The Truth Behind Jo's Modern Thai

To the city of Oakland, the greater Bay Area, and all fellow service industry workers:

This letter is to serve as detailed documentation of the mistreatment of the Jo’s Modern Thai staff by the part-owner Kao Saelee. We are long-time and career industry workers, who put in endless hours, were pushed to our limits, and were grossly taken advantage of. We do not write this letter seeking pity, as unfair labor practices in service are the norm, the grievances we air are a dime a dozen for the restaurant industry. The restaurant industry has historically been extremely under represented, well known for intense and poor conditions – with few to no unions. That said, with this letter we are here to make a signal call to all our service industry community to avoid Kao Saelee. We want to strive toward a world where restaurants don’t need to be littered with abuse from owners and management. And the same old song and dance of “trauma bonding” amongst staff. Enough is enough.

As many of you may have seen, Jo’s has posted that they are to be closed for 2 weeks “due to unforeseen circumstances for needed upgrades.” This is a lie. Kao effectively laid off his entire front of house staff (FOH) in a corporate-coded attempt to “start fresh.” 

On Oct 16th 2024, FOH employees were notified that Oct 27th would be “our last day of service” with only an 11 day notice. The message was incredibly vague, poorly worded, and left much of the staff confused as to what was actually happening. See attached image. 

The initial message was difficult to understand, prompting many of us to seek clarification. However, Kao disabled the response feature in the chat of our scheduling app, Sling, preventing us from communicating our concerns. It wasn’t until Kao received an outpouring of individual messages from staff that he acknowledged the need for further clarification. Approximately one hour before the shift on Oct 18th, he sent another mass message stating he would be at the restaurant to answer questions. This was at a time when only 2-3 staff members max, could possibly attend, in what seemed like a hollow attempt to just avoid our concerns entirely by setting up a meeting time he knew would be difficult for staff to get to.  

Much of our FOH staff, like many in the industry, rely on multiple jobs to support themselves due to rising living costs. Kao sent this message fully aware that approximately three-quarters of the staff were already part-time and very unlikely to meet his new requirements. This comes after he spent the previous month or more, sitting down with each FOH member and discussing individual availability, promising to create an optimal schedule for both the business and staff. Additionally, during a meeting in September, Kao acknowledged our concerns about the challenges of providing quality service while consistently being understaffed. Very often we operated with just 2-3 servers for a restaurant that could host 70 or more people, while a manager was expected to handle hosting, running both food and drinks, and bussing/table turnover—all in a Michelin Guide restaurant with a James Beard-nominated chef. This setup is simply unfeasible, yet it was the norm we were forced to endure daily.

After spending considerable time soliciting feedback from his staff about what improvements were needed and how he could assist, Kao chose instead to terminate everyone and offer to “rehire” them under conditions many could not meet. A corporate strategy to “start fresh” with a new group of employees who would be unaware of the ongoing issues and malpractices within the business.

It also quickly became clear after talking amongst the staff that Kao had sent the message on Oct 16th and implemented these decisions without communicating with his back-of-house staff or consulting with his head chef, Intu-On. As a result, the kitchen staff was also left confused and uncertain about their own shifts, unsure whether the restaurant was closing on the Oct 27th or if only the current FOH employees would be let go if they chose not to reapply.

Now, the pressing question is: why would we even want to reapply? Below is a selection of grievances and malpractices perpetrated by Kao. This represents only a small portion of the numerous issues staff experienced at Jo’s.

The FOH staff has faced ongoing harassment and intimidation through a write-up system that lacked recourse for employees to contest unjust marks or bring in witnesses. Management often contradicted themselves and their own policies and in turn would retaliate against workers. For example, on more than one occasion employees were written up for calling in sick, despite management approving those absences when they occurred.  Management consistently prioritized customer reviews over employee welfare, pushing servers to solicit reviews from all guests and would then weaponize those reviews. In one case, a server lost five shifts due to a negative review about a delayed dessert, resulting in a loss of $1,000+ in income. We were told  “ more reviews will give us more hours, by bringing in more business”. Yet it was clear to us, reviews don’t work in our favor of us securing more shifts based on the example given. 

Leadership responsibilities were often assigned to staff without proper training, setting them up to fail in both FOH and BOH. Workers were hired for specific duties, only to have additional responsibilities piled on without corresponding pay or support. Promised raises were frequently delayed, requiring employees to advocate for themselves despite their significant contributions to this very new restaurant’s success. In one instance, a line cook returned from a short leave (as they were expecting a new baby) only to find their wage cut by $4/hr. Management explained this change was due to an increased tip-out for the BOH, but it did not result in the promised boost to their overall earnings. Additionally when the 20% gratuity charge was removed this past August, management implemented a $1 raise for FOH that again did not adequately compensate for the loss. On top of this, when the $1 raise was given to the FOH staff, the most senior server was not given the raise that everyone else was, singling them out unjustly as they had routinely done many times before to this specific server. This senior server who had put so much time and effort into helping Jo’s establish itself as “the friendly neighborhood spot” in their first years of business.

Over the three years that Jo’s has been open, the restaurant has seen three different front-of-house managers. The most recent manager aimed to increase professionalism but instead fostered division among staff, by engaging in inappropriate gossip and undermining team morale. This manager frequently made inflammatory, offensive, and sometimes racist comments to and about staff. Additionally Kao allowed this most recent manager to be our tip pool, which is illegal. Working longer shifts than any of the rest of FOH (as managers often do), the manager created the schedule, and made tips.  

