First job, first firing...

My oldest daughter called a bit ago to tell me to not eat at a particular restaurant ever again. No problem there - I've never eaten at the place anyway.

However, the reason she made this statement is because my second oldest granddaughter, Anna, had chosen this place to be her very first job opportunity. It was close to home, easy to get to after school, etc., and could/would schedule her for as many or few hours as she wanted. And, it paid $7.50/hr. Not bad for a 16 year old's first job.

But, there were rumors that working there would not be an easy task. Many of the area kids had worked there, and had not lasted very long. But Anna is a good kid, is a hard worker, punctual, and the kind of high school employee most places really enjoy having.

So, it was well worth it for her to give it a shot. Who knows? Perhaps the ones that quit were always late or any number of things that might not sit too well with an employer.

But, Anna quit yesterday. When daughter Vaughn picked her up after her shift a few days ago, Anna was crying. This is something that you don't see Anna do very often, at least publicly. When Vaughn asked why, Anna (who also doesn't swear) said that Mattie, her boss, was a bitch.

It turns out that Anna made a dreadful mistake in the eyes of her boss. She *gasp* ASKED FOR DAYS OFF!!!

And, not because she wanted to vacation, or go to the beach or something completely meaningless - Anna wanted time off in order to take her summer driver's education program. The class times and the actual driving times are at different times of day; the driving is in the afternoon or early evening. And, it's only for a couple of weeks - in fact, only two or three days a week within those two weeks.

The schedule wasn't made. Anna asked in plenty of time. She wasn't even asking for weekends off, but only a couple of week nights. The boss, Mattie, jumped all over Anna's case, telling Anna that if Anna was scheduled for those days then Anna would be responsible for getting someone to fill those slots.

Anna said, "But, if you haven't made the schedule and you know I have asked for those days off, why would you schedule me on those days in the first place? Just don't schedule me those days and there won't be a problem."

I guess that must have been too much for Mattie. She chewed Anna up one side and down the other, bitching at Anna for the whole of young workers and their inabilities to show up for work when scheduled. She finished off by telling Anna that she thought Anna was lying and that she didn't believe Anna was in Driver's Ed, and that Anna would have to give her a verification letter that she was, indeed, in that class.

And, the bitch made my granddaughter cry. For that kind of bullshit.

When Vaughn picked her up and heard the story, Vaughn decided to go in and talk to the manager. She didn't want to - she believes that if a kid takes on the responsibility of a job, then the kid needs to handle it. But, in this instance, she decided to go in and see what kind of a verification the woman wanted or needed.

She knew who Mattie was, but they had never met. She walked up to her, asked if she was Mattie.

"Yeah, what's it to you?"

"My name is Vaughn and I'm Anna's mother. I wanted to ask you about the verification you wanted for Anna's driver's education class - do you need a letter from the school, or would verification from me be sufficient?"

And Mattie went off on Vaughn. She griped about the kids who worked for her, she griped about anything she could think of that didn't suit her. She never spoke specifically about Anna, but lumped all teenagers together.

Vaughn said to me, "I wanted to say, 'My question was a yes/no question. Which is it? Yes or No?'"

Instead, Vaughn said, "Ummm...there's no need to yell at me...I've never met you before, and I simply wanted to clarify this so we all knew what was going on."

Mattie said, "I'm not yelling at you...if I was yelling at you, you'd know I was yelling at you!"

And Vaughn said, "Well, if you're not yelling at me, then I can understand why you had nine kids quit working for you last week."

And, she turned around and left, Mattie following her, yelling at her all the way, telling her that Vaughn had no idea how hard it is to run a restaurant and all the trials and tribulations that go on with such an enterprise.

So, a few more words were exchanged, Vaughn being as pleasant as she could under the circumstances, and absolutely nothing being done to rectify the original complaint, because Mattie just wouldn't shut up about her hard life as a restaurant owner.

Vaughn returned to the car and told Anna that in this instance she felt that Anna did not have to give two weeks notice because she didn't think that Anna needed to put up with the abuse she'd endure for those two weeks.

So, Anna did quit yesterday, with no notice. Vaughn told her that her lesson from this experience was that working for the money was not always a good idea; the work environment is even more important, even if the pay scale is lower.

In the meantime, Vaughn and Pat had a talk with another parent of a kid who had worked there. It seems that this kid had an accident and had dropped a carton full of eggs. Mattie jumped all over the kid and said that he had to purchase eggs to replace the ones he broke. WHAT???

The kid's dad ended up needing to threaten to call his attorney because Mattie was so hateful and belligerent when he tried to settle it with her.

And when Anna called to talk to Mattie to tell her that she was quitting? Mattie wasn't there - but she had said something to one of the other teen workers. She'd apparently shot off her mouth and told the kid that she didn't expect Anna to show up for work anyway, so it was no surprise to him that Anna had called in and quit.

It's really sad when the teenagers are more mature, grown up and professional than the bosses they are trying to work for.