Did she do right?

[Strike For The South]

I have a friend who works at Bill Millers Bar-B-Q and she was at work the other day and it was slow so the maneger told her to get a sponge and a bucket of soap. When she came back with it the maneger said now get down and clean the floor. to which she relpied "I wont do that, I quit." Now personaly short of killing someone I will do whatever my boss tells me and I was dumbfounded to hear she quit becuase of this. what do you think?

[Kaiser of Arabia]

what was her job?

[Tribesman]

Was she employed as a cleaner , or was there anything in her contract of employment that specified that she was responsible for cleaning the floor ?
If not then she has a case for constuctive dismissal(if the boss gave her no option but to follow his directive) .

My uncle was recently told by an under-agent to sweep up the yard at the job he was on as there was a very important meeting on and everyone had to look busy .
He waited until the big bosses were there and then proceeded to drive round the yard with a broom affixed to the front bucket of his JCB .
The under-agent ended up having to sweep the yard himself instead of attending the meeting .
Bosses , stuff 'em , if they act like a jerk when your work is paying their wages then treat them with the contempt they deserve .

[Del Arroyo]

It totally depends on what her position was.

Restaurants operate on a caste system. While in some restaurants it might be normal, for instance, for a server to be scrubbing the floors, this is not common and generally could be percieved as a very serious insult.

If she was a kitchen worker or a busser, though, the situation is different. Really it also depends on the established norms of that restaurant.

DA

P.S.: Also-- did he really tell her to take a SPONGE and get down on her knees and scrub???? Because I've never heard of that method, outside of Cinderella. Mops and mop-buckets are pretty standard equipment, at least where I'm from.

[RabidGibbon]

Del Arroyo beat me to the you clean a floor with a mop point. Telling someone "Now get down and clean the floor" sounds like the lanuage of a kind of guy.

If you want one of your employees to clean the floor it doesn't hurt to be polite about it.

[Strike For The South]

1. She worked the register
2. It couldve been a mop she was pretty pissed and couldve been embelishing
3.She probably shouldve been more polite

[Reverend Joe]

If she works the register, that is a pretty unpleasant thing to ask. She may have been a bit rude, but that was a totally inappropriate request from the manager. They should have a janitor for that sort of thing.

[solypsist]

there's so much information missing it's impossible to know.

[Red Harvest]

Must be a lot of employees there if they are all specialists. Back when I was in high school working various jobs like that, everyone did all jobs (except for doing the counts/deposits of course.) Run the grills, do the dishes, work the register, clean the restroom, clean tables, mop/sweep. You name it, you stayed working full time. (Of course, we could simultaneously work a kitchen, a front register and drive through with 3 people total--1 of them the manager, unlike fast food restaurants today that seem to have trouble doing it with a dozen or more.)

I guess I spent too much time cleaning out calf sheds and hog pens to get upset about cleaning the floors.

[Kraxis]

Since we don't know what really happened we should dig into her history and personality.

Is she a generally nice and cordial person?
If that is the case then I doubt she would just quit becasue she was ordered to do something out of the ordinary and unpleasant. Meaning her boss asked something of her that was out of line (use sponge instead of mop ect).

What has she worked as before? If she has been employed at a more important position, or in a company where everybody were specialized then we might also stumble onto a reason.

[Crazed Rabbit]

She's totally within her right to quit. I can't comment on the intelligence of it w/o knowing her personal position.

That side, I wouldn't. I had to clean up some grimy, slimy crap underneath the dishwasher trash can, and that was probably the worst time I've ever had at any job.

Crazed Rabbit

[PanzerJaeger]

Does she have kids to support? That would definately have an effect on my decision.

[bmolsson]

She was wrong.... Obey....

[Strike For The South]

She always seemed to be (at least to me) well.....a snob spoiled rich girl. Who thought some jobs were below her. She has no kids and its her first job. I am just saying money is money and nothing you do is below your dignity or your pride.

[Lemur]

there's so much information missing it's impossible to know.

Second the motion. And where the heck is Gah?

[Strike For The South]

Second the motion. And where the heck is Gah?

GAH DOSENT ANSWER MY QUESTION

[Lemur]

I am just saying money is money and nothing you do is below your dignity or your pride.

Um, wow, if this wasn't a PG-rated board, I could have more fun with that line ... think of something involving stageshows in Tijuana involving donkeys and midgets, and you'll get my drift ...

[Strike For The South]

Um, wow, if this wasn't a PG-rated board, I could have more fun with that line ... think of something involving stageshows in Tijuana involving donkeys and midgets, and you'll get my drift ...

I mean along the lines of janatorial or many jobs people think are below them...You old pervert

[Reverend Joe]

Um, wow, if this wasn't a PG-rated board, I could have more fun with that line ... think of something involving stageshows in Tijuana involving donkeys and midgets, and you'll get my drift ...

Good show, old chap! Good show!

[Kaiser of Arabia]

She always seemed to be (at least to me) well.....a snob spoiled rich girl. Who thought some jobs were below her. She has no kids and its her first job. I am just saying money is money and nothing you do is below your dignity or your pride.

Not nessissarily. Some things are just disgusting. Like if the boss asked her to have sex with him. That's way below anyone's dignity (except maybe Monica Lewisnkys' )

[Divinus Arma]

Clean the floor you skank. She's lucky to have a job. Now an illegal immigrant will take her job and spit in the food.

[Franconicus]

The correct answer is GAH, although I could not find the buttom. Hey mas, this is a free world and if she does not like cleaning the floor she can quit. This is not a right or wrong issue.

