I work in a small upscale restaurant owned by a regional restaurant group. In May, a major A-list music artist is coming to our town on concert tour. Multiple of my coworkers have bought tickets to this concert and requested off for the same day, a Saturday.
Today my scheduling manager was telling me about how he has “no choice” but to deny some unlucky people’s requests off. “They’ll have to sell their tickets. What are we supposed to do, tell the owner that we’re closing the restaurant on a Saturday night because too many of our employees want to go to a concert?” The owner drives a Porsche and our restaurant is profitable af. Closing the restaurant for a single Saturday is not going to take food out of this man’s mouth. We wouldn’t even have to close, just limit reservations in accordance with the staff we have on hand. It would be one thing if this were last minute but it’s four months out. There’s next to nothing on the books for that evening right now. A few months ago, the family-owned hole-in-the-wall Thai spot near my house closed on a Saturday with a handwritten note on the door that said “closed due to family emergency.” Last I checked they’re still in business. My employer can definitely figure something out to where all the people who requested off are able to attend the concert of their favorite artist who hasn’t been on tour in six years. But they won’t because profits.