Patrick Greenberg in 2015 before he began working at Aramark. Greenberg’s Facebook.
By Hailey Murphy
Despite a former Aramark Subway supervisor, Patrick Greenberg, acting inappropriately towards employees and creating an uncomfortable work environment, he appears to have received few repercussions and was at times protected by his supervisor, according to one current and one former employee.
Both employees witnessed a pattern of behavior by Greenberg which included outbursts of anger and uncomfortable physical contact. They agreed to speak after being independently approached by the AS Review, on the condition of anonymity as Aramark policy prohibits speaking to media.
“During all of my shifts that I had with Patrick, he touched my shoulder, my arm or my back while he was talking to me, and would get so close that I could feel his breath on my face,” the former employee said.
The current Aramark employee said he often witnessed Greenberg act angrily towards student employees and touch them.
“He would make the girls cry, yell at them, and then try to apologize,” the current employee said. “[He’d] try to rub their backs and shoulders and say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ but then the next day he’d do it again. He was never really sorry.”
Greenberg didn’t respond to three messages sent to his Facebook profile. No other means of contact were found.
You can report harassment or misconduct to Western’s Equal Opportunity Office
The former student employee said she went to retail manager Jamie Smith in spring 2017 regarding Greenberg’s conduct after a particularly bad shift, to which Smith replied, “he’s just like that.” The employee was then advised to speak to Greenberg herself if she wanted the behavior to stop.
“[Smith] told me that he’s just like that, and that I should either talk to him about it or deal with it because he didn’t mean it in a creepy way– he just didn’t know how to act,” the former employee said.
The current Aramark employee said that, when he and other employees reported Greenberg’s behavior to Smith, she always “made excuses for him” by attributing it to his personality.
According to Aramark’s code of conduct on workplace harassment, an employee who is informed of harassment must report the incident to their supervisor or the next level of management who can take action.
If a supervisor, manager or Human Resources professional doesn’t report to the appropriate party after receiving a harassment complaint, according to Aramark’s harassment policy, they are subject to disciplinary action “up to and including dismissal.”
The code of conduct defines workplace harassment as “any unwelcome verbal, visual or physical conduct which denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual.” The Aramark code of conduct also defines unwanted touching as a behavior that constitutes sexual harassment.
Smith declined to comment on the grounds that personnel matters are confidential.
Karen Cutler, Aramark’s vice president for communications and public affairs, said that Aramark promptly conducted an investigation when the allegations were reported, and that Greenberg no longer works for Aramark.
“All concerns reported by our employees to our management team or through our employee hotline are investigated with the findings reported back to the employee,” Cutler said in an email.
However, according to the former employee, an investigation wasn’t conducted until she went above Smith by sending an email to Kelsey Piepel, Human Resources manager, and Lisa Henley, retail food service manager. Additionally, she was never told the results of the investigation, she said.
“These occurrences have made me feel uncomfortable and unsafe while he and I are both working,” read her email. “Before my shifts I become stressed about being touched when I do not want to be, being belittled over minuscule things, and hearing inappropriate comments in the workplace.
The current Aramark employee said Greenberg was given a write-up after the investigation, which is a punishment he believes was too late and not severe enough.
Greenberg displayed other inappropriate behaviors, the current employee said, like slapping him “on the ass” with a large can lid. He never reported the incident to a superior or confronted Greenberg about it.
Additionally, the current employee said Greenberg would throw dishes, which was reported to Smith by employees who witnessed it in March.
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The shift that prompted the former employee to go to HR occurred on May 3, she said.
Greenberg was handing her dishes, the former employee said, when he told her, “I’m going to keep feeding you dishes and drugs.”
Later that same shift, Greenberg told her to come to the front after five more minutes of washing dishes, she said.
Without a clock in the backroom, the former employee said she was unaware of how much time had passed and spent more time back there than intended.
“Ten minutes later, he angrily came into the backroom and he snapped at me, telling me that [the supervisor] was supposed to go to lunch,” she said. “I apologized to him, and told him there wasn’t a clock, so I didn’t know how much time had passed. He grew angry and told me, ‘don’t make excuses for yourself.’”
Greenberg had been making a sandwich for a customer, who witnessed the interaction, the former employee said. When it was over, the customer stepped down the line to get her attention; they wouldn’t break eye contact until she nodded back at them.
Greenberg did later apologize to her, but further made her uncomfortable in the process.
“He touched my shoulder, leaned close to my face and intimately told me that he was sorry, and that I didn’t deserve the reaction I received from him,” the former employee said.
Greenberg continued to work at the Subway for the rest of the quarter, the former employee said, which continued to be an uncomfortable situation for those involved.
One day, she accidentally bumped into another female employee, she said. A few minutes later, she bumped into her again as a joke.
When Greenberg saw the exchange, he commented that, because he’s a man, he wouldn’t have been allowed to do the same thing, the former employee said.
“Two 20-year-old girls can do that, but a 46-year-old man can’t touch a 22-year-old girl because it makes girls feel weird,” she said.
After the quarter, Greenberg was moved to Panda Express. This was because, the current employee said, he was threatening to quit if he wasn’t moved to a different location.
“He was written up, and then they moved him to Panda because he got mad that [the student had] told on him,” the employee said.
According to the current and former employees, many other employees experienced similar behavior working under Greenberg.
While university sexual harassment complaints are usually be a matter of public record through Western’s public records office, Aramark is an outside contractor, meaning the only way to know how many complaints were brought against Greenberg would be for Aramark to release those records themselves.
Greenberg quit around spring break of this year, the current employee said. Cutler would not confirm if Greenberg quit or was fired.