A small business owner in New Jersey said she couldn’t believe her ears when the mother of an employee she had just fired allegedly called to tell her she had handled the situation all wrong. The employee had reportedly failed to show up for work for the second time, but his mother apparently thought there was a better way to teach him a lesson.
The bizarre incident has made its way to TikTok, where the video has gained plenty of attention, with many netizens saying they’re frustrated with parents like the mom.
The business owner explained that the employee had been given another chance after he previously failed to show up for work. When it happened again, she fired him.
Shortly after, the boy’s mom reportedly called her to intervene on her son’s behalf. “The mom was like the better approach would be to have him work and not pay him, so, you know, that way he could learn a lesson,” the owner recalled.
That, to her, was never going to happen. “It’s insane how the things these kids get away with and their parents excuse it as if it’s okay, as if it’s normal, I don’t understand it,” she said. “I don’t want to teach your kid a lesson. That’s not my job, it’s yours.”
She added that she was willing to teach an employee on the job, including finance, sales, and marketing. However, there was just one rather important requirement before any of that could happen. “You have to show up,” the owner said.
By the end of the video, the woman admitted the mother’s involvement had annoyed her even more than the original no-show.
Locals Agree That Mom Should Not Have Stepped In
People in the comments were largely just as bewildered by the mother’s phone call. Several argued that parents who continually step in for their children prevent them from facing consequences on their own.
“I hate parents like this,” one commenter remarked. Another claimed, “That’s why this gen is the way they are, no one holds them accountable.” A third said, “Parents should not be getting involved in their children’s employment.. you did the right thing by firing them.. this generation of working adults are a problem smh.” A fourth added, “I dont understand these parents who never allow their child to grow up and figure [things] out themselves.”
For some viewers, the thought of their own parents calling their employer after they were fired was mortifying enough. “My blood vessels would turn inside out from embarrassment if my Mom called my job. Any job,” one person joked.
Some people also spotted another problem with the mother’s proposed solution. Asking the business owner to have her son continue working without paying him wasn’t simply an unconventional punishment.
“Ma’am it is illegal to have someone work and not pay them. What is wrong with these people,” one viewer wrote. Another agreed, warning, “Yeah not paying someone for work opens you to liability.”
And on that point, the commenters had good reason to raise concerns. New Jersey’s wage regulations state that covered employees must be paid for all hours worked, while the state’s wage-payment rules restrict when an employer can withhold or divert an employee’s wages.
So while the mother may have viewed unpaid work as a way for her son to learn a lesson, actually putting that idea into practice could expose an employer to a wage complaint or other legal consequences depending on the circumstances.
