Trichella Hatten (Buckets BBQ And Seafood) College Park, GA
Chicago Style Barbeque, Three Blind Mice and Drama!

Buckets Barbeque is owned by Trichella Hatten. Trichella Hatten is from Chicago. She opened Buckets BBQ approximately 3 1/2 months ago (July) in College Park, Georgia. Trichella Hatten is an unprofessional business woman.

First, Trichella didn't like to pay employees on payday. She would tell her employees to meet her at the restaurant location on a Tuesday and that paychecks would be distributed after 4pm. Employees would not receive their paychecks until 7 or 8pm at night or would receive partial payments of their paycheck, or sometimes... Dare I say it: no paycheck at all!!!

I began work at Buckets as a waitress in September. The manager that hired me, named "Ray" quit because he had not received a paycheck since starting work at the restaurant.

When Ray quit, I was given the job as General Manager of the restaurant because of my strong work ethic and previous work experience. While working as a waitress, 2 more employees quit and my second weekend working for the restaurant, I was asked to cover a server's shift (named Renisha) and ended up working 40 hours over the course of two days (Friday and Saturday) for $2.13/hr with no breaks or meals.

After being hired as Manager for a salary of $400.00/wk tips and contingent upon restaurant sales (the more sales=pay increase, low sales=no pay increase). I began to institute some organization into the restaurant and witnessed a myriad of unsavory and unethical business practices.

I was told by a person from the Management team that if I wanted to keep my job, I was to keep my mouth closed.

Let me introduce you to my Supervisors. My Supervisors were Trichella Hatten, founder and owner of 60% of the restaurant. "Tony Mercedes" from California invested (along with his wife) roughly $12,500 into the restaurant and owned 40% of the business (split evenly among him and his wife). And then there is "Chef Jeff" from Alabama a.K.A. Jeffrey Ayers.

Upon my hire at the restaurant, there was a lack of staffing. My Supervisors, who I will refer to as the "Three Blind Mice", from here on out in this report; each expressed different opinions about staffing and additional employees in the restaurant.

Trichella gave me permission to hire new staffing. "Chef Jeff" also shared Trichella's opinion that additional staffing will help the restaurant run smoother, but also noted the fact that his partner, Trichella does not have the money to pay employees. Tony stated that, "we need some eye candy up in here for the niggas". That is an exact quote from Tony's mouth.

I was instructed not to hire anyone too unattractive so that the male customers would want to return to the restaurant. I was also instructed not to hire anyone to old.

I hired the best and most qualified candidates for the positions and was also thrusted upon, a couple of employees from one of the Three Blind Mice.

The problems at the restaurant continued to grow once I started as Manager. I would work up to 70 hours in one week. At this point in the report, I would like to note the business operation hours.

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 11am-11pm
Wednesday: 11am-11pm
Thursday: 11am-11pm
Friday: 11am-5am
Saturday: 11am-5am
Sunday: 11am-5am

By late September there were about 4 cooks and 4 waitresses on the schedule to work the restaurant. Early October the numbers switched, rotated, rise and fell in employees to the point that the turnover rate became ridiculous. On average, 99% of new hires quit within their first week. I know, sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Well, it's true.

As Manager I handled daily sales and new hires. Employees did not like working for the restaurant because of the unprofessionalism they witnessed and lack of company funds to pay their wages.

There are approximately 5-7 previous employees who can personally testify to withholding of wages, illegal business pratices and even the practice of Trichella Hatten taking Federal and State taxes out of our paychecks and keeping the money for her personal use.

Trichella's car (Silver colored Jaguar) was repossessed from the company property during operation hours. The power also went out one morning while at the restaurant because Trichella did not pay the electric bill. After her car was taken, that sent a lightbulb off in my head that something was not right with the business.

Trichella hid company profits from the restaurant from outside catering events she would participate in with company inventory.
Trichella would sell food outside of nightclubs and at Underground Atlanta on the weekends and profit anywhere from $1,500-3,000 and would not give me the figures to put into the daily sales in EXCEL on her computer.

Based on her profits from catering in addition to restaurant (which was averaging $150-300 in daily sales), my salary should have increased and other employees should have received their back pay.

Most recently, Trichella Hatten was to issue last paychecks to employees on Tuesday, November 4 at the restaurant location. Trichella never showed up while myself and two other employees waited 3 hours outside for her. (we had to wait outside because the landlord padlocked the doors to the restaurant because Trichella did not pay her rent). She owes for my last two weeks as an employee.

Based on my calculations and hard copy evidence of my timesheets, including my work as Manager and overtime hours she owes my roughly $2,000. She stated she will only pay me $800.00 before taxes.

Company: Trichella Hatten (Buckets BBQ And Seafood) College Park, GA
Country: USA
State: Georgia
City: College Park
Address: 5110 Old National Hwy
Phone: 4048194665

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