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A bad manager can destroy even the most successful restaurant in town, and that is just what happened in this story.
The manager was given a wildly successful Italian restaurant by his parents, but the power went right to his head. He quickly started making changes to the dress code, how employees had to act, and much more.
Then one day, he took it too far. Two waitresses were working hard when he fired them on the spot in front of the whole restaurant. His reasoning? They had a few wisps of hair flying out of their bun.
As they were walking out, the waitresses saw nearly all the other employees walking off as well. Everyone was sick of the power-tripping manager, and the whole business went under shortly after.
Fired for hair – restaurant had to close down
When I was in high school, I got a part time job as a hostess at an Italian restaurant with a friend of mine.
This sounds like the perfect first job.
The restaurant was only open 5 days a week for dinner. The restaurant was fairly new but was already filling every table every night because the food was amazing.
In addition to my friend and I being the only two hostesses, the bus boys were friends, half of the waiters were friends and the dishwasher was a friend.
He’s going on a power trip.
The owners son was the floor manager and with the success of the restaurant started to implement new changes.
Everyone must look presentable and in uniform at all times. No dirty uniforms. Even for the bus boy.
Does this guy think that this makes him look good? It doesn’t.
He was rather rude to all employees and would hover and take over our jobs right in front of customer apologizing for our inability to do our jobs correctly.
However, everyone there was fantastic at their jobs. The dish washer even found creative ways to stay clean and tidy.
He is getting entirely too picky.
The straw broke one night when my friend and I were both working the hostess stand on a packed Saturday night.
The manager walked up to us and declared our hair was not compliant with dress code. Both of us had our hair pulled back in the requisite buns.
He’d better be careful how he treats these employees; he might lose them.
However, we both had a few stray wisps. You know, those tiny little new hairs around your face.
Never mind that is was August and it was hot and we were all working as a team like crazy to make sure the night ran smoothly sharing duties such as bussing tables and running foot and drinks (underage).
Not only is this a bad idea, but it is very unprofessional.
He loudly fired both of us on the spot in front of the entire restaurant and front staff. He then said we were required to continue to work for two weeks and train our replacements.
I asked, are we fired? He said yes. And I said firing means every don’t work for you anymore.
The employees are standing together. Good for them.
We walked out, punched our cards and went to change out of our uniforms. When we got out of the dressing room, there was a line of people waiting to change including the bus boys, half the wait staff, and the dishwasher.
All were so mad about what had happened that they quit on the spot. No one liked the job anyway.
You can’t run a restaurant without employees.
We all went to iHop to eat and we’re soon joined by the rest of the wait staff and the line cooks. So, all that was left of the entire restaurant staff was the bartender, the owner/cook and the manager.
I later heard that the owner just decided to shut down the restaurant because the only reason he started it was to provide his son a legacy from the family businesses in Italy, and he decided his son couldn’t handle it.
This guy was handed a very successful business and managed to drive it into the ground in no time. Some people just can’t be trusted with any sort of power, and that seems to be the case here. Sadly, he won’t likely learn his lesson.
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Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about what happened.
The manager clearly didn’t know how things work in the world.
What a pathetic thing to get fired over.
This person also worked for an Italian restaurant.
Employees are essential for any successful business.
This is the kind of solidarity we need in the world.
If you are handed a successful business, the last thing you want to do is start making changes. Sadly, so many people who are put in management positions think that they need to display their power right away. This ends up causing endless problems, and in this case, putting the restaurant out of business.
When employees all stick together, management has no real power.
