TSR Investigates
Between the viral video of an angry customer throwing McHands at McDonald’s to a super-strength former Waffle House employee, Halie Booth, catching a thrown chair mid-air, there’s no question that violence against restaurant workers is on the rise.
Now, The Shade Room’s Justin Carter is speaking exclusively with Booth and Denita Roseborough, a former KFC manager who went viral for defending her crew in 2018, for ‘TSR Investigates.’
Both women are opening up about why violence against these workers may be a more significant issue than we realize.
According to Carter, a 2020 study conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) revealed that 53% of restaurant workers experienced a negative interaction with customers after requesting them to comply with COVID-19 regulations. Additionally, the study showed that 37% of workers experienced some form of harassment.
However, Denita Roseborough is one of the restaurant workers who isn’t going for any of it.
“There’s nothing wrong with stepping in and stepping up for your team,” Roseborough explained to Carter.
In Roseborough’s viral instance, she defended a young staff member against a man who accused the employee of flirting with his boyfriend. In the clip, Roseborough completely shut down the confrontation — which was later revealed to be a prank. Additionally, she told the man that he wasn’t checking nothing in her restaurant.
“When I seen Denita’s face and the way she dressed, I knew she was about that action,” Bobbie The Comedian, the man behind the viral encounter, told Carter.
Roseborough explained to Carter that the week of the prank was a tough one for her staff.
“[That] week alone, we had arguments with every guy that stepped foot… in the store,” she explained to Carter. “You know when you go on social media, and you see the fighting, and you see the arguing — and it was before the holidays — and you just see women sticking up for each other.”
Roseborough explained that even though the interaction caught the attention of KFC’s corporate office, all of the employees were able to keep their jobs because they remained professional.
However, the outcome was not the same for Halie Booth.
Scroll above to watch as she speaks with Carter about the viral brawl that caused chairs, sugar bowls, and customers to go flying over Waffle House counters. Carter also reveals how experts say employees and onlookers should react in these unpredictable encounters.
