There’s a widely held belief among netizens that, when it comes to hiring and firing, HR is not your friend. In today’s modern corporate landscape, the vast majority of companies aren’t loyal to their employees, but rather their shareholders.
While filming herself enjoying lunch at the airport, TikToker Lara Rule (@pogsyy) accidentally overheard some Texas Roadhouse corporate agents discussing the termination of one of their sick employees. She decided to share her video online in the hopes of warning the employee, but the company responded in a less than PR-friendly manner.
More info: TikTok
Woman accidentally overheard Texas Roadhouse managers plotting to terminate an employee who was in ICU
Image credits: pogsyy
Concerned for the employee, she decided to share her recording of the conversation on her TikTok
Rule’s story begins with a TikTok of her enjoying lunch at Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C. In her video, you can hear a faint conversation of a woman openly discussing how Texas Roadhouse is planning on terminating an employee who's in the hospital because she hasn't contacted them - they had to find out via Facebook
Apparently, the company was trying to send the sick woman a fake benefits package, but didn't want her to know what it was, so they could terminate her in an underhanded manner. Rule told the community that if they knew someone who worked for Texas Roadhouse who is currently bed-ridden, they should let her know not to sign for the benefits package.
TikTokers in the comments shared their own horror stories of working for Texas Roadhouse and banded together in an attempt to identify the ill woman, thanking Rule profusely for her thoughtful post and saying this is the exact reason employees aren't loyal anymore.
Image credits: pogsyy
Outraged netizens took the company to task, but the brand tried to deflect the negative publicity and even deleted comments on social media
In an update posted a couple of days later, Rule says that, while she was still trying to determine whether or not she had actually found the woman and her husband, Texas Roadhouse were supposedly replying to some comments on Facebook about her original TikTok.
Rule shared a screenshot with the community displaying the company’s reply to a Facebook user, which claimed Rule's allegations weren't true and that her post was inappropriate and misleading. They reiterated that they were a people-first company and entirely supportive of their "Roadies".
Image credits: JJBers / Flickr (not the actual photo)
The TikToker addressed the company’s actions in follow-up videos, even offering to show them how to handle an online PR crisis at no cost
OP responds, "Hey, that's my video! Happy to post more documentation if you'd like — you could alternatively have reached out personally to me instead of making inappropriate and rather odd comments regarding this situation. Or you could have even sent me a cease and desist if it wasn't true, but you can't send a cease and desist if it is true, so perhaps that's why."
Further on in her reply to the company, she added that she caught the conversation by accident while filming birds in the airport and there could be no expectation of privacy in public.
Image credits: DC Studio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Thanks to the help of netizens, she was able to get hold of the sick employee and warn her about the company’s deceptive plot
Rule then turns to the camera, saying that she doesn’t really give a damn if Texas Roadhouse is annoyed and that if her video is going to potentially save someone from wrongful termination due to a health condition, then it's worth it to her.
A few hours later, she posted another update stating that she’d made contact with the hospital-bound woman and her husband and would welcome litigation with open arms because Texas Roadhouse could make no claim against her actions, and it would be a PR nightmare for them.
Watch the full video here
In her final update, Rule celebrated the TikTok community for helping find the couple and invited Texas Roadhouse to have a civil conversation with her.
According to the Haeggquist & Eck website, medical leave provides employees with essential time off for health-related reasons. This time lets individuals attend to personal health concerns, recover from pregnancy, illnesses, or surgeries, manage chronic conditions, or attend to a family member’s medical requirements.
Medical leave policies differ by country, state, and employer, but always strive to support employees’ mental and physical well-being. In the US, the Families and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for specific medical and family reasons.
In her article for HRMorning on the 5 times it’s OK to fire an employee on FMLA leave, Carol Warner writes that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit highlighted five separate cases in which it threw out a worker’s FMLA lawsuit against an employer after finding “undisputed evidence that the employee in question would have been terminated even if FMLA leave had not been taken.”
What would you have done if you had found yourself in Rule’s shoes? And what do you think of the way Texas Roadhouse handled the matter? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
In the comments, TikTokers weighed in, castigating the corporate agent for having such a sensitive conversation in a public place and shared their own stories about abhorrent corporate behavior
Image credits: ANTONI SHKRABA production / Pexels (not the actual photo)
