Dear Bitchy Waiter

Every day, I get literally dozens and dozens of emails (okay, maybe one or two every few weeks) asking me for my opinion on one thing or another. This email comes from a reader who was fired for facebooking about her job. Allow me to put my two cents in.

You can email me here if you have a question that needs attention. Or email me to say hello. That's nice too.

Hi Bitchy,


Up until 7/22/12 I was employed as a server at a family owned restaurant here in lovely PA, as a server for approximately 3 years.  I lost my job because I complained about said job on Facebook.  My fb status on 7/19 basically stated: I'm sick of the restaurant business, no more rolls you glutton, no more refills you camel and $3 is not an acceptable tip on a $40 check.  I used no profanity or names although my profile DID say where I work.  I went in for my shift on 7/22 and was immediately "pulled onto the carpet" by the GM.  He had my fb status printed out and went on to tell me about how it was embarrassing and all of our customers could see what I wrote (even though my profile was set to private and only friends could see my status).  He went on to tell me that it cost me my job.

Said restaurant does not have a social media policy.  The employee policy does rattle on some nonsense about "no complaining...." but is that serious?  I don't even know if I ever signed anything. Anyway, not only do I think they are wrong "legally" but it's complete hypocritical bullshit and discrimination.  The GM himself has made sexual comments about employees while other managers come in and discuss their drunken-one-night-stand-escapades from the previous weekend and the list could go on.

Soooooo, my question to you is:  Do I write a letter to the owner letting them know where they stand? Or go directly to the Labor Relations?  Or, don't do anything and cut my losses?

Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Facebook Fired

Dear Facebook Fired,

That sucks! And I should know because I too have had my ass fired for blogging about a restaurant. Like you, I never mentioned the name of the place and my name was not even attached to it. Nevertheless, they found out about it, called me a "cancer" to the restaurant and made me pack my apron.

It sounds like you got screwed since they didn't even have a social media policy in place. They should have at least give you a warning. If your profile was set to private, then who the hell cares anyway?  All of your friends probably already knew that you served too many rolls to gluttonous camel toed customers. In the future, make sure it set your profile to "friends only" and not "friends of friends." Otherwise, you can say something and someone you know will comment on it and then a friend of theirs can see it and you don't know who that person may be. I wonder how your GM saw your status in the first place. If he is a Facebook friend, there is mistake number one. DO NOT FRIEND YOUR BOSSES.

If you want your job back, I would suggest writing a letter of apology to the owners and explaining that it was an honest mistake and you are so sorry, you learned a valuable lesson, blah blah blah, smoke up asses, etc. They may be willing to give you a second chance seeing that you have been there for three years.

If you don't want your job back (and let's be honest, do you?) then now is your chance to have some fun. I say grab that GM by the balls and squeeze them so hard until some Ranch dressing pops out and he can put it on his pizza. Assuming you are friends with him on Facebook, I would begin to super stalk his profile page and go back and look at every post, photo or article he has on his page for some ammunition. If he has his place of employment listed on his profile, then anything he says or does on Facebook has the potential to make the restaurant look bad. Try to find some status where he said something negative about his job and take a screen shot of it. Maybe there is a photo of him where he had too much too drink and he has a lampshade on his head or a dildo hanging out of his ass. Grab that picture, send it to the owner and ask them if this is what they want representing their establishment. If you're going to get fired for Facebooking, then maybe he can be too. Sure it's mean, but I say fight fire with fire.

The other option is to cut your losses and look for a new job. Sometimes we find that getting fired is just the kick in the pants we need to find something bigger and better. It's easy to be at a job for three years and grow complacent. Maybe you knew you wanted a new job but just didn't want to deal with. Now is your chance to deal with it.

Good luck.

love,
BW


Download The Bitchy Waiter App for Android here.


Click here to follow The Bitchy Waiter on Twitter.
Click here to find The Bitchy Waiter on Facebook.