After discovering one of his workers’ mistakes, a restaurant owner in Missouri wasn’t having it and punished his entire staff as a result. For context, someone at the restaurant hadn’t closed a cooler all the way, causing all the food and ingredients inside to heat up to 74F degrees. The owner claimed that this mistake “happens way too often,” so now everyone should be disciplined.
The restaurant owner shared this announcement with his staff in a Facebook group, where Reddit user Merv1618 then uploaded a screenshot of the post on r/KitchenConfidential. Merv1618, who claims he doesn’t work at the restaurant anymore, is still in the restaurant’s Facebook group, along with a handful of other ex-staff.
The owner’s punishment in question is not giving his workers free staff meals for a week, a benefit that was likely included when signing on for the job. Hundreds of Redditors felt quite mixed about the owner’s reaction.
Reddit Reactions Were Mixed: Many Opposed the Missouri Restaurant Owner, While Some Supported Him
On the one hand, many claim that his anger should have been focused on the supervisor or whoever is responsible for closing up. Not to mention, plenty of people agreed that his “group punishment” was uncalled for and would likely just make his staff dislike him. However, a sizeable minority felt that the owner was not wrong to be upset and that the staff needed to realize how serious the mistake was.
“Why is there not a manager or closer doing a walkthrough at the end of the night?? Does nobody double-check the restaurant before closing?” exclaimed a commenter. “The closing manager is the one who needs to be taking the heat here,” remarks another person in agreement.
“Collective punishment is a lazy way for an owner/manager to not address issues with specific staff,” pointed out a third Redditor.
On the flip side, some sided with the owner and his behavior. “Absolutely the wrong reaction by him for many reasons, but I have to say if we had a problem with fridges not getting closed right I’d be pretty pissed too,” said a Redditor. “At a certain point you have to punish stupidity. Those servers have to be a bunch lazy half-wits to not figure this out,” added a second.
Unfortunately, it’s a lose-lose situation for everyone in the end. Regardless of whether the owner disciplines his staff correctly, a lot of food was presumably spoiled from someone’s mistake. And a hit to a business is a loss for all staff.
