Former server says the company relocated the manager - then made her the problem
Move the manager, not the problem - and, one former server says, a lawsuit follows.
A former server has sued First Watch Restaurants, claiming the company brushed aside her sexual-harassment complaints, moved her manager to another store instead of firing him, and then made her the target. The complaint was filed June 19, 2026, in federal court in Illinois.
Alexus Stallworth worked as a server at the First Watch in Geneva, Illinois, from about August 2023 until July 6, 2024, according to the filing. She says her back-of-house manager - described only as "an individual believed to be named Cristo" - started with unwanted compliments, telling her she was beautiful and that he wanted her to be his wife. He is not a defendant. The only defendant is First Watch Restaurants, Inc.
The complaint says the conduct worsened in early 2024, with remarks about her appearance and how she looked in her clothes. It alleges the same manager directed similar conduct at other women on staff and, on multiple occasions, "attempted to push the head of an employee believed to be named Alyssa into an ice bin."
This is where it gets instructive for anyone who runs an HR function. Stallworth says she raised the issue again and again - to a vice president, a director of operations, a general manager, and a front-of-house manager - complaining "at least ten times," according to the filing. In May 2024, she says she and several coworkers filed an anonymous report through EthicsPoint, the company's ethics hotline. When the company investigated, she says she confirmed the harassment.
The company's move, according to the complaint, was to transfer the manager to another location "rather than terminating his employment."
What came next drives the retaliation claims. The filing alleges that cooks who blamed Stallworth for the manager's exit grew hostile. When she reported a coworker who threatened her, the complaint says, the company sent her home but let the other employee keep working. It also alleges that the company's HR department "accused Plaintiff of being racist without any basis" and demanded she prove her complaints were not racially motivated.
Then, on July 6, 2024, managers gave her a write-up the complaint calls "pretextual" and containing "false allegations." A vice president, the filing says, pressed her to quit by asking why she still worked there if she did not like management. She resigned that day - what the complaint calls a "retaliatory constructive discharge."
Stallworth brings six counts, three under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and three under the Illinois Human Rights Act, covering hostile work environment, retaliation, and forced resignation. She filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in November 2024 and received a right-to-sue notice this past spring.
For HR leaders, the through-line is hard to miss. A transfer can look like action while solving nothing. A person who reports can become a target the moment coworkers learn who spoke up. And an investigation meant to fix a problem can read, in hindsight, as the start of retaliation if the person who reported ends up under scrutiny.
None of this has been tested in court. First Watch has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled.
