If you have worked in a restaurant for a long period of time, there is a real good chance that either you or someone you know has been “let go” in an unfair manner. This business will chew you up and spit you out and too many managers don’t give a rat’s ass about your employment. It has happened to me twice; once when working at VYNL here in New York City. We all suspected for weeks that the restaurant was shutting down, but even when we asked point blank about it, they lied to us and said it wasn’t closing. A couple of weeks later, we were given two days notice that we were all out of work. (Fuck you, John.) The other time was when I was working at an unnamed restaurant here in the city that fired me for blogging while I was working there but they were too afraid to admit that was the reason they were letting me go. (You can read about it in chapter 6 of my book!) In both cases, the managers and owners were cowards. Well, a woman named Destinée has come across a manager named Larry who puts the Cowardly Lion to shame. She posted on Facebook her story of how servers at her job found out they were no longer employed:
The new John Daly steakhouse in Conway, AR apparently finds this an appropriate way to fire employees. Weekly, we receive our schedule via a post on groupme from an employee in store that takes a picture for the manager and posts it. The other day we received 2 pictures. The schedule, and another one of a small yellow note that reads this: “if you don’t see your name on the schedule, some unfortunate cutbacks have been made. If you have any questions call me Saturday after 10am at the store. Larry” this picture was sent for the manager, on groupme, via another employee. No reason, just because managers play favorites. A total of 6, yes 6, waiters and waitresses were let go from John Daly steakhouse via this meaningful note. An excuse of “we had to make cuts because we have too many servers” was made. While a brand new training waitress employee sits at the table beside me. Politics and favoritism is the epitome of this place. Don’t do it. Just don’t.
That’s right. Larry, of John Daly Steakhouse, didn’t have the courage to tell six people that he was firing them. Larry just left a note for someone else to take a picture of so it could basically be texted on his behalf. That’s some low-level, shady as fuck, gutless bullshit right there and I am going to call Larry out:
Dude, really? I bet you’re the same guy who breaks up with a girlfriend by text message or email, right? If someone gave you the responsibility to manage a restaurant, that means that you are expected to be a mature individual who handles uncomfortable situations with emotional intelligence. Firing people with a fucking note is not emotionally intelligent. I’m not even going to get into the “favoritism” claim, because I don’t know anything about that. (Not like favoritism would be a surprise coming from someone who fires people in this manner.) Man up, Larry. No matter what the “financial cutbacks” were you should have had the decency to speak to those six people and tell them to their faces that they would be losing their jobs. It’s nice of you to let them call you with any questions on Saturday after 10AM, but at that point, who cares? They’re unemployed! Their questions are going to be like, “How small ARE your balls?” and “Do you KNOW how big of an asshole you are?” I’m sure these six employees were the same ones that you were asking to come in last minute to cover a shift or maybe you told them to leave early when it was slow and they did it, because it’s part of being a server. Well, guess what, Larry. Part of being a restaurant manager is treating your staff with respect and you failed. Hopefully, this public shaming will make you think about your actions the next time you have to let an employee go. In the meantime, I have a note for you:
Good luck to Destinée and all the others who lost their jobs. I hope they soon finds a place to work where management treats them with respect and decency, because even though we are “just servers,” we are entitled to that, especially by our bosses.
Chris
And apparently now, due to people posting and reviewing about this on the John Daly steakhouse Facebook page, you can no longer make reviews on the Facebook page and they delete any posts made about this on the page.
Marsha
I’m SHOCKED. I tell you, SHOCKED!!
Jas
2 hours notice and a post it note is still more than my staff and I got when we showed up to work one Saturday to find we’d been locked out because the owner hadn’t paid rent for 3 months.
To add insult to injury, we had to harass him for over a month to get paid what was owed to us all while he kept insisting we be patient.
And to make it even worse, all the suppliers he owed money to had my number as the store manager and were calling me up to chase their money because he wouldn’t answer their calls. In one case, he even told them I had the money they were owed.
People who don’t have the guts to face up to the difficulties of owning or running a business are the lowest of the low.
Chris
As a Conway resident, With Sam McFaddin owning that place, it won’t last long anyways…
Destinée
I would argue a lot of those points against me, but at this point, why even bother? Do I believe some of that to be untruthful, yes. But perception is reality, so sorry you saw me as a rude person. That’s never my intention. However, I can attest to there being several abundantly rude servers that were just so happen to be preferred by management. So they still work there. But again, this general situation was not about me. I don’t ask for anyone’s pity or approval. I ask for awareness of people being treated poorly ALL OVER the service industry. We are treated disrespectfully and seen as disposable. No one has the guts or takes the time to sit down with someone and talk to them about their faults or need for improvement. It needs to change.