[InsaneApache]

I've been my own boss now for over a decade. I do everything. I write out business plans, do the books, buy stock, make up stock, transport said stock, I display the stock, I sell the damn stock, I have meetings with brain-dead bank managers who are, I swear, confirmed onanists, I help the VAT and customs collect their taxes and send them off to HM Treasury. I hire staff, I dismiss staff, I train staff (when not hiring or firing them), I take the money/cards/cheques, I pay the bills, I pay wages and last but not least I clean the shop, including the toilets.

As a rule of thumb, no manager/supervisor should ask or expect anyone to do a job that they would'n't do themselves. If nothing else you would lose the respect of your staff if you did. Not condusive to good employer-employee relationships. So the answer is ... depends on how her (ex)employer ran his business .... poor reason to resign though, imo.

[Ja'chyra]

What's an onanist?

[Geoffrey S]

As a rule of thumb, no manager/supervisor should ask or expect anyone to do a job that they would'n't do themselves. If nothing else you would lose the respect of your staff if you did. Not condusive to good employer-employee relationships. So the answer is ... depends on how her (ex)employer ran his business .... poor reason to resign though, imo.

Agreed. Though there is too much context missing to take a firm opinion, depending on the exact situation it could go either way.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

What's an onanist?

As you are a Scotsman, most of the blokes in the Southern part of the UK are snickering right now.

It refers to the "sin of onan," the clinical term for which is masturbation.

Since IA never claimed to have actual eye-witness evidence of this supposed habitual activity on the part of the bank-managers, I think it is safe to assume that he was implying that they were not doing their jobs all that effectively. Others might assert, however, that any number of semi-competent first-line supervisors would do less damage to their organizations if they concentrated on onanism and let the employees actually do their jobs.

Seamus

[Ja'chyra]

As you are a Scotsman, most of the blokes in the Southern part of the UK are snickering right now.

It refers to the "sin of onan," the clinical term for which is masturbation.

Since IA never claimed to have actual eye-witness evidence of this supposed habitual activity on the part of the bank-managers, I think it is safe to assume that he was implying that they were not doing their jobs all that effectively. Others might assert, however, that any number of semi-competent first-line supervisors would do less damage to their organizations if they concentrated on onanism and let the employees actually do their jobs.

Seamus

Lol, oh well, vocabulary +1

[yesdachi]

It’s her job she can do with it as she wishes. I worked as a dishwasher when I was young (trying to save up for a car) and I had to mop the kitchen floor and it sucked. If I didn’t need the money I would have quit, apparently she didn’t need the money too badly.

[solypsist]

listen up fellas, the opportunitis for indignity increase exponentially as you grow older and move up the employment scale - if this person had an indignity problem with cleaning a floor (no matter how undiplomatic her manager behaved) then she's going to have problems ever keeping any sort of job for more than a year.

sometimes it's better to bite your tongue and bide your time while looking for better opportunities than to have to start from square one all over again.

[Degtyarev14.5]

I feel the need to respond to this simply because I've just been through some pretty degrading stuff myself.

I have just been "let go" from a job I've been slaving away at for three months. I was employed as a kitchen hand, so I have always been aware that I was the scum to whom everyone would delegate their most deplorable tasks.

I was the poor sod who got to scrub out a 200-degree-Celcius deep fryer every night with a scourer and a bucket of soapy water. Fun.

I was the poor sod who got to scrub down the grill top every night with a scraper and a bucket of caustic soda. I spent a few days in hospital fearing and damn nearly crying for my vision at one point when the merde, utterly black with grease and God knows what else, splashed into my eyes. (Mods, I apologise.)

I ruined several black T-shirts through inevitable and unavoidable splashings with bleach. They were cheap, but I feel that's beside the point.

I came home bleeding from numerous cuts, burns and scrapes every night, knowing that my continued employment would never give them a chance to heal. I have scabs and oozing blisters on my hands from injuries sustained weeks ago.

And then: about a week back, I noted with dread that the heat-resistant gloves were missing. Apparently they had been accidentally thrown out earlier that day, and the chef who noticed them in the bin couldn't be bothered to get them out.

When I asked, "Well, what now?" the response was "Do it bare-handed." Jesus Christ, I'm talking about scouring down a roaring hot grill with concentrated sodium hydroxide - BAREHANDED! I knew that my continued employment was forfeit should I refuse. So I did it.

A week later, just earlier tonight, I received the phone call telling me that the restaurant owner had decided I had no future there. He didn't even give me the dignity of calling me himself, opting to have a lackey do the honours. And, of course, one of the perks of being an employer is that you never have to explain your decisions to the people they affect most.

There is so much more I will not write here, such as the way the managers pay out the workers when they are not present to defend themselves, and their total refusal to take the employees' external circumstances into consideration when assigning shifts. "So, the new girl wants day shifts, does she? Then she can find herself another [expletive] employer!"

And I question the integrity of a manager who flies off the handle at me for "feeling stupid" when she talks to me. My take is that her insecurity reflects her self-esteem, and is NOT MY PROBLEM. Well, in any case, it's not any more.

I have worked in hospitality by night to support myself for two years now, and I have never before seen such utter disregard and resentment for one's employees as I have over the past three months. I had been about to resign, but I have been spared the trouble.

In my current frame of mind, I am tempted to side with your friend, but I'm going with fight my emotions and go with soly on this one. That said, the whole hospitality industry is a crapshoot of monumental proportions, serving to placate those who derive jollies from paying others to treat them like some kind of lesser deity.

But the industry survives because we continue to support it. Perhaps it's because when we become successful, we like to "enact our revenge" somehow by making others walk in the workboots that we once wore.

Sometimes I am ashamed of my species.

A.

EDIT: soly, you just made my evening! I went to check out your HOF02 award and saw what you have entered under Interests. LOL!!