Bistro boss explodes at &#%! staff

New York Post web page ^ | November 21, 2009 | TODD VENEZIA and CAROLYN SALAZAR

[RayChuang88]

If you thought your boss was tough, try working at the Paradou restaurant.

The owner of the Meatpacking District bistro made George Steinbrenner and Donald Trump look like pussycats, when he sent a profanity-laden e-mail memo to his staff demanding they get customers' e-mail addresses or be fired.

"WHAT THE F - - - IS WRONG WITH YOU A - -HOLES?!?!?!" wrote Paradou owner Vadim Ponorovsky. "How many times do we have to tell you how important it is that you collect emails.

"Everytime we have a slow night and you make no money and you sit there bitching about how you make no money, remember its because youre f - - -ing lazy motherf - - - - - s. YOU SHOULD ALL BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY!!!!!"

Paradou told the staff that they must collect at least 20 e-mails each week from customers or they would be fined $100. If they failed to meet the quota for two weeks, they would be canned, he wrote.

[RayChuang88]

Wow.

This type of treatment by a restaurant owner just makes me want to do this: Ponorovsky couldn't have done a better job driving partrons from this restaurant, and given what I've read on Gawker.com, Gothamist.com, Eater.com, etc., he could have a nice LONG meeting with the New York state Department of Labor of how he treats his wait staff, too.

And he claims to be a fan of the late Ronald Reagan, too. As great admirer of Reagan, I completely disawow any association with Mr. Ponorovsky, for obvious reasons!

[DogBarkTree]

Those Ruskies can been quite tough indeed.

[RayChuang88]

Tough yes, but this is just ridiculous. Treatment of wait staff like this really does bother me, especially all that does is make the wait staff even MORE resentful of the owner.

[Petronski]

Gordan Ramsay, pick up the red courtesy phone. Gordan Ramsay...

[cripplecreek]

I’d just make up email addresses.

[Thank You Rush]

Why would any customer of a restaurant give their email address to a waiter/waitress?

[mamelukesabre]

Most waitstaff deserve it.

I have to admit though, I know nothing of his restaurant. He could have lots of good people. But I don’t even go to restaurants anymore. The trendy chain restaurants are all staffed with spoiled brats. I can’t stand it. The image in my head of these useless punks getting chewed out makes me smile.

[cripplecreek]

Lots of retailers ask for a phone number or zip code for targeted marketing. I give them my phone number from 20 years ago.

[dbwz]

Methinks this restaurant would like to serve a little spam on the side.

[Grimmy]

Yeah, Mr. Ponorovsky, it has to be due to lack of email address gathering. Not because of lack of desire for customers to return to your establishment, for whatever reason.

[RGSpincich]

Wow is right. What you don’t see are the countless polite requests from the owner to the employees reminding them to please ask the customer for their email address. Usually a free dinner or two is raffled off each week as an incentive for the customer to do so. Promotions for the restaurant and other communication meant to keep the restaurants name in front of the customer are valuable tools. These emails can make the difference in this market.

Ignoring the boss can be bad for your professional life. These people still have jobs and maybe an incentive to help grow the business. The owner could have just fired them. Instead he opted to use a radical approach to get their attention. The food business is an expensive risky business especially now, the owner has every right to be nervous.

[Spike Knotts]

This is America. You can talk to your gd employees any way you damn well like. Just like you can talk to your boss anyway you like...it may be brief, however, since he can fire you. But that’s what makes him the boss and you the worker.

And if they don’t effing like it, they can hit the gd road.

Anyone who has ever managed people in any business has sympathy for this guy.

[bcsco]

Anyone who has ever managed people in any business has sympathy for this guy.

Speak for yourself, Newbie. I was in management my entire life, up to and including managing director. You don't treat people like this. This guy's a jerk. He'll deserve any and all things bad that happen to him because of this. If you believe what you've written, then you are absolutely clueless.

[bobby cep]

My wife and I work in health care and we see doctors talk to people like that all the time. Once, however, one made the mistake of speaking to my wife that way. I simply waited for him outside by his car one night, got right in his face, introduced myself, and then told him, “no job is worth my wife taking crap like that from ANYONE, let alone from a punk ass, pseudo tough guy like you. Talk to her like that again and I’ll GLADLY trade MY job for the opportunity to knock your effin’ teeth out. In fact, I’m only one word (from you) away from doing so right now.” My wife said that he’s been nice to her ever since.

[thackney]

Anyone managing people this won’t be doing it for long.

[Terry Mross]

What I disagree with is he said “You should all be fired immediately.” Well, why doesn't he fire them? If they quit he'd be up the creek. I also know that during economic downturns bosses become assholes because they can be. And during good times it's hard to find a good employee. What a dilema!

[isom35]

he looks like an ass-clown:

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/photos/26/48/26_48paradou.jpg

[Magic Fingers]

“Anyone who has ever managed people in any business has sympathy for this guy.”

I’ve managed people for 30 years. You’re dead wrong.

[Spike Knotts]

Ok oldie. Speak from your insurmountable join date of 2005. You’re like Moses on the Mount. People with no argument argue about join dates.

You seem to have some inside information on this case. I see a frustrated boss. I doubt he became frustrated because his employees are hard working.

Since you know the boss “deserves any an all things bad” that happen to him...how do you know that the employees didn’t engage in behavior that made them “deserve any and all things bad,” and that the bosses behavior is a result of their bad behavior? Just like if you weren’t aware of the bosses allegedly bad behavior, if in the future he is getting abuse from someone(that in your mind he “deserves)...I bet you’d say that THEY deserve any and all things bad, because of their abuse of the boss.

So how do you know the employees didn’t “deserve any and all things bad” first? You don’t. You can’t. So you have no point.

Huh? Yeah, you left a hole in your logic big enough for a train to fit through.

[Spike Knotts]

Well I’m impressed that in 30 years of management, you’ve never run across one bad apple that made you want to curse them, therefore enabling you to sympathize with this guy.

Seriously. That is so impressive that it just defies belief. But I believe you, really I do.