Mark W
Am I the only one who suspects that Larry is leaving comments here disguised as Destinee’s former co-workers?
JDS coworker
Destinee what you fail to mention is that your attitude was horrible. You constantly bitched griped and moaned. Your 3rd day after training you srated bitching about other servers and I heard you talk down to one bartender just because she was serving bar guests that were there before you placed your order and wasn’t standing on top of your service well order IMMEDIATELY. You Destinee were constantly rude to all of your coworkers and on more than one occasion you would wait 15 minutes before your shift to call in if you even called in at all. There are two sides to every story. The other 3 servers that got fired had attitudes just as bad if not worse than yours. Move on!
Marsha
This post is not about Destinee. Whether she deserved firing or not is not the issue at hand.
This post is about a gutless wonder manager known as “Larry”.
If a manager cannot fire someone in private, they should not be in the job. If a note scribbled on a post-it saying “sorry” constitutes professionalism, I’ll eat my hat.
I have managed. I have had to let poeple go. It is EXCRUCIATING. It is the worst part of any manaerial job, in my opinion.
Marsha
Sorry about the typos–was typing whilst enraged.
KDP
Thank you. It doesn’t matter why they were let go, it’s the fact that it was done via a note AND a 3rd party. Completely unprofessional!
Destinée - edit in case anyone was curious
The new John Daly steakhouse in Conway, AR apparently finds this an appropriate way to fire employees. Weekly, we receive our schedule via a post on groupme from an employee in store that takes a picture for the manager and posts it. The other day we received 2 pictures. The schedule, and another one of a small yellow note that reads this: “if you don’t see your name on the schedule, some unfortunate cutbacks have been made. If you have any questions call me Saturday after 10am at the store. Larry” this picture was sent for the manager, on groupme, via another employee. No reason, just because managers play favorites. A total of 6, yes 6, waiters and waitresses were let go from John Daly steakhouse via this meaningful note. An excuse of “we had to make cuts because we have too many servers” was made. While a brand new training waitress employee sits at the table beside me. Politics and favoritism is the epitome of this place. Don’t do it. Just don’t.
EDIT: I gave up shifts to other employees, of course. As is how most restaurants go. I picked up when I didn’t work my other job. I picked up A LOT lately due to it being off season for one job, and only part time from another. And again, stated that this was on behalf of all 6 employees. Not just me. I was there earlier than the note. I was told about my release 2 hours before the note. While a brand new hire sat right there. Don’t tell me it’s because you have too many servers when there’s new ones right there cuz that’s just a lie. If you have a reason, if you don’t like me, if you think I’m terrible at my job, have the guts to at least be honest. Hell, maybe you could even be nice enough to let someone know where they went wrong so they can learn and improve if that’s the case. But not lies and excuses. And even if any of the six were the WORST employees on the planet. THAT DOES NOT EXCUSE THIS NOTE OR THE TREATMENT OF SOME EMPLOYEES OVER OTHERS. It is unprofessional and downright WRONG!
FELLOW WAITRESS
Sorry. Is the way of most server jobs. Most have hot schedules.
FELLOW WAITRESS
Giving away and trading shifts is the way is my server jobs. Most have got schedules. Giving away shifts, as long as they’re covered doesn’t make you a bad employee. She stated that she was fired when she went in to work shift, that there was a new hire there that day. So the “we have to cut back on servers” was a lie. She also stated that she posted this on behalf of all six servers, not just herself being included in the note. You don’t EVER fire an employee that way. If they don’t answer the phone, you keep calling. And ideally you y’all to them in person. You leave a voicemail stating that you need to speak with them ASAP. And you DONT advertise the firing to the rest of your staff by saying if you’re not on the schedule, you’re fired. That individual employee to employer information.
JDS Worker
I also work at this restaurant in Conway, Ar. The person who published this was not fired by this note. She was taken aside one day before our shift meeting by Larry and let go. Reasons due to her not being a very attentive server as well as picking up shifts and not even showing up to them. There is no room on our schedule for servers who aren’t good at their jobs and for ones who release all of their shifts they are given. No, the note shouldn’t have been posted by another server. However, the manager did try to contact all of the 4 servers that were let go before the note was posted. 2 servers were not fired, they were taken off the schedule, but are still able to pick up shifts as they please. Larry did his job by letting go of the servers that no longer met his requirements for this high end Steakhouse. Posting it on social media was taking it a step to far due to her not even being fired the way she claimed she was. You got fired, Destinee, move on.
The Bitchy Waiter
Regardless, this is NOT the way to let people out of their job. It’s very unprofessional.
KDP
She says she was given the advantage of prior notice but that not everyone did