If you were planning to spend your Saturday night hobnobbing with the clubgoing Williamsburg crowd, maybe bring a pair of earplugs: in today's crappy boss news, a hostess at a Midtown nightclub is suing her employers after going nearly deaf in one ear thanks to too-loud music.
Margaret Clemente, an aspiring actress, worked the VIP-section at Lavo, a nightlife hotspot on 58th and Madison, for two years. And while nightly exposure to David Guetta and co. might make one pray for deafness, the gig was more than lucrative —Clemente told the Post she earned $42 an hour, and could rack up $500 a night in tips. Eventually, though, the club's pounding bass line was so brutal she developed "extreme difficulty hearing" in one ear. And when Clemente told her bosses she needed a quieter spot to work, she says they turned against her. "Things got ugly. They were no longer willing to keep me on," Clemente told the Post.
This isn't the first time someone's complained about Lavo's noise. When the club opened in 2010, Times reviewer Sam Sifton called the sound inside cacophonous, and likened it to, "And Duke beats Notre Dame in overtime to win the N.C.A.A. lacrosse title!" And just last summer, another Times report noted that the club's music was at a dangerously high 96 decibels, and a waitress working there complained about migraines.
But Clemente says her employers didn't bother bringing those sick beats down post- Times expose, and instead just handed out cheap foam earplugs. She finally quit late last fall and is suing for an undisclosed amount in damages.
