That was really, really rude #1. You don't know what happened and you weren't there to see it. And OP, I'm deeply sorry you had to experience discrimination to the extreme. Soon, the Chinese restaurant will realize how much they ****** up after the amount of customers they lose for the service they have. Best of luck in finding another job. :)

The manager is probably the owner's wife (or mistress).

#28 Not in Australia it isn't. As long as you've been working at least 6 or 12 months (depending on the size of the business), firing someone for a reason like that is considered unfair dismissal and unlawful. OP's follow up indicates she wasn't working for long enough, sadly, but from her description of the manager and why she was initially hired she could still have a claim for a breach of general protections involving dismissal (manager seems racist).

I died reading this xD Thank you so much for the laughs. Really needed, and so appreciated.

I'm glad it brightened your day a little.

I have seen many coworkers walked out after sharing their thoughts about how they're "invaluable and I'll never get fired. They NEED me.". Once I hear that bs I count the days for them. Cockiness will give you that reality slap in the face.

@42, That's exactly the case with me, and that is what I told the owner: I may not be so invaluable that the business will fail, but he will notice my absence when customers come in asking for me, and he will notice it when they are upset I am not there. I befriended a woman who owned a big clothing store right next to the restaurant, and she was always sending in customers and recommending both myself and the restaurant. She is no longer doing that. Again, not bankruptcy worthy, but a burn they could have definitely done without.

Well, what did you expect? Chinese are rude, non assimilating culture. all they care about is money. Same crap is going on in Vancouver, Canada... they come over and bring their ways here instead of assimilating.

I think a quick Yelp review could be in order here. 'Sorry everyone, they fired me for being too friendly!'

That sucks to hear about all that OP. But based off some of the stuff you explained, it sounds like you'll definitely be better off working somewhere else.

Frankly I'd like to know which restaurant so they can have more than 1 yelp review....

It seems really petty to me to want to leave bad yelp reviews without having any experience with the business itself. The manager sounds like an ass, but the owner seems mostly naive. And I don't think any of them deserve to have their livelihood and profession ruined because you disagree with their actions.

Many asians over here find it difficult to crasp aussie humor and our laid back attitude as a result they do not communicate well and they keep their exposure to the locals to only what is necessary. Usually their response are short and to the point devoid of any emotion. The manager probably believes that he's done no wrong despite the fact that you've done what he never could. Don't forget we have unfair dismissal laws if you want to pursue that. If not maybe somewhere else where your talents will be appreciated. Good luck.

You should go work for the Japanese restaurant close by and then try to infiltrate and take over the Chinese one.

It's honestly their loss. You can find something better, OP, where you are more valued.

Is it possible for you to prove some sort of discrimination? Maybe I don't understand your response but it sounds like you might have been discriminated against because you are not Chinese and aren't from the same culture they are from. Plus, it's really messed up because you were fired for doing exactly what you hired for.

fire at will means that he couldn't do much about it.

@39 The op is from Australia. In Australia, we don't have fire at will.

I would save this text message and go straight to unemployment showing that you did nothing wrong.

Sorry to hear OP! I had a bad experience working in a Chinese takeaway in my town just 3 weeks ago. I was told I was ONLY going to be answering the phone to take orders, take orders from customers who walk in, work the till and give/receive the order to the chefs to give to customers...I walked in and had an apron and a hat thrown in my face and told get to work by the Chinese owner/manager/chef guy - I had to deep fry and cook some of the food and got in shit by the Chinese guy when I didn't put in enough fries for an order (this was my first ever job, I told him this, and didn't know what to do). I didn't get any break (you're entitled to a half hour break every 6 hours you work) and when I sat down to rest my legs for a sec when it was quite, I was given out to. Basically, I was given out to all night by the guy, even though it was my first (and last night) there and I was SUPPOSED to be given €30 cash in hand per shift (very illegal, but I was stuck for money), which I never received...Not so much as a thanks either. I asked my Malaysian friends who work in different Chinese takeaways in the town and they said the Chinese are awful assholes to work for, but the treatment I got in particular was atrocious. They even said "my boss even gives me food on my break", I said to the boss where I worked that I want to bring food with me because it was too late to make dinner by the time I got home and he said "you better be paying for it" (I was going to pay for it anyways, but when he said that to me I went home and made toast instead). So, I think most of them are like that OP from the sounds of it...I know you'll get hired again soon! The next day after that awful night, I got a job at McDonald's, the guy never rang and asked me to come back, so it worked out for the best in the end...

