Don't work here if you want to be treated as a decent human being
I had a really bad experience working at the Balmoral Hotel/Restaurant in Edinburgh. I've done a shift here before, which was an all right shift. It was long but manageable as we had a lunch break before the shift as well as a lot of canapés left over after the event, so none of us were left unfed. However, my latest experience was the polar opposite. I was asked to do an early shift on 30th Aug, starting at 06:00 and finishing at 14:00. I thought I would accept the shift as I wanted to work and my last experience was good with the Balmoral. I was working as a temporary staff member through an agency.
At around 10:00, we were all helping with setting up a big "staff canteen" area, where there was a huge selection of food, with fish, meat, veggie dish, etc. I asked who we were setting the canteen up for and they said: "it's for staff". I asked: "so, is that for us too?" And they replied: "Yes". Later on in the day, I asked again, to make sure because it looked too good to be true, which it was. Nevertheless, they reassured me this was where we were going to get lunch.
At around 11:30 I started asking when we were going to get food. I could see the duty manager's gaze change and she just said: "soon". I asked: "when?". She asked back. I asked what exact time we are getting food. She said at around 12:00. I thought it was only half an hour away, so I would manage - even though I was getting really hungry because I woke up at 4am to do this shift.
I got really excited to have that food, so I started telling all of my co-workers (who were also very hungry at this point) that we are going to get proper food, which is a really nice change. A nice change because I thought we were going to be treated like other humans. Yet again, I was wrong and naive.
At 11:45 we were selected to go home and finish up by another one of the duty managers. I asked: "Are we done?" He said yes. I asked: "Okay, but can I eat first?". Again, I could see the duty manager's demeanour change. I could tell he wasn't expecting me to ask that. So, he hesitated and told me to go find an other duty manager and ask him - I don't know why I would have needed to do that because I was already told by 2 other staff members, one of which was a duty manager, that we are okay to have food.
I finally found said other duty manager and asked him about food. He discretely took me aside where other people couldn't hear us and tried to find some very elaborate (filled with lots of corporal jargon) reason as to why I COULDN'T get food. I was shocked. He went on about how they aren't obligated to give us food and that there is what is fair and there is what is legal. He said he doesn't agree with this way of doing things but "he doesn't make the rules" and "there are no rules". How interesting. In a place like the Balmoral Hotel, a 5-star hotel and restaurant in the heart of the Capital doesn't have rules? That's rich...
All of this happened by the way, after he offered to give me my 15 minute or 30 minute break at the END of my shift, where it didn't matter anymore because I was going to go home anyway. He then proceeded to (in a very convoluted way) make an exception for me, and let me eat with the rest of the staff. "Just don't talk to anyone else about it".
I accepted and walked past my colleagues, who I all talked to earlier that day about having a nice staff meal together, knowing they were all sent home hungry. I felt bad and stupid. I felt offended by how the duty manager of such a renowned place would tell it to my face that they won't give me or any of my colleagues food after a 6 hour shift!
In the end, I sat down in the staff canteen and I could tell the status difference. All the other staff were in there, eating a hearty meal, while us, the "lower class" were sent home hungry after serving 200 people for breakfast. The same staff members that told me we would get food earlier ended up sitting having lunch in the same room as me. One of them sat down directly in front of me and didn't even look at me, like I was some scum that somehow managed to crawl into their special circle.
Maybe they treat their own staff members differently but this was my experience working as a temp through an agency. Very unprofessional behaviour and badly done. I will definitely not work there again and I hope other people reconsider doing it too.