It seems that every other week, a new company is exposed for poor treatment of its employees. Fast food chains and retail stores are catching flack left and right as customers, workers, and unassuming bystanders flame them on TikTok. The latest in the line of canceled establishments is the sandwich shop chain, Jimmy John’s.
A Jimmy John’s employee shared that her boss had called her on her night off to ask her to lock up the store, because he forgot to give the new employee who was closing the key. When she declined because she wasn’t on the clock, and had been drinking, her boss decided that the next best step was to fire her. His reasoning was that he had been drinking too, and he lived further from the store than she did, which somehow made it her responsibility. The person on the phone asked whether the boss would be paying for her Uber to go lock up, and he simply responded that that was what the money in the tip jar was for.
Commenters were quick to come to her defense and call out how unreasonable they felt her boss was being. Several people said that this was the exact reason why they never answer calls from their boss when they’re off the clock. It even had them questioning how he became a manager at all.
Others were floored that the boss was calling her to do what really should be his job, and advised her to file a lawsuit, or contact the United States Department of Labor. Some people stated pretty confidently that having an employee work when they are off the clock is in violation of labor laws, at least in the United States, and took to tagging Jimmy John’s in the comments.
Litigator Yuriy Moshes of legal advice website Moshes Law doesn’t seem to be in agreement with commenters, saying that, unfortunately, employers do have the right not only to fire workers if they don’t come in when called, but they are also able to change employees’ schedules at will and without notice. For the most part, firing an employee for these things is tricky, and if the employee feels that it is unfair, it takes some investigation to prove it. The former Jimmy John’s employee may have a case, since she was asked to drive after drinking, but often times it is not so easy.
Here is hoping that the Jimmy John’s employee gets some sort of justice for her seemingly wrongful termination of employment, but at the very least, her firing has gotten some attention that may lead to Jimmy John’s TikTok account giving it some attention as well.