarahMC promoted this commentEdited by michaeltequila at 02/15/10 7:17 PM
I'm opening a restaurant called "Nuts," where I can sexually harass my male employees, AND make them wear ungodly orange tights. Oh, and we'll sell nuts...GET IT!? harharhar...ohemgee I'm so clever. Investors? Anyone? ReplyGretchen now has TWO kittens promoted this comment
Laughable. Mr. Coby, you crossed that line years ago when you decided to market your restaurant on scantily clad women, and jokes about breasts.Don't insult us with your faux "concern." Reply
I was so disappointed by this episode. He made a man who grossly harassed the waitresses simply promise to apologize, and decided to change the public perception of his restaurants, rather than change the restaurant itself. Way to step up, buddy. ReplyGretchen now has TWO kittens promoted this comment
If your daughter tells you she wants to work in a high-end strip club or she wants to work at Hooters, she will probably be safer in the strip club. Replyla.donna.pietra promoted this comment
The episode of "Undercover Boss" was a shitshow. How Jimbob, or whatever his name was, didn't get fired is beyond me. Reply
You would think they would treat the waitresses better considering "Hooters" can't exist without them. Reply
True story, the only time I ate at a hooters was in grade school, on a field trip, with a Christian Brother and a Catholic priest, both of whom were in clerical garb. The students were all wearing various jesus-friendly shirts.It was the only sit-down restaurant within walking distance of our broke-down bus.
You have not lived unitl you've heard a 60-something Irish Catholic priest ask a Hooters waitress "Why don't they let you wear pants in here young lady? Don't you get cold?"
Wings were pretty good though. Reply
Sanfo promoted this comment
There was a fantastic South Park about Hooters that summed up it's wait staff quite nicely. ReplyClockOnTheStove promoted this comment
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