Notes

Hello Corrine, this is Conner from Kent Street.



You were in a few days ago to ask for a written report of some kind over the incident between Kevin Hyde and Debbie Blacquiere and why they were banned and reasons as to why they should stay banned. I know there have been issues going on with their entire group, but I’ll try to keep the details short and simple.



For Kevin Hyde:



The first time I met him he was friendly enough to the staff. But I don’t know the exact time when but he seemed to become more… Rude. Cold and rather depressing. He claims that he was banned for bringing up Food Safety notices up to the staff, but that’s not the reason why he was banned. On the 27th of May, during a rather small rush Jovanka was handling cash and providing the guests. When she went from cash to handling a customer’s muffin, using a wax paper, he stood up and went right up to the counter and pointed out that “She didn’t wash her hands.” He then sat back down and that’s when Debbie, one of his friends began to become more vocal about the matter.



During the excitement that was Debbie’s yelling match in the dining room, he confronted myself to tell me the “issue” was that Jovanka didn’t wash her hands and that he had gotten ill previously, but there had been nothing said about him getting ill previously, whether it was from this store or any other reasons. There has been history in the past that Kevin would instigate situations and Debbie would take them out of proportion and he’d be sitting down to laugh about it. I feel like this was another one of those cases.



After that incident he continued to come into the store. I was out on my days off, so for the next four days all I can acclaim to is second-hand information.



I was told that Kevin would come in, doesn’t even buy anything, and just watches the staff. On one of the following days, I believe it to be on a Tuesday, Kevin had walked right into the store, went right up to the second counter and demanded the employee (Livia) to wash her hands out of nowhere. He went to sit down after and continued to watch the staff. There was the situation with Ahmed and the napkins, but I will admit that was a mistake on our end and he shouldn’t have done that. However, it was a mistake and when he confronted the manager in charge he was acting aggressively. He didn’t “trust” the staff to handle the situation, demanded to have the napkins to just throw them out at the other end of the store.



He may see it as “reporting a health concern” to the store, however his attitude towards it was aggressive and when Terri had given him the notice he said he had a food safety report of the store that he was filling out, which I’m sure he needs to be an official to have but I won’t ask questions about that. That was mostly hearsay. As for the situation with Jill, I know that he has an ongoing feud with another customer named Mike. Another regular who has been coming into the store less to avoid speaking or even seeing Kevin. Mike came in one day spewing nonsense about what he heard, rumor or gossip about Kevin and now Kevin wants Mike held accountable in court and is dragging Jill into the situation and threatening her with the police “whether she likes it or not.”



For Debbie Blacquiere:



I can personally say there is no friendly customer relationship between Debbie and I, nor her sister Donna. I was told by past employees and coworkers that Debbie and her sister Donna were trouble and there was multiple times where they were acting out towards other guests. I’ve had to personally speak to them before in the past, her and their entire group on the way they were behaving towards other guests. However this is the first where I heard they were acting out towards the staff.



As stated earlier when Kevin brought up that Jovanka didn’t wash her hands, Debbie got up and stood beside the register to interrogate Jovanka about how she didn’t wash her hands. Jovanka directed Debbie to me and she came up to me and told me that Jovanka “wasn’t washing her hands properly”. In which case I replied, “Washing her hands?” “Yes, with soap and water.” I was confused at first as to why she was bringing up Jovanka washing her hands. I didn’t know whether she meant washing her hands and not drying them off properly or what. She demanded to talk to someone else of higher management so I had left to grab her the number for Head Office. However, when I returned it had gotten ridiculously chaotic.



There was a younger fellow, I was told he was the son of a previous GM up at Grafton and he knew Jovanka rather well. I don’t have a slightest clue what was said before I came up to the front, but I noticed that Debbie and this younger man were shouting at each other. Debbie at her table, and him at the front cash. He was saying that “Jovanka is like family to me,” and “She is a great worker!”, to which Debbie told him to “Shut your fucking mouth.” The situation began to escalate and Debbie got confrontational with the man, getting close to him and shouting in his face that “He wasn’t worth hitting.” Whether that implied she was going to get physical or not, I’m not sure because she seemed as if she was going to. At this time, Kevin and Harold (Debbie and Donna’s father) were trying to explain the situation to me and Harold was more asking “Is this what you let happen in your store?”



After that I had given Debbie the number to head office in which she said “I’ll make sure you and her get fired.” After I went back to the line, Jovanka was in tears and couldn’t work properly for over two hours, worried if she was going to lose her job when she returns from her vacation.



I know for a fact that their entire group have been causing problems for a while. There are customers that avoid coming to this place because of the way they heckle other guests. I’ve spoken to many customers complaining about their group- a woman was called “a lunatic” by Kevin, asked if “they get any tail” by Harold, called a “bitch” by Debbie. These words I have gotten are from guests that are not in any way friends with these people. They are loud, obnoxious, rude and inappropriate, leering at guests who even look their way and snapping at them.



That’s all I will have to say on them however, I tried to keep this as short as possible. I will note however that in all of the near two years I have worked in this company, I have never experienced such belittlement in all of my working years. It was humiliating and it made me feel like I did not want to be where I was. I love my job, I love those I work with and I love coming to work every day that I am here. But on that day, I had my limit and for the first time I was close to wanting to quit. And that’s what I feel like is going to happen if these folks are allowed to come back to this store. They will continue their harassment. They will continue to do whatever they want and no one will be left to serve them. Because no one is going to want to stay.



Again, sorry for the long email but I hope it helps the case. If you need to contact me you can either give me a phone call or reach me by e-mail.



Conner Zehan.

(902)916-5059

[email protected]