We have a new front runner in the contest for least tolerant and stupid corporation of the year. Please stand up and take a bow Cracker Barrel. You have proven my mantra that corporations are nothing but evil, unyielding, and tyrannical entities who put profits before all things, including common sense and humanity.
I mean really, this one is so petty and trite it boggles the mind. Yet, if true, and it appears to be so, it confirms once again that which I have railed against lo these many years. So what happened?
Seems a 73 year old employee gave some homeless person some condiments and a corn muffin. So he was, “terminated”.
I love that term, “terminated”. Can’t say fired anymore. Terminated. I can just envision Arnie stomping in and shooting the poor guy and then coming up with some catchy phrase.
“Hasta La Vista, Muffin Thief!”
Really, he gave away a goddamn muffin. Okay, this wasn’t his first offense. Apparently he is a serial food giver-awayer. He has done this 5 times before. 5 TIMES! He’s lucky he lasted as long as he did. I wouldn’t be surprised if they followed up with felony charges against the guy.
Wonder what the total cost was of the “food” he gave away? $10? Was it during the early bird special? That would make it worth $7 with a coupon. I’m going out on a limb here and guessing that Cracker Barrel throws away hundreds of dollars worth of food every week. And they
fired
terminated a 73 year old veteran who enjoyed his little job, over a corn muffin? Wanna take a guess at how much money they will lose as this story goes viral? And it is going viral.
Sure, if you want to get down to it, the veteran probably should not have done it. After all, showing compassion to another human being is not in the corporate handbook. Get that money, or get out of the “restaurant”.
Stuff like this gets my blood to a boiling, as you may have noticed. I’ve worked in these sorts of situations in the past. The rules of the corporate warlords are there for a reason, as they will tell you, and there is absolutely no room for bending them, let alone breaking them. When I was working at a Harley dealership selling motorcycles, it was customary to give a free t-shirt to the buyer of said motorcycle. A t-shirt that costs the dealer $10. Many a time I was asked for 2 t-shirts, one for the buyer, one for the significant other. The answer was always no. Now imagine walking into a showroom and plunking down $25,000 for a motorcycle, and being told you cannot have a second t-shirt. Talk about ruining an otherwise exciting event. (When the warlords were not looking, I would add the 2nd shirt in. Never got caught.) Still, it was a petty and selfish act by the corporation that left a bad taste in the mouth of the customer. And you can bet said customer told others that the dealership was too cheap to hand out a second t-shirt.
Corporations have long since lost their original vision. Sure, it has always been about making money, but the profit bug got so far up their ass that it began to affect any and all decisions made within the company as to how that company’s goods and services were to be sold. Need another example? Here is a local one.
Some tourists out on a kayak trip with me recently, recounted how they went into one of the local restaurants in Old Town, not sure which, and asked for a table. They were told there would be a wait so would they mind having a drink in the bar, which they did. As it was somewhat earlier in the evening, the bar was still in happy hour mode so the drinks were less costly. When the time came for them to be seated, they walked to the dining room with their happy hour drinks, only to be told that they could not bring said happy hour drinks into the dining area. They would have to order a new round, at a higher price. Why? Sure, I know, money, but why? What’s the sense in pissing off somebody with some ridiculous rule that prevents you from doing something that would make perfect sense in the real world? It’s all under the same corporate entity. They walked out and ate someplace else. But in listening to the story, you could tell they were pissed off.
For the corporate warlords, pissed off customers don’t matter. There will always be more coming through. And besides, I have no doubt that some unfortunate worker bee in the restaurant got fired for the incident. Rather than look at the stupid rule in the first place that prevents drinks from passing an imaginary barrier, the warlords probably blamed the staff, fired someone as an example, and moved on.
You expect rigid rules and conformity in things like government or the military. But when corporate entities get into the game it turns simple transactions into tests of patience and restraint. The 73 year old veteran who got, “terminated” was probably well liked by the staff and customers alike. He says he enjoyed the job and I’ll bet he had a little bit of a following. Now he is, “terminated” and will have to find something else to do.
Given the situation, and the fact that it’s getting nationwide publicity, I’m betting he winds up in a better place, even though working as a worker bee in something like Cracker Barrel would be at the bottom of the…um…er….well, you get the idea.
I wish the old guy the best in his quest to find meaning in his life. And I’ll be damned if I would ever eat a Cracker Barrel. Not that I ever did. Although I would go in and beg for a corn muffin, just to see what happens.
Capt. Fritter
Yeah, that’s right. I was a serial t-shirt giver-awayer.