The Disturbing Time-Off Rant That Got An Olive Garden Manager Fired
Few need to be reminded how rough the restaurant industry can be to work in, particularly post-Covid, and with the reality of inflation in full force. It applies just as much to small independent eateries as it does the massive chains like Olive Garden. That, however, doesn't mean it's appropriate to take frustrations out on your employees.
A manager at an Overland Park, Kansas, location of the restaurant chain was let go in December of 2022 for doing just that. The manager had apparently been frustrated by the number of people taking time off and let them all know in a mass text message to the cooks, servers, bussers, and the rest of the location's staff.
"Our call offs are occurring at a staggering rate," read the message (via KCTV). "From now on, if you call off, you might as well go out and look for another job."
The manager continued. "If you're sick, you need to come prove it to us. If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it to us. If it's a 'family emergency' and you can't say, too bad. Go work somewhere else."
Needless to say, it didn't go over well with employees. Asking for proof — including declaring that people essentially need to bring the dead body of a beloved family pet — is crossing a huge line.
Coming to work sick?
The mass text message also drifted into self-aggrandizing territory, in which the manager held up her own work ethic as exemplary and claimed that she was so committed to her job that she had come into shifts ill and even after her car had been wrecked. This seems an odd thing to brag about, particularly given the worrisome red flags and health issues raised by coming to work at a restaurant while sick.
Moreover, the manager seemed to imply that she wouldn't even be giving employees their preferred schedule. "If you only want morning shifts, too bad go work at a bank." She also tried to institute a rule where if anyone called out more than once in a 30 day timespan, they would be fired.
The message, duly labeled a rant, predictably went viral on social media. Olive Garden corporate, for its part, was quick to run damage control on the situation, dismissing the manager and speaking with local TV station KCTV about the situation. "We strive to provide a caring and respectful work environment for our team members," Olive Garden's representative said. "We can confirm we have parted ways with this manager."
Respecting service workers
As mentioned above, the restaurant industry can be challenging. By some reports, it is facing the worst labor challenges of any industry. Naturally, this doesn't mean managers can go off on employees like this one did. In fact, it's all the more reason to respect staff's work-life balance. For all the hubbub over the post-Covid phenomenon of job dissatisfaction — the great resignation, quiet quitting, and other related buzz terms — the instinct to blame servers, cooks, bartenders, or bussers for eatery difficulties is ultimately a misled one. A 2022 study conducted by Gallup concluded that "managers are essential to combatting quiet quitting."
"Managers must learn how to have conversations to help employees reduce disengagement and burnout," read the article written by Jim Harter. "Only managers are in a position to know employees as individuals — their life situation, strengths and goals."
In other words, it is primarily up to managers to create the kind of workplace culture employees want to return to. Though there are indeed other factors at play, it seems pretty clear that this particular Olive Garden manager couldn't quite wrap her head around that concept. For sure, restaurant work can be a trying job, but if there isn't a sense that employees have lives outside of that job worth respecting, then there's a very good chance that the restaurant won't be up to meeting any of the other myriad challenges it is going to face.