Denver Red Lobster employee finds himself out of a job without warning

DENVER (KDVR) – Hundreds of people are out of work after several Denver-area Red Lobster locations abruptly closed their doors for good earlier this week.

Jessica Boguski is one of those former employees, having worked as a server at Red Lobster in Northfield for almost a year. She left work Sunday evening saying goodbye to her colleagues as she always does.

“Stay safe, see you tomorrow.” As usual, everything was normal,” Boguski said.

What she didn’t expect was that after walking through the doors, she would never come back again.

“It was my last day of work,” Boguski said. “It was everyone’s last day.”

She didn’t find out until about two hours before her shift Monday, when her phone lit up with text messages.

“I thought someone was dead. So I panicked, wondering what was going on,” Boguski said.

When she checked her schedule, she said there was nothing left. His job as a server disappeared without any notice from the company.

She said everyone from the servers to the managers couldn’t believe it.

“No one acted like they knew anything,” Boguski said. “Like, if they did, no one knew.” »

Many restaurants “underwater” since the pandemic

When asked why closures as abrupt as this can occur, Colorado Restaurant Association President Sonia Riggs provided this statement: “The reality in Colorado restaurants right now is that many operators are underwater. They face persistent labor shortages, unprecedented inflation, high interest rates and increased regulations that undermine any hope of truly recovering from revenue losses due to the COVID pandemic -19. As a result of these challenges, Colorado had the highest restaurant inflation rate in the country last year. This year we are seeing local restaurants close every week. A busy restaurant is not always a successful business.

Boguski, now a victim of one of these closures, just wishes she and her colleagues were more informed.

“You can literally open your eyes one morning, go about your business, check your phone and then your whole livelihood disappears and it was someone else’s decision,” she said. “And it’s terrifying.”

The Northfield Red Lobster is one of four that closed in the Denver area this week, with others in Lakewood, Lone Tree and Wheat Ridge.

The restaurant’s parent company, Thai Union Group, said its endless promotion of shrimp was a key factor in the company’s $11 million loss last year.