This article appeared in our local paper today.
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/040302/bus_villageinn.shtml
Is this sort of shabby treatment a common restaurant industry policy? If they would expect an employee to give notice, and not just walk out, why shouldn’t the owners do the same?
I know, I know, life is unfair and all the management cared about was the bottom line. But it still sucks.
In general, why is “standard business practice” an excuse? Why would you want to say to someone that not only are you going to fuck them over, but that it’s the standard practice of your company to do so?
I think the title is perfect. I can’t believe this. Well, I CAN believe it, I just don’t WANT to believe it. This is completely callous and unethical treatment of both their employees and their customers.
Several years ago, my health care clinic closed its doors one Friday, no notice to ANYONE. It was hell trying to get my medical records, and finding another doctor.
Many, many years ago, I had a job I hated, in a town I hated, and was about to leave.
About a month earlier, my supervisor had stopped by another worker and quietly said “by the way, today is your last day”.
No explanation to him or anyone else - just ‘you’re fired’.
Well, I didn’t like the fellow so dismissed (or anyone else in the shop, for that matter), but this was over the top.
So, one fine spring day, I passed the supervisor in a doorway and said “by the way, this is my last day”
Instantly, i was hero.
Kids: you CAN burn bridges - just make sure you won’t be back.
p.s. - the HR twit was absolutely livid. I enjoyed our chat. :evil smiley here:
A similar thing happened here in Rochester, MN, back in December. Four Hardee’s restaurants closed suddenly with absolutely no warning to the employees. It was on the Friday before Christmas. Managers were offered positions elsewhere, but the rest of the employees, around 98, I think, were unemployed.
What goes around comes around. I advise my clients to let employees go without notice and to give them two weeks and get them out the door and change the locks as soon as possible to minimize lingering pain for all around. But its a two way street.
DPW -
instant ‘non-person’, eh?
do you advise the USPS?
Hmm, in some ways it seems better than my situation - get told two and a half months in advance when you will be let go. Not only are you stuck working somewhere that you know you have no future at, the job gets increasingly tougher as more and more people are laid off - not everyone had the same release date, though the people who got let go earlier are still getting paychecks because state law says you can’t let someone go without two month’s notice - so technically they still work here, they just don’t have to come to work. I do, and I better not slack off because there are still firings and the people who are ‘fired’ as opposed to ‘laid off’ don’t get the nice severance package.
I like this:
In other words “We don’t want the rats to know the ship is sinking.” Nice.
Badtz: Doesn’t that give you 2.5 months to find new employment? I mean, sure it sucks for a couple of weeks, but I’d think that’s a lot better that suddenly finding yourself unemployed with no prospects…
I let someone go right after New Years and arranged for her to have 3 1/2 months to find work. I even told her that if she found work early she could quit right away and I’d give her two weeks pay as a kiss-off.
But it’s a terrible thing to have a ghost at the banquet. It’s horrible for morale.
There’s just no excuse for that kind of behavior. Any company that engages in that sort of behavior doesn’t have a right to bitch and moan about poor employees.
Marc
Happy, I’ve got to respectfully disagree. Firing an employee sucks. Mostly for the employee, but for everyone else too. But the last thing a company needs is someone highly disgruntled having access to the premises, customer lists, personnel, equipment, inventory, and other employees. The only reason is to ease the blow to the fired employee, who is then usually treated as the walking dead by fellows anyway. Give them their severance and get them out of there, no matter how much they are trusted. Responsibility to the stockholders, owners, other employees, customers, etc comes first, you’ve already hurt them as much as you can. If it’s economic, you can offer to do outside outplacement services or be a great reference, but there is no upside to having them hang around. And I might add I represent just as many employees. Now I do recommend a few weeks severence pay.
That’s what the company I’m working now for is doing. Wait till Friday afternoon, call you in to the office, “Sorry, you know we’re slow. We’ll have to let you go.”
Guess what? I’m leaving soon… Oh yeah… “this is my last day!”
At least some people have their revenge in these circumstances. Where I worked in retail hell during college, there was quite a bit of internal theft. Employees often shorted their registers and pocketed cash, or just walked out with merchandise. Thus, the loss prevention policies were very strict. We had a regional loss prevention manager, a very confrontational black man, and an ex-cop.
One day, one of the “sales associates” (anything to stroke our pathetic egos) was called in to answer charges that he’d been stealing. Now, although this kid was a short-tempered hockey player, we all new he was a good kid and didn’t steal anything. He was called in at the end of his 8-hour shift, and confronted by the loss prevention guy. Apparently, the LP guy had convinced himself of this kid’s guilt, had this ex-cop “get his man” mentality, and wasn’t going to hear otherwise. In other words, the management knew when the kid came in that it was his last day, regardless of what the LP guy could prove.
Well, we all expected this kid to come out fuming, given his nearly non-existent fuse. But he strolled out of the office, calmly walked up to the store manager and said, “So, I take it I’m fired no matter what?” The manager told him he was, so the kid says “So if I want to go in there and give the guy a piece of my mind, you won’t stop me?” The manager said, “I’d rather you didn’t, but you’re not my employee any more.” So the kid walks coolly back into the office with the LP guy. No more than a minute later, he’s back out front, gathering his things, when the LP guy explodes from the office, screaming bloody murder. He threatens to kill the kid, and says he has a gun he could get to easily. The manager and a couple of cashiers had to hold the guy back. Mind you this was all in front of thirty or so customers waiting around. The kid calmly went outside, got the attention of the bicycle cop that routinely patrolled near the store, and reported the incident to him. The LP guy confirmed his threats, apologized, and since the kid didn’t want to press charges, left the store. We later found out that he’d been fired for the retail equivalent of Conduct Unbecoming.
We never did find out what the kid said to provoke that reaction. He probably played the race card, but no one knows for certain. We all kinda admired the kid. You might question his methods, but he did get his revenge. I wish I could have gone out after my four years with just a little bang, considering the hell that place put me through. <sigh> Anyway, that’s My Retail Story[sup]TM[/sup]