So I got fired, technically I was “laid off” but I know that’s a boat load of crap. The timing is too coincidental. They want to tell me I might get a raise for being such a hard worker a week before they “lay me off.” Give me a fucking break, it’s all excuses
For context before I explain what happened, I worked at a restaurant as a prep cook. I was there for almost 8 months before I was let go. I liked everyone there except for the owners, but I kept a smile on, was always polite and did my work on time. Only called out twice, once for having a flu and once for a family emergency. I almost always stayed later than my hours, as common with most restaurants, and always helped my co-workers. Got nothing but praise and everyone joked around with each other, never had any issue until now
Now regarding the owners, these people were some of the most greedy, vapid, selfish, lying pieces of shit I’ve ever worked for. They paid us shit, they verbally abused us, they blamed their staff for their own shortcomings. Just typical shitty restaurant owner behaviour. Now, I understand that businesses need to market themselves and a good way to do that is social media. I personally don’t care for social media and I rarely use it. When I do I never post personal information about myself, especially anything that involves work or where I live. I value my security and privacy very much. If other people want to be posted online for anyone to see, have at it, I couldn’t care less what other people do online. I however, do not want to be posted online for thousands of strangers to see
Right before I got laid off, my co-workers were making tik-toks to promote the restaurant. They’re all very into social media. Half of the time they’re talking about tiktok memes and I just force myself to listen to it, even though I don’t give a single fuck about it. I always felt like the odd one out because of it but it was never an issue until now
They were wearing stupid hats and dancing around while the owners “directed” and filmed them. My boss (the owner) calls me over and gives me a hat, expecting me to join in. I politely say that I’m glad they want me to join, but I personally don’t feel comfortable being posted online publicly. I don’t want my face online. I don’t want strangers knowing where I work, and in general, I don’t want to dance around like a monkey for barely above minimum wage. I didn’t say that of course but I made it clear that I was uncomfortable being posted online. It’s not my job, I’m not getting paid extra for it and legally I have the right to refuse. He says that’s fine, don’t worry about it, but I can tell by his face that he looks kind of angry. I think I was being pretty damn reasonable. I’m a grown adult, if I don’t want to be posted online at work that shouldn’t be an issue
Well, I guess it was
I had two days off after that shift. I get an email sunday morning telling me my employment has been terminated due to business decline. Business decline my fucking ass. These fuckers were bragging all month about their profits and how they expect next year to be even better, talking about raises and everything like that. I know for a fact they fired me for not wanting to be in their tiktoks but knew they couldn’t legally say that was the reason. So they come up with some bullshit excuse to let me go
I’m pissed but honestly it was blessing in disguise. They can’t even respect my basic rights, why should I work for people who treat their employees like they’re disposible trash. Someone needs to do a study on restaurant owners and find out how many of them are narcissistic sociopaths. Whatever, fuck them, pieces of shit. Hope they find another naive monkey who will dance for their peanuts