An Olive Garden Manager Was Fired For Telling Staff To Come Into Work No Matter What, And If Their Dog Dies, They Need To Bring The Dead Dog In To Prove It

The manager of an Olive Garden in Johnson County, Kansas has been fired after sending an extreme message to employees about attendance. KCTV5 reports that the manager (who has remained nameless) was so annoyed about her restaurant’s “staggering” amount of call-outs that she ordered them to come into work when they were sick to “prove it to us.” Then she took it several billion steps further and wrote, “If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it to us.” Um, is that a smart idea for a restaurant? “I’m sorry you found fur in your chicken parmigiana, ma’am. Unfortunately, our kitchen is packed to the rafters with fresh dog corpses…”

After KCTV5 leaked the letter, the Olive Garden announced that the manager had been fired. Here’s the entire message that was sent to employees:

Our call offs are occurring at a staggering rate. From now on, if you call off, you might as well go out and look for another job. We are no longer tolerating ANY excuse for calling off. If you’re sick, you need to come prove it to us. If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it to us. If its a “family emergency” and you can’t say, too bad. Go work somewhere else. If you only want morning shifts, too bad go work at a bank. If anyone from here on out calls out more than ONCE in the next 30 days you will not have a job.

Whew. The fact that she dropped the “bring the body of your recently deceased dog” bomb at just 50 words in. What an opener! Where do you even go after that? This manager chose to boast about surviving a harrowing car crash and still not being late for her shift:

Do you know in my 11.5 years at Darden how many days I called off? Zero. I came in sick. I got in a wreck literally on my to work one time, airbags went off and my car was totaled, but you know what, I made it to work, ON TIME! There are no more excuses. Us, collectively as a management team have had enough. If you don’t want to work here, don’t. It’s as simple as that. If you’re here and want to work, then work. No more complainging about not being cut or not being able to leave early. You’re in the restaurant business. Do you think I want to be here until midnight on Friday and Saturday? No. I’d much rather be at home with my husband and dog, going to the movies or seeing family. But I don’t, I’m dedicated to being here. As should you. No more excuses or complaints.

WAIT. SHE HAS A DOG?! I wasn’t expecting that after the dead dog stuff. Also, what’s this nonsense about wanting to see her family on a Friday night? She works at the fucking Olive Garden; everybody who walks through those doors is her family! Now, at this point in her message, the manager softens. It’s time to reward the underlings that shut up and sing work:

I hope you choose to continue to work here and I think we (management) make it as easy as we can on ya’ll. Thank you for your time and thank you to those who come in every day on time and work hard. I wish there were more like you.

What. A. Journey. I wish I were more shocked by this message, but if you’ve ever worked any job ever (especially in customer service), you’ve had a boss like this. Or worse. Usually, corporate loves these types cuz they’re cutthroat and make them lots of money. Unfortunately for Olive Garden, this particular message went public, and they had no choice but to can their beloved cash cow. Here’s the official statement from an Olive Garden media relations rep:

“We strive to provide a caring and respectful work environment for our team members. This message is not aligned with our company’s values. We can confirm we have parted ways with this manager.”

And here’s a local news piece about the incident from KCTV5:

So now there’s a new “work is life” manager on the job market. Is there a Twitter or Telsa office in Johnson County, Kansas? Cuz methinks this lady would be a perfect fit for Elon Musk.

Pic: YouTube