OMG OP my husband is going through almost the exact same thing. Cafe owner is Chinese, every worker there is Asian (nearly all are on student visas), he was hired purely because they needed someone who could speak English and converse more easily with customers. My husband was the only one to speak up to the owner about a LOT of issues at work, including - being paid cash in hand, below minimum wage, no breaks for up to 12 hour shifts... owner had terrible customer service and more than once tried to serve food that had been dropped on the floor (my husband basically took it out of his hands and threw it in the bin insisting that it could NOT be served), things were never maintained/cleaned properly, staff were never trained properly etc... work relationship got increasingly hostile until the owner eventually made up some bs reason to force my husband to resign. We are now going through a legal battle and suing him for unlawful dismissal. What made it worse was that my husband was one of the few people who actually cared about the customers/customer experience, had gained quite a lot of regulars and was doing his best to turn the place around. Also got promised a 'supervisor' position but ended up doing supervisory tasks (such as ordering food, handling customer complaints, training new coworkers, conducting interviews) and never got anything higher than min wage (he eventually got minimum wage after 2 months of demanding it, but still nothing more even though he's legally entitled to it according to the hospitality award). OP, I honestly encourage you to - if there's still time for it - look into an unfair dismissal claim. It's only $70 to put in the claim and they will waive the fee if you show you can't afford it given your income/rent etc (we got our fee waived). Takes like half an hour to fill out a form and honestly it's worth trying - you haven't really got anything to lose and if they decide in your favour (onus of proof is REVERSED in unfair dismissal claims - it's the employer who must prove he dismissed you fairly, you don't have to prove anything yourself) you can potentially win up to 6 months pay. I see no harm in getting a bit of justice against a ******** boss, and I also consider it a public duty to report employers (or anyone) who break the law. Good luck.

I'm sorry that happened to your husband as well, #46. Unfortunately, I did not work for them long enough to qualify to file for unfair dismissal. But I hope you two win for the both of us. Those who aren't capable of basic human decency should not be allowed to go into customer service.

#46 Just so you know, a general protections claim regarding dismissal does not require you to be working for any minimum length of time. That is, if you believe that racial discrimination was at least part of the reason you were dismissed, then you have a claim even if you've only been working for a couple of weeks. HOWEVER you need to submit your claim within 21 days of dismissal, or otherwise have a good reason for waiting longer than 21 days. So if you're still within the time frame, and you think that you being not-Asian played at least some role in your dismissal, I'd say it's worth a try. As I said, burden of proof is reversed and it'll likely cost you nothing, so you have nothing to lose.

I did a bit of research on that just now, and it looks like I can file a claim based on discrimination, as well as the fact that I was let go the day I was told I was not going to be assistant manager but just a waitress/hostess and expressed dissatisfaction with that. I feel that would be easier to prove than discrimination (especially as they were looking for a "Western" employee; why fire someone because they're Western when that's exactly what you were looking for?), but I'll look into filing them both. Thank you so much to everyone for your help.

I'm happy for you OP :) You just file the one claim, explain what happened as factually as possible. Towards the end of the form you select the sections of the Fair Work Act that you believe your employer contravened. If you asked for a higher rate of pay, for example, based on the job description and your responsibilities (as an assistant manager), and in response your employer demoted you/terminated your employment, you can tick both the options for 'discrimination' and 'general protections'. I honestly believe you have a slightly stronger case for discrimination - the fact that they only hired a single Western employee 'just' so that employee could converse with customers, and then took adverse action against the employee despite acknowledging their customer service was superior to every other worker ... I'm sorry but that is pretty obviously racist. Your race was a reason for you being hired, was - according to you - a reason for the increasing hostility between you and the manager, and very likely factored in your dismissal. You have every right to claim that your race was at least PARTLY why you were treated differently from everyone else to the point of you being fired, and the manager has to prove race had nothing to do with it, which I doubt he could. Unless you desire to go back to work there (which I doubt), under the 'outcome' you desire section put 'financial compensation', and put a figure of 6 months pay based on your average hours/rate. You won't get the full 6 months (at least, I don't think you will), but just put the number up there and if you win the case they'll decide what fraction of that figure you are entitled to. Good luck with everything, and if you need any more specific advice/tips on how to fill out the form or prepare for the telephone conference (they'll call both of you up about a month after you send in the form and ask for both sides of the story before deliberating) just pm me. Because this just happened to my husband and I I'm fully pumped with motivation/justice seeking lol so I'm happy to help.

This sounds like one of the things you hear on Gordon Ramsay's show Kitchen Nightmares. Where the management can't figure out why they're losing customers and business, all because of their attitudes. It's sounds like you did a wonderful job and helped them. It sucks that some people's attitudes make the final decisions. Good luck in your future career endeavors. Hopefully your old job doesn't suffer too harshly from letting you go. Honestly I wouldn't be able to do the job you had. I can have a very short temper at times and customer service isn't my strong suit. I'm working on it though as part of my job soon will involve customer service. Heaven have mercy on everyone's soul that has to cross my path when I'm still learning to keep my hot-headed and barely filtered mouth in check...

Just to let you know OP - I replied to your pm last night but I know it won't send you an email notification (you have to go to your fml messages to see it) so I thought I'd reply here too to give you a heads up.