I’m really pleased this is getting so much attention:
A former manager at an Elkhart, Ind., Pizza Hut trying to give his employees some time off says he was firedfor refusing to open the store on Thanksgiving, local CBS affiliate WSBT is reporting.
Tony Rohr, who started out at the pizza chain as a cook before working his way up to general manager, confronted his superiors after being told the store would need to be open on Thanksgiving.
In years past, Rohr said, Pizza Hut stores have been closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, according toFox 8.
“Thanksgiving and Christmas are the only two days that they’re closed in the whole year and they’re the only two days that those people are guaranteed to have off and spend it with their families,” he told WSBT.
His bosses told him to tender his resignation, but he wrote a scathing letter instead.
“I am not quitting. I do not resign, however I accept that the refusal to comply with this greedy, immoral request means the end of my tenure with this company,” Rohr wrote, according to WSBT. ” … I hope you realize that it’s the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible.”
The company is already seeing quite a backlash on their official Facebook page, with some commenters calling the chain “greedy” and threatening to never eat there again. The page did not respond to any of the negative comments.
One of Rohr’s bosses claimed that he quit, and being open on Thanksgiving wasn’t an individual’s decision — it was a company decision, according to WSBT
One of the things that low wage workers complain about is how chaotic their lives are due to erratic and ever-changing schedules. Constant chaos makes it really difficult to care for small children properly. Parents have to plan, hell, people have to plan if they want a life outside work, and decisions like this to open on holidays ripple out from the employee and affect whole families.
I noticed there’s a trend now among corporate honchos to advise low-level employees and others of us out here in the cheap seats on financial literacy. Have the corporate honchos considered that it might be easier for people to organize their finances if they knew ahead of time when they would be working and how much they might make in any given period, let alone planning essentials like child care, making sure they have transportation to work available, and on and on? Are we sure free lessons on “better money habits” are the only way McDonalds and Bank of America could help?
Maybe we could get a recognition that this:
I hope you realize that it’s the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible.
is true and seems to have all but disappeared from our dialogue on workers and working?
*Omnes gives us this, a list of stores that close on Thanksgiving.
He’s not as thankful as he perhaps once wasPost + Comments (144)