Employee Asks For Legal Advice After Having Restaurant Door Cut To Get Out Of Work After Boss Forbids Them To Call 911
Imagine getting stuck onsite at your work for the whole night with the boss threatening to fire you if you call the fire department for help. It sounds like a nightmarish scenario, but this is precisely what happened to one fast food restaurant worker named Zealousideal-Ebb-481 who shared their story on Reddit.
“I called my manager and was told I’ll be stuck here at least all night long, if not longer if they can’t get the door open in the morning,” the author said. The gate door got seized as they were trying to leave after the shift ended. “There is no emergency exit in the restaurant, there is inside the Walmart but I can’t leave the restaurant. No windows either.”
But when the author called their boss, the response was rather shocking. “My boss made it very clear that I am *not* to call the fire department as they will ruin the door, and they will be here first thing in the morning…” Read the whole story below and be sure to share your thoughts about this whole situation in the comment section.
Recently, a fast-food restaurant worker shared a distressing post of how they got stuck onsite for the whole night if not longer
Image credits: young shanahan
“Aside from the legal questions, this is a great example of where you simply have to listen to your gut feeling about your employer and the whole situation,” Christine Mitterbauer, licensed and ICF-approved career coach and serial entrepreneur, told Bored Panda.
“The threat of the employer to fire the poor employee if he takes matters into his own hands, and to just wait it out overnight or longer in that room, are completely unreasonable and in fact, crazy. Would you really want to work for a person who demands this of you? What else is this employer going to demand or expect in other situations, bigger or smaller, in the future?”
Christine explained that working for an irrational and unreasonable employer is one of the greatest sources of career stress. “It’s one of the most common problems clients have that come to me for support,” she said.
“I would advise anyone in this type of situation to find a new role, and ensure in future interviews that they listen to their gut feeling when being interviewed. Don’t think you have to just accept any job, you need to have a good gut feeling about your employer,” the career coach concluded.
And this is what people had to comment about this whole incident
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Reminds me of the time when I worked at a small box store (their initials are DG) and we had a huge snowstorm and one of the managers called the district manager to inform her that she was stuck at the store as the snow had gotten so deep (and the manager has kept the store open per the DMs orders) that her husband couldn't even get to her in his four wheel drive pickup. Manager told the DM she would have to spend the night at the store. The DM told her "I don't care if you have to walk home, you are NOT allowed to stay in that store!" She managed to get home safely and the next day called the DM up to turn in her keys.
So the employee wanted to stay in? I mean she did have everything she needed--heat, water, food, and bedding. There are worse places to be stuck. Seems better than making her walk home in such severe weather. But I might be misreading the story since I just woke up.
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Yezz, it's a freaking fast-food restaurant, from what you can find one every 100 meters, especially in USA. They are threatening with being fired, unless you don't stay overnight in a blocked space, with no escape? After this answer, I would quit, and the very next day starting at a new place with emergency exit. Anyway, how was even allowed to start a business at a place with no emergency exit? It's not mandatory in US?
quitting would be the worst idea ever. you either go immediately to HR (their job is to protect the company, and what happened to that person most definitely jeopardizes the company), or you are fired, if you are fired, you lawyer up and they will offer you a huge sum to go away and never mention another word of the incident.
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Sounds like the manager at my first job, a fast food joint. I was washing dishes, helping close on my very last night there, and suddenly, the newbies were yelling into the phone. Turns out, someone had threatened the girl on the cash register, saying he had a gun. First, he asked for all the money in the till, then he asked for just $50. Called the manager, and she said, and I quote, "Don't bother calling the cops, it's only $50." I said, "F*** it, call the assistant manager," next day was his last day, because the manager had really ticked him off. He and his wife were there in like 10 minutes, sitting us all down, and making sure we were all right, and had us give statements to the police. I found out the manager was fired six months later, because she was bad mouthing someone higher up in the company - to his cousin, who came in for a meal.
see folks we do not have a shortage of people willing to work just a shortage of people willing to work for complete d*cks
Why didn’t the boss just come to the restaurant, instead of telling her to wait all night? What a horrible person.
They didn't want you to call the authorities because they would've been fined or possible shut down. It is illegal to have a business that only has one method of exit, in the case of fire, active shooter, or some other emergency how would you escape if your exit is blocked. I am surprised that the business was even approved to operate. Also, if I were you I wouldn't be worrying about whether or not I would have a job the next day, you should be reconsidering your job given the fact that they would rather you stay there all night til the next shift instead of getting up to help you...I would've already collected reports from the fire dept and police and figured out which lawyer could get me the best settlement!
Hold up...this is a restaurant with no emergency exit? What the hell would happen if there was a kitchen fire? This is insane. I hope that the store AND the store manager were sued. (And Walmart should have ensured that any "store within their store" had an emergency exit and were up to speed with all the building codes).
Boss has no grounds to fire you -- you gave him a fair shot at opening the door and he couldn't do it. The fire department would rather cut you out now than have you get trapped in a fire, and it's not reasonable for you to remain trapped there overnight. I wouldn't even wait to see if you get fired, start looking for another job ASAP.
