This is Emily Houser, an 18-year-old from Whitehall, Pennsylvania, who worked at a local Chili’s from the time she was 16 until last Thursday. Shortly after she was hired, the restaurant brought on a new manager, Josh Davidson, who was 24 at the time. For the next two years, Davidson sexually harassed Houser, seeking a relationship at every turn. Houser told Buzzfeed news:
“[The] new manager found particular interest in me and began forcing me to go on dates with him. He would just show up to my house uninvited and say he was outside and I had to come with him.”
Over the next two years, Davidson began giving her gifts like money, flowers, cards, and other things of significance. These made Houser uncomfortable. She “was not sure what he expected of me from these gifts.”
Things only got worse when she turned 18, however.
Houser says:
“On my 18th birthday, he showed up to my high school in the parking lot and just kind of rampaged me with gifts and asked me to officially be his girlfriend in front of a bunch of people. I said no, and he replied in a very pompous way, saying he didn’t care if he got fired if we were together, and he didn’t care if he lost his job because he just wanted to be with me.”
“In August, the last time he showed up to my house around 2:30 in the morning, he gave me a card with hundreds of dollars in it, to which I gave it back and kind of told him to just really back off of me, because I was so obviously not interested in him and did not want to be with him.”
Houser planned on putting the whole ordeal behind her, but when Davidson began taking interest in another younger girl, she decided to take action. She put in her two-weeks notice and contacted Chili’s Corporate Headquarters.
Rather than being fired, Davidson was relocated to the Chili’s in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. On his last day at the Whitehall location (this past Sunday, April 2nd), several of his co-workers through him a “F*** Emily Houser” party in support. It even had a cake:
Houser saw the post on Instagram and was especially hurt since she considered her co-workers friends:
“I didn’t know how to feel, except I just didn’t really feel anything. And then I just started to cry, because I came to terms with the fact that I did call these people my friends and I did love them and care about them, and I have no idea why they were doing this to me.”
In a statement to Buzzfeed News late Tuesday Night, Chili’s said all team-members involved are no longer with the company. They continued:
“Chili’s encourages a warm and welcoming workplace to provide our guests with the service they expect. We do not condone and are disappointed by the actions that took place. When this issue surfaced, our franchise partner conducted a thorough investigation.”
Houser is relieved and grateful to hear that Davidson has been removed from his job and just hopes the group has learned from their mistakes:
“I don’t want any personal gain from this whatsoever, I just want the people that were involved to understand what they are doing, and what they did to someone… I just want them to stop, because this is the kind of thing that people commit suicide over.”
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