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Should a Boston Market employee be fired after telling his undercover boss his hate for customers?

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Boston Market
Boston Market employee sacked
Boston Market
Boston Market employee sacked

All Ronnie wanted to do was bond with the new trainee but in the end he got himself the can…

A Boston Market employee going by the first name Ronnie has found himself being fired after unwittingly ranting to whom they thought was a fellow employee about their hatred towards the customers. In the end it turned out the new fellow employee was the company’s chief branding officer, Sara Bittorf.

The firing came after Bittorf agreed to be filmed by a CBS reality show which the young man knew about as he chose nevertheless to open up to Bittorf. At the time Bittorf disguised as a trainee waitress told Ronnie she had appeared on the ‘reality show’ because she one day hoped to open her own diner. Nevertheless Ronnie has no idea the reality show is really about the comings and goings of the outlet he worked for although one does wonder why such a possibility never occurred to him?

Whether Bittorf would have necessarily chosen to fire the young man had the cameras not been there also remains to be seen as one is inclined to wonder if Sara Bittorf was in some way performing for the camera?

According to the UK’s dailymail, Bittorf was sent on a reconnaisance mission by the outlet’s CEO who wanted to find out what was actually going on. Which suggests either sales were down, customers had been complaining or the employee retention rate was low.

Sara Bittorf
Sara Bittorf is a high level executive at Boston Market. She posed as a waitress, Rachel Rand (right), to appear on the CBS reality show, Undercover Boss

By now mingling and disguised as a trainee waitress Bittorf receives a rude shock when Ronnie the shift supervisor suddenly lets on about how he really feels about the customers.

Told Ronnie: ‘I literally hate customers more than anything in the entire world. I hate them so much. They’re terrible. It’s all about them all the time and they demand everything,’

Hardly the most appealing revelation one could hope for then again should one really be surprised that a fast food employee probably making minimum wages necessarily feels that way about his job?

The young man’s comments left Bittorf gasping for air as she then turns to excuse herself and tell the cameras the following in the parking lot:

‘My job’s on the line. Here I am a representative of this brand and this is what happens. It can’t happen on my watch,’ she said as she tried to cool off in the parking lot.

I can’t have someone who just told me that they hate customers more than anything in the world serving our guests. That’s the complete antithesis of what we stand for.’

Ronnie for Boston Market
Ronnie for Boston Market is not one very happy employee.

From there Bittorf decides to return and confront Ronnie the supervisor: ‘Without the guests in there, we don’t have a business and you don’t have a paycheck.’ 

Surprised to find out that Bittorf was who she really was, the shift worker fails to show any remorse for his comments.

‘I would tell them my attitude would change but I didn’t think it was that terrible.’

Continued Ronnie:

‘It’s not wrong of me to hate people,’

‘They don’t know I’m saying it so it’s not that big a deal but now this giant lady of Boston Market knows what’s going on, that’s just not fair,’ 

Then there were the following comments on the web which caught my attention as well:

 

This is EXACTLY with corporate America! A young guy just foolishly spouts off about rude customers an a corpoarate bigwhig has to make a name for herself by demanding that the local manager fire him. She never observes him exhibiting ANY poor behavior towards an actual customer. She does not even try to find out if he is a good employee who is just having a bad day. I hope she rests comfortably back at the office while making her grossly overpaid salary and bonus! The words ‘customer service” have been misused by these corporations as a way to fire people for no legitimate reason. 

  

Can’t do that in the UK. It’s against the law to just sack someone. They have to receive 3 verbal warnings & one written before you can sack them. I personally think that’s too much & one warning should be enough. However, the fact that you can sack on the spot really bothers me.- jojochou1 , Hampshire Jeez, where do you people come from – I have never read such tripe. You can fire people on the spot for gross misconduct as detailed in a signed contract of employment. I know. I have done it. You haven’t a clue what you are talking about. – steve, winchester, United Kingdom, 5/2/2013 14:00 Actually – you cant fire someone on the spot in the UK, there has to be an investigation into the circumstances and a disciplinary hearing. You can fire someone for gross misconduct without previous warnings though.

 

So what that the guy in the “hospitality” industry hates customers more than anything in the workd?? That’s like being a babysitter and saying you absolutely hate children, would you want that person babysitting your kids?

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