Happy New Year…or not so much for everyone.
One woman shared that she ran in 2023 by getting fired from her job as a waitress after she stood up to her manager who tried to assign her to do duties she was not trained for.
The woman’s manager wanted her to do her waitressing job and the dishwasher’s job since there were no dishwashers scheduled for the morning shift.
So, the server let her manager know she wasn’t being paid to wash dishes.
In a TikTok video that has been viewed over 4 million times, the waitress, Caelyn, reveals that she worked at a sports bar and grill in Iowa and was scheduled to work on New Year’s Day morning.
She explains that during morning shifts, there are no dishwashers scheduled in the kitchen and they don’t come in until the evenings.
Prior to the incident that resulted in her termination from the restaurant, Caelyn claims that she never had issues with the managers or employees and that she always arrived on time and did her job correctly.
On New Year’s Day, she showed up to her shift 15 minutes early and got a head-start on her suits for the day since the business was slow at first. That, however, quickly changed.
“I started getting tables and got really busy really fast,” Caelyn says. Additionally, not all of the dishes and silverware from the previous day were properly cleaned.
Caelyn approached one of her managers for assistance. “I went to my manager and he said we needed silverware,” she says. She emphasized that the silverware was needed ASAP.
She joked, “or I could just tell them [the customers] to eat the food with their hands.” Her manager did not appreciate her sarcasm.
“He then told me that he would show me how to do the silverware,” Caelyn says, which confused her since she was never trained to do the dishwasher’s job and she was currently serving tables.
Her manager was annoyed but began washing the silverware himself. When Caelyn suggested that he hire a dishwasher for the morning shifts, he snapped at her and told her that she could hire one herself if she wanted to.
“I am a server,” she says. “Not my job to hire people.”
Despite the restaurant being busy, Caelyn says her manager cut her early from her shift, which she was disappointed about.
After closing out her remaining tables and completing her closing duties, she went to her manager’s office to clock out.
While in the office, Caelyn’s manager told her that he cut her early due to her “attitude.”
“I said, ‘I’m sorry if it came across as having an attitude, I did not mean for that’ and then he went on to say that if I’m not going to be a ‘team player’ that he does not want me here anymore.”
She told him that she does not get paid enough to do the dishwasher’s job.
Frustrated by this, Caelyn stood her ground. “I told him that I don’t get paid $16 an hour for the dishwasher’s job and I’m not trained for it.”
Her manager sent her on her way, informing her that she needed to do some “self-reflecting about being a team player.”
Caelyn told her manager that she would be happy to be trained as a dishwasher for higher pay if that’s what he wanted, to which he demanded she leave the restaurant and forbid her from speaking to her other manager about the situation.
Later, Caelyn called her manager’s higher-up to report what had happened. Unfortunately after speaking with her manager, they informed her that there was “nothing they could do” and she lost her job.
“So that is the story of how I got fired from my waitressing job on New Year’s Day because I didn’t do silverware,” she says.
TikTokers supported Caelyn and slammed her manager for expecting her to do a job she was not getting paid for.
“If you are a tipped worker being required to do the work of a non-tipped employee I am pretty sure that’s illegal,” one user commented.
A good manager helps out wherever is needed. He should have done the silverware and helped with servers and the kitchen. Whatever needed to be done,” another user pointed out.
“They did you a favour. Toxic work environment and you would never be happy there. You are exactly correct….know your worth,” another user wrote.
“Sounds like you have a great sense of humor and a positive attitude. It won’t change anything, but it’s their loss,” another added.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.
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