Hello all! I’m about to ask for a lot, especially considering this is really my boss’ boss obligation, but I’m panicking because if I don’t get this handled the restaurant I work at could be shut down for an indefinite amount of time. I can’t afford that.

I need to renew my ServSafe, pretty much a universal food handler’s permit a certain company has a monopoly over in the US. Listed price is $140, but I know they charge tax. I texted my manager about this the second I saw the health inspection papera. He said the company could reimburse me for this, but I don’t even have a way to pay for it in the first place. To sum it up, I need to get a manager’s food handler’s card by Tuesday morning, so I functionally need the money today so I can do the assessments tomorrow. Otherwise, the restaurant I work at will be shut down. This place is one of the highest paying jobs I’ve had in years, I get treated with respect as a trans person by employees and customers alike. Separate from the job market being shit and me currently trying to save up to leave the US, I really can’t afford to lose this job.

If y’all have seen me post about my job, y’all will know I am one of the only fully competent employees at my job. I’m not being full of myself, my coworkers don’t do the basics like labeling shit or flipping the lines. Most of them don’t have food handler’s permits. The only other one that does works 2 other far more intense kitchen jobs, on probation for weed in the next state over, and going to college, so he’s just super exhausted by the time I work with him at the end of the week. I will also go ahead and state though, when I remind them to do stuff like that they will do it. They’ve all just built shitty habits because shit doesn’t get enforced. I wouldn’t be trying to save their jobs if they had shown me they just don’t give a fuck about food safety. I do fortunately have a permit, I even have an expired manager’s ServSafe. What that means is if I get this permit, all my coworkers are fine to not have permits as long as I’m there. Same thing with my boss being present at a location we’re working

Well, guess which restaurant got a health inspection this morning WITHOUT A FUCKING MANAGER PRESENT? Yeah that’s right, we only have a single person with an official manager’s permit, that being my manager. We need at least 2 to be open legally without my manager (not an owner btw, and somehow one of the actual best friends I have IRL, he barely makes more than me hourly). Health department expects 2 valid ServSafes to be shown on Tuesday, otherwise I’m effectively laid off.

I will also add for the newer users of this site, my “famous” moment on this site was going on a rant about cooking elitism/olive oil smoke points and quoted Read Book Worship in a way that was completely appropriate. One of the reasons I dropped out of STEM college was to pursue cooking further. We also regularly feed homeless people all over the city due to the By The Slice business model creating a lot of extremely cheap waste product (pizza). Not necessarily saying the business is that great, but we have a lot of freedom as employees to do cool shit.

Another point, I am a trans woman in the Midwest/borderline south, even if I’m ultra competent I don’t have great job security. If I get this certification, I will have inherent job security for a job I actually enjoy for the first time. Idk, this is important to my coworkers even though they don’t understand what I’m doing rn, but this is important to me. This is the only job I’ve worked where if someone is taunting me or just generally being a dick, I don’t have to serve them. I can turn away customers for being assholes as long as it’s not daily (it isn’t)

Venmo is @thenewvenven Cash app is $thenewcashtag PayPal is sh3lf1sh@gmail.com