As if working at a restaurant wasn’t hard enough, awful management doesn’t really help make it any easier.
And between the frequently low pay, the uncertainty of tipping, the occasional entitled or just plain bad customer, and long excruciating shifts, it should not come as a surprise at this point why people don’t want to work in the restaurant or even catering industry.
But then there’s situations like this. A professional waitress and bartender recently told a story of how she got fired over refusing to find a substitute for her pre-planned paid time off, but ended up taking matters into her own hands and fighting this injustice her own way with interesting results.
Restaurant work in and of itself ain't easy, so you'd think deciding to be a crummy manager would be the last thing on people's minds. But it isn't
Image credits: arisworld011
So, professional waitress and bartender Arianna Scott recently went to TikTok to share what she considered a comical employment situation.
The story goes that Arianna got hired at a restaurant (the name of which she did not disclose and you’ll find out why a bit later) that had a very questionable manager.
Before she got on board, Arianna explicitly said that she would like paid time off for Thanksgiving. Specifically from the 23rd through the 27th. She always does this way in advance if she knows she’s going on vacation, so as to be a responsible employee and to provide ample time for the employer to plan accordingly.
Professional waitress Arianna Scott recently shared her confrontation with one such manager—a confrontation that got her hired and let go twice
Image credits: arisworld011
In this case, she let the manager lady know, who “hearted” Arianna’s text. Great, all set. She even has it in writing, in a sense. But, the day comes, and OP sees her shift schedule, and, to her surprise, she’s working. Apparently. Must be a mistake, right?
After a short back and forth with the manager, it turns out she did not forget, but she expects Arianna to find a replacement for her. To the best of everyone’s knowledge, she was never told that, nor is that her job to begin with—it ought to be the manager’s job.
In short, Arianna got fired after standing her ground over pre-planned paid time off, and told the owner about it, which got her job back and upset the manager
Image credits: arisworld011
Long story short, Arianna said she wouldn’t be at work even if she didn’t find a substitute, and got fired. But that did not stop her from approaching the restaurant’s owner about this. “So I said [f] it, I got nothing to lose,” explained Arianna in the video.
After some searching, she got a hold of the owner in person and told her what had happened, and that it was very unprofessional. So, getting fired at 10am led to getting rehired at around 12pm. Talk about awkward. But funny.
The owner found out about her first video, was not pleased by it, and after talking with Arianna, the two decided to part ways
Image credits: arisworld011
Now, you’d think that this was a happy ending and they all lived happily ever after. But, no. Well, maybe. Things happened that contradicted getting hired, and that is getting fired again. Well, not fired, but more let go, under a mutual agreement.
Sure, the problem of poor management was sorted out, Arianna’s employment was restored, but she got let go again for her TikTok. The owner called Arianna and both agreed that Arianna continuing work under the same manager would be counterproductive for both of them.
So, she got hired, then fired, then rehired, and then let go—quite an unorthodox situation
Image credits: arisworld011
Image credits: Alpha (not the actual photo)
It’s important to note that Arianna had no beef with the owner. He was nice, professional, and condemned the bad manager’s actions. They discussed it all in a civilized manner. So, it wasn’t that she got fired.
Image credits: arisworld011
Arianna also spilled some tea on what exactly that this "manager" was doing
Image credits: arisworld011
There were two follow-ups to the original video—one discussing how she got let go, and the other gave context as to what the manager was like to Arianna. In the latter, she claimed that the manager despised her, given that Arianna exposed her poor management to the owner, who was horrified by it all. But there was more before that.
She recalled one instance where she was in training. You see, the restaurant has a rule where those in training cannot get tips. Given this, she spent 27 hours, which translated into 2 days worth of work, without any tips. And if you read our Texas Roadhouse article, you’ll know that it’s quite possible for a waitress to earn as low as $2.13 an hour. This was all in the context that Arianna was a professional waitress, so she didn’t need that much training. As she’s now in another job, she has managed to earn $300 on her first day. Stark contrast.
She recalled her training, which lasted 27 hours—a bit too excessive for an experienced waitress and bartender—and the worst part was no tips
Image credits: arisworld011
Once Arianna’s video hit TikTok, it got over 1.9 million views with nearly 400,000 likes. Folks were interested. Some expressed how glad they are that Arianne bolted out of there when she did, and that now she’s better off.
Others were perplexed as to how this is even a thing with managers pushing the responsibility of finding someone else to cover employees’ shifts, even though it is their job.
Yet others pushed the idea that nobody should tolerate being denied paid time off (PTO) if it’s reserved in advance. One user said “My toxic trait is that I will literally quit a job if they deny my PTO. No job is more important than time off with family or friends or my damn self.”
You can check out the full first video below
You can check out the full saga in video form here, here, and here. And if you want more restaurant tea, check out that previously mentioned Texas Roadhouse article. But before you do that, share your thoughts, opinions and any other pieces of personal conviction in the comment section below!