A woman on TikTok says Chili’s has not been honoring promises of sign-on bonuses for its new employees.
The woman, a former Chili’s worker known as Alex, runs a TikTok account (@alexservestea) dedicated to “spilling the tea.” In a recent video posted on the account, she called out Chili’s after receiving Instagram direct messages from alleged Chili’s workers complaining about not receiving their promised bonuses.
In the video, Alex showed a Chili’s marketing video for the restaurant’s “Team Member Appreciation Day.” But according to Alex, Chili’s doesn’t appreciate their workers at all.
Then, Alex shared a screenshot of an Instagram message she said she received from a Chili’s worker. In the message, the worker wrote that they were hired at Chili’s “under the assumption” that they would receive a $100 bonus after starting and a $300 bonus after 90 days. After nearly a year of working at Chili’s, they said they still hadn’t received either of the bonuses.
The worker said they’ve called Chili’s corporate team multiple times, to no avail. To their knowledge, no one hired during the same time period as them received the bonuses.
“Wow I’m not surprised,” Alex wrote back to the worker. She said that when she worked at Chili’s, she did receive her promised bonuses, but only because her managers were “really good.”
“I find it funny that this morning you post a video saying ‘we love our employees so much,’ yet every single day I keep getting messages about how much you don’t care about your employees,” Alex said, addressing Chili’s. “You are trying to protect your public image because I’m sitting here dragging it.”
Then, Alex pointed out that a Chili’s team member relations senior manager removed their profile picture on LinkedIn, which Alex claimed is in response to her posts calling out the company. She also claimed that the manager “sent her clan” to bully Alex on Instagram.
Additionally, Alex said she spoke with an unnamed person who worked for Chili’s corporate for eight years. She said the person “spilled all the tea” about how badly the Chili’s corporate team is run.
Supposedly, Chili’s corporate team members “get in trouble” if a case is open for too long, so they “open and shut” cases quickly instead of actually resolving them, Alex claimed.
“So Chili’s, try all you want, but everyone is coming to me with all of the tea,” the TikToker said.
The video received about 12,000 views on TikTok as of Monday, and viewers seemed to mostly agree with Alex that the company can treat their employees better.
“[Companies] need to stop saying it’s ‘appreciation day’. How about you appreciate your team every day? Treating [me] like sht 364 days a year….” one viewer commented on the video.
“Calling a random day ’employee appreciation day’ is a LOT cheaper than paying your employees [what] you promised,” another viewer wrote.
“Good for you standing up for those who can’t afford to stand up,” one viewer commended the TikToker.
Some viewers pointed out that if a company can afford to make a marketing video, they should be able to pay their workers what they promised.
“And how much do they spend producing and promoting these videos when they can just PAY THEIR SERVERS AND COOKS?!?” one user said.
“They didn’t even make these themselves. They just took clips from tiktok and put them together,” Alex wrote in response to the comment.
The Daily Dot reached out to the creator via TikTok comment and Brinker International, the company that owns Chili’s, via email.
Update 4:23pm CT, March 9: In a statement to the Daily Dot, a spokesperson for Brinker International, the company that owns Chili’s, said “bonus and eligibility may vary” for various bonus and development programs.
“For our sign-on bonuses offered in certain markets, we pay a specified amount upon hire and another amount after 90 days depending on the role,” the spokesperson said. “We have not heard of any issues with Team Members not being paid their bonuses.”
The spokesperson said employees who believe they were eligible for a bonus they didn’t receive should reach out to their manager or the Team Member Relations department.
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