Community Chat

[gertrudecloset]

telling employees if they are sick to come to work and prove it.  

An Olive Garden manager has been fired after going on a rant about employees calling out sick.

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The Kansas-based manager sent employees a scathing letter about workers calling out frequently:

Olive Garden manager message

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"Our call offs are occurring at a staggering rate," the letter said. "From now on, if you call off, you might as well go out and look for another job. We are no longer tolerating ANY excuses for calling off." 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 its a “family emergency” and you can’t say, too bad. Go work somewhere else. If you only want morning shifts, too bad go work at a bank. If anyone from here on out calls out more than ONCE in the next 30 days you will not have a job. Do you know in my 11.5 years at Darden how many days I called off? Zero. I came in sick. I got in a wreck literally on my to work one time, airbags went off and my car was totaled, but you know what, I made it to work, ON TIME! There are no more excuses. Us, collectively as a management team have had enough. If you don’t want to work here, don’t. It’s as simple as that. If you’re here and want to work, then work. No more complainging about not being cut or not being able to leave early. You’re in the restaurant business. Do you think I want to be here until midnight on Friday and Saturday? No. I’d much rather be at home with my husband and dog, going to the movies or seeing family. But I don’t, I’m dedicated to being here. As should you. No more excuses or complaints.

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I hope you choose to continue to work here and I think we (management) make it as easy as we can on ya’ll. Thank you for your time and thank you to those who come in every day on time and work hard. I wish there were more like you.

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In the letter, which was later obtained and published by KCTV, a local television news station in Fairway, Kansas, workers were told to prove they were ill if they called out sick.

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The restaurant manager even went as far as saying, "If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it."

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Olive Garden issued this statement: "We strive to provide a caring and respectful work environment for our team members," the statement said. "This message is not aligned with our company's values. We can confirm we have parted ways with this manager."

[RedTop]

Probably not the best way to handle the call out situation, but I LOVE the woman's straightforwardness!

[deepwaterdotter]

The company dealt with the announcement of the manager's termination in a professional manner.

[RetRN]

I don't believe everything I hear or read, in fact I trust very little of it.

[kitcat51]

Sorry the manger was fired. Our local McDonald's locked the doors & limped along serving drive thru customers with 3 employees, the others didn't bother showing up & other retailers are having the same problem too...I waited 55 minutes for my Walmart pickup order because  they were short staffed.

[Daisy Sunflower]

Maybe she had wanted to quit working, but knew she couldn't collect unemployment benefits if she quit.

This way, she knew she'd probably get fired so then she could collect unemployment for a while.

[cjm61]

I worked at Kaiser (can I say that? ) years ago.  If you were sick for more than 2 days you had to produce a doctor's note confirming an illness. This is pretty common in many large businesses.

While I worked there an employee called in sick to attend the Ellen DeGeneres show. She was seen on TV in the opener where the audience is dancing. She was caught and immediately fired. 

Not all, but many people abuse their sick leave. If you are sick stay home. If you want to shop, travel, or whatever, do it on your own time. This does cost companies a lot of money. 

[gertrudecloset]

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@RedTop wrote:

Probably not the best way to handle the call out situation, but I LOVE the woman's straightforwardness!

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Why are you under the assumption this person (former manager) is a woman @RedTop ?

[Meowingkitty]

Glad they fired her. No employee should have to work in fear of something happening that is beyond their control. Yes people do abuse sick days but those should be handled on an individual basis. 

i once worked for a major credit card company who told the call center department that they would all get a Christmas bonus only if no one in the department called in between Thanksgiving and New Years. If one person called in everyone's bonus was eliminated. I don't know if they got their bonus or not but talk about pressure.

[SloopJohnB]

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@gertrudecloset wrote:

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@RedTop wrote:

Probably not the best way to handle the call out situation, but I LOVE the woman's straightforwardness!

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Why are you under the assumption this person (former manager) is a woman @RedTop ?

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It says......I much rather be at home with my husband @gertrudecloset   in the body of the message.