Kao also expected the kitchen to operate on a skeleton crew. Initially staffed with six chefs, Kao reduced the kitchen staff to four people per shift, resulting in unsustainable working conditions despite the staff’s skills and dedication. Shifts would often extend longer than scheduled, and people often felt they needed to return early from their allotted breaks in order to complete what was an unreasonable and overwhelming amount of work/prep, relative to the number of people on shift and their low wages.

Sanitation issues were also prevalent, with immense amounts of rodent droppings found in dry storage areas for months, exposing workers and guests to health risks. Instead of addressing the issue professionally, staff were forced to clean it up, compromising health and safety standards. It was over a year before a proper exterminator was hired and the issue subsided, after months of exposing staff and customers.

Overall, the conditions at Jo’s, reflective of broader societal issues, have created an environment where staff end up lashing out at each other rather than supporting one another. Despite the intense pressures, we recognize that unity is vital, and the culture of fear, exhaustion, and stress hindered our ability to build camaraderie. Yet we hope that taking the time to call out the actions of owners like Kao, will help us all build toward a better future where service industry workers can feel a sense of unity and strength against the powers that be, something we all want and are capable of.

On Saturday October 19th is when this house of cards fell, three days after Kao sent out his message to FOH. The restaurant was then operating with a skeleton FOH crew consisting of two bartenders, three servers, and our manager. A Saturday night FOH at Jo’s requires four servers, a runner, two bartenders, a host, and a manager to ensure efficient service—staffing levels that were rarely met. While the team absolutely had the experience to deliver outstanding service, they consistently lacked the support needed to meet these typical standards of service.

Twenty minutes before opening, the third server called in sick, leaving us without anyone to cover the shift, as we had been running for the last several weeks with 6 servers or less total on staff, leaving absolutely no possibility for coverage, or any wiggle room for inevitable life emergencies or illness. The staff knew the right decision was to close for the night, despite communicating this, Kao made it clear he expected us to tough our way through a Saturday night service with less than half of the staff needed. We ultimately decided to open, accepting only reservations and no walk-ins. While we managed to stay afloat, the energy in the restaurant was dismal and notably strained. Staff was reporting they felt like puppets trying to navigate an evening where the very foundation of the restaurant seemed to be crumbling. By 7 PM, the kitchen staff made the correct decision to close for the night, as the service being provided did not align with the standards of Jo’s Modern Thai which we want to and are able to give. That blame rests entirely on Kao’s shoulders, and should not be twisted with a failure of our skills.

By Sunday morning, our head chef resigned, citing a complete lack of partnership with Kao and the disrespect of continuing to try to operate the restaurant—serving her exceptional food—without adequate staffing and training. We ultimately stand by Chef Intu-on and her vision, values,  talent, and exceptional food, which is truly the heart of any restaurant. She consistently advocated for her staff, asking for them to receive benefits, proper training time, proper compensation, etc. and she was always met with opposition from Kao. 

Kao was unable to reopen on that Sunday, and did not take the time to notify any of the staff, many of whom had not witnessed Saturday’s events. However in the afternoon of Monday Oct 21, he posted on Instagram that the restaurant would be closed for two weeks for these “necessary upgrades.” It wasn’t until after this Instagram post, and after members of the staff were pleading for Kao to communicate about the state of the restaurant, that he finally reached out to the staff, who were all scheduled for October 22nd/for the remainder of the week. Instead of sending a concise message to all-staff regarding the closure and the loss of our remaining shifts, he chose to call/text each person individually after 7pm that Monday evening. Despite the effective layoff occurring on Oct 19th, no one received their final paychecks until October 25th.

Additionally, Kao is currently in the delayed process of opening a new restaurant called The Peach on Grand Avenue in Oakland. This opening is weeks behind schedule, yet he has been hiring for the space for several months. It has come to light that many of the new hires for The Peach were asked to support staff at Jo’s during this “transition.”

When Jo’s deteriorated last week, it became evident that Kao had little to none of his original staff available for the remaining week of October 22nd to 27th. In response, the staff at The Peach received an email which lied, stating that there was a COVID outbreak among Jo’s staff and Kao needed these new hires to come work at Jo’s. This decision reflects Kao’s frequent tendency to make rash choices to avoid accountability and ultimately a closure, prioritizing having bodies to swipe customer cards over the actual well-being of his employees. Again also, disrespecting his head chef and her spectacular menu, to think that a fully untrained staff in a space that is brand new to them, could serve Chef Intu-on’s food properly. This behavior starkly contrasts the fake image of a community-oriented business owner in the Laurel District of Oakland, that he so loves to present.

This situation is not unique among restaurants. It is a classic tale that exemplifies a business owner’s failure to support an exceptional staff until they reached their breaking point. Kao, we hope you learn a valuable lesson from this experience: when running a business that affects people’s livelihoods, rash and short-sighted decisions are unacceptable. Your actions have contradicted the “business owner with a heart” persona you project and you have harmed your employees. We sincerely hope that your new staff at The Peach and Jo’s are treated with the respect they deserve, but based on your past actions, that seems unlikely.

Sincerely, 

Jo’s Modern Thai Staff (Former)