Waffle House manager ‘constantly’ groped grill cook’s bottom but higher-ups did nothing: lawsuit
Exclusive: Marilyn Smith says she was subjected to ongoing workplace harassment but was ultimately blamed for her victimization by bosses
A former Waffle House grill cook is suing the beloved chain after, she alleges, her supervisor refused to stop groping her rear end and higher-ups ignored her blizzard of complaints about it, forcing the South Carolina woman off the job in less than seven months.
In a federal lawsuit filed last month and served on the chain January 9, Marilyn Smith says her unit manager “would constantly grab [her] buttocks while at work,” and that Smith “would repeatedly request her to stop.”
Although Smith reported the ceaseless personal space invasion to her district manager, “nothing was done,” the suit claims. Instead, it contends, Smith was blamed for the situation and ultimately had no choice but to resign.
As a result, the Colleton County resident “suffered great emotional and mental distress, terror, fright, revulsion, disgust, humiliation, embarrassment, shock and indignities, lost wages, loss of front pay, back pay and other work benefits,” according to the December 23 filing.
“Ms. Smith's case, unfortunately, is indicative of the type of harassment and conduct imposed on females in the workplace,” Smith’s attorney, Matthew King of the Wigger Law Firm in North Charleston, told The Independent. “It is also indicative of the protect-the-company mindset of managers and human resources employees that many hourly workers are not aware of. However, Ms. Smith is standing up for herself and her rights through this case, in hopes that others will not be forced to endure what she did.”
A regional icon throughout the South and Midwest, Waffle House boasts more than 2,000 locations across 25 U.S. states. Each location is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the restaurants are famous for staying operational through all manner of severe weather and natural disasters.
In 2009, the chain settled a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after a cook in charge of the night shift at a Nashville, Tennessee, Waffle House was accused of harassing multiple servers with, among other things, “unwelcome sexual touching” and “frequent requests for sexual conduct.” The commission said the servers complained repeatedly to management, but that the company failed to take prompt and appropriate corrective action to end the harassment.”
Former Waffle House CEO Joseph Rogers Jr., whose father founded the company, was sued personally in 2012 by his longtime housekeeper, who claimed the exec had secretly recorded them having sex without her permission. The two settled the lawsuit, which Rogers slammed as an “extortion attempt,” in 2019.
Waffle House did not respond on Friday to a request for comment.
Smith was hired at an area Waffle House on July 10, 2024, her complaint against the company states.
She took a position as a Grill Operator, an entry-level position on the Waffle House career ladder that pays from $10 to $14 an hour.
“Since all of our food is cooked to order… you are taught to prepare the orders the ‘Waffle House Way,’” the chain’s recruitment materials tell prospective employees. “Your compensation is based on the rank you earn as a Grill Operator, Master Grill Operator or Rock Star Grill Operator… Your skill, teamwork, attitude and coach-ability all factor into the ranking process.”
Smith, according to her complaint, was an “effective and efficient” worker. However, beginning on September 1, 2024, her unit manager – who is identified by name in court filings but is not named as a defendant in the case – began pawing virtually nonstop at her derrière, the complaint goes on.
It says Smith continually pleaded with the manager to knock it off, to no avail. When Smith told her district manager about what was happening, he ignored her plight, the complaint alleges.
From there, the unit manager’s “groping and sexual harassment” continued apace, and Smith kept reporting it, according to the complaint. By the time 2025 rolled around, it says Smith – who “satisfactorily performed her essential and fundamental job functions and was an exemplary employee in all respects” – finally had enough.
Following a final grab at Smith’s bottom on January 22, 2025 by her unit manager, which was again swept under the rug by Waffle House bosses who disciplined Smith instead of her alleged harasser, she “was constructively discharged, due to her constant sexual harassment” at work, the complaint asserts. (A “constructive discharge” is when an employee’s resignation may not have been voluntary, due to intolerable conditions that forced them to quit.)
Waffle House owed Smith a duty to prevent such harassment from occurring and to keep it from happening once it had been reported, according to the complaint. It calls out the restaurant’s “recklessness, willfulness and wantonness” as the cause of injuries Smith claims to have suffered, “both physically and mentally.”
Smith is now seeking back pay, front pay, and associated benefits; prejudgment interest, court costs and attorneys’ fees; actual damages, compensatory damages, and punitive damages; and a money judgment for “embarrassment and humiliation, and emotional distress” to be determined by a jury.
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