BANGOR (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Bangor resident Emma Reed says she's lucky to live in Bangor so she doesn't have to deal with many of the negative things that we see in the news.
But then, something negative happened to her. She claims to have been denied a job based on her gender.
Reed has four years experience working in a kitchen and says she loves what she does and wants to continue to work with food. But the restaurant she works at full-time is going into winter hours so she's looking for a side hustle.
Which is why she applied to Kobe Ninja House Japanese Grill in Bangor.
"He called me and asked if I was looking for job, and I said yes, and he realized through my voice that I was female, and he was like oh, no I'm sorry we're not hiring women in the kitchen." She said.
She was shocked and after her Facebook post generated attention, she was getting messages from other woman that worked at Kobe. Including former employee Genelle Rowe who had an incident with a female hiring manager.
"She was telling me how Li, the owner and her, whenever someone would apply, before they would hire them they would check their online profile to make sure they met their certain level of attractiveness." She said.
Kobe also released a statement on social media, saying this is not its view.
The employee that had this conversation with Reed, is no longer employed.
"We had a mutual agreement -- this is his last week here, he's leaving next week," Li Yang, Kobe owner, said.
Reed spoke out even though she wasn't completely comfortable doing so, because she doesn't want this to happen to anyone else.
"I was uncomfortable about speaking out, because there's so much backlash." She said.
Kobe takes responsibility for this incident.
"I'm not gonna say, like, it's not our fault, it is our fault." Yang said.
Reed tells News Center Maine even if a job was now offered... she is looking for a second job elsewhere.
Reed and Yang have not spoken directly on the matter.