So, if they're paying you to stay there all night, it might not be too bad. But!! If you're working for a big corporation, try calling corporate and tell someone above your boss of the situation, and see how quickly it gets handled. They hate being sued
This makes no sense. The employer has ZERO legal basis for recompense. If an employer has not ensured that all escape doors and hatches are fully functional, they should 1) be fined and/or shut down by the city for failure to provide working emergency exists at all times , 2) be reported to the state, and 3) be reported to OSHA. According to OSHA, Employers are required to provide a minimum of two working emergency exits for their workers, regardless of their work stations. Failure to do so can get them HEAVILY fined and even shut down. So this guy has no legal issues because his employer hasn't a leg to stand on. In fact, the OP can sue his employer for creating a hostile work environment, violating state and federal whistleblower laws, and more. This is a non issue.
What if you had children at home? Would you then tell your daycare provider that they have to stay all night and you pay them too? I can't imagine that the Walmart Corporation would be okay with someone locked in the store all night. Unfortunately when you accept a Supervisor/Manager position then it's your job to step into situations like this and handle them. I own a Contracting company and it is illegal to not have an Emergency exit. The Fire Marshall will fine Walmart and force it to be closed until it is corrected. The Fire Captain would be disciplined for not reporting them. The company you work for and the Walmart Corporation would both be liable if anything happened while you were forced to remain over night. You could have tripped and fallen, had a seizure, it could have caught fire or been robbed. A place as big as Walmart certainly has a maintenance crew on call 24/7. I can't believe Walmart security would allow you to stay overnight either. Kind of makes me wonder if this t
So sad OP is scared they'll lose their job. What a horrible place to work at with horrible people running it. I hope they find something better.
Talk about abuse of staff. Expecting a young person to stay locked in all night by himself is terrible. If the manager had done his job (called up the line) he probably would have been given instructions to find an emergency service for rolling doors (they do exist - I used to run a storage facility that had tons of doors like this). When the door won't budge, it usually means one of the two big springs has snapped or come unhooked. An amateur could not fix it. Employee safety should be the number one concern of every business. They're lucky the kid doesn't sue them.
No one is possibly believing this gibberish; the story appears to have been written by an elementary or middle school student.
I fond this really hard to believe there wasn't an emergency exit inside a sub store of a Walmart facility. When I worked at Walmart as an area manager, I frequently visited and inspected/reviewed safety protocols in every building, including the sub stores in the buildings. Walmart is liable for any incidents that happen on their property. So I find it hard to believe the area manager would have over looked the lack of an emergency exit in this restaurant. Sounds to me like it's a BS story that is leading to a go Fund me page to con people into giving the person money. Same as the con people who post made up recipes claiming they didn't receive a tip after serving a large party. Every one of those were found to be a scams, and people fell for it.
If the door truly malfunctioned, isn't that part of the infrastructure provided by the landlord i.e. Walmart? Why would the restaurant manager care what happened to the door?
Load More Replies... They stated that no locksmiths were available and that the door techs would not make it until the following afternoon.
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Oh what a relief! Damon, the arbiter of all truth and fiction on the intarwebs, is here to make everything clear to us. I don't know what we would have done! Thank you for taking time out from your very busy Facebook shift.
Load More Replies...
Reminds me of the time when I worked at a small box store (their initials are DG) and we had a huge snowstorm and one of the managers called the district manager to inform her that she was stuck at the store as the snow had gotten so deep (and the manager has kept the store open per the DMs orders) that her husband couldn't even get to her in his four wheel drive pickup. Manager told the DM she would have to spend the night at the store. The DM told her "I don't care if you have to walk home, you are NOT allowed to stay in that store!" She managed to get home safely and the next day called the DM up to turn in her keys.
So the employee wanted to stay in? I mean she did have everything she needed--heat, water, food, and bedding. There are worse places to be stuck. Seems better than making her walk home in such severe weather. But I might be misreading the story since I just woke up.
Load More Replies... Yezz, it's a freaking fast-food restaurant, from what you can find one every 100 meters, especially in USA. They are threatening with being fired, unless you don't stay overnight in a blocked space, with no escape? After this answer, I would quit, and the very next day starting at a new place with emergency exit. Anyway, how was even allowed to start a business at a place with no emergency exit? It's not mandatory in US?
quitting would be the worst idea ever. you either go immediately to HR (their job is to protect the company, and what happened to that person most definitely jeopardizes the company), or you are fired, if you are fired, you lawyer up and they will offer you a huge sum to go away and never mention another word of the incident.
Load More Replies... Sounds like the manager at my first job, a fast food joint. I was washing dishes, helping close on my very last night there, and suddenly, the newbies were yelling into the phone. Turns out, someone had threatened the girl on the cash register, saying he had a gun. First, he asked for all the money in the till, then he asked for just $50. Called the manager, and she said, and I quote, "Don't bother calling the cops, it's only $50." I said, "F*** it, call the assistant manager," next day was his last day, because the manager had really ticked him off. He and his wife were there in like 10 minutes, sitting us all down, and making sure we were all right, and had us give statements to the police. I found out the manager was fired six months later, because she was bad mouthing someone higher up in the company - to his cousin, who came in for a meal.
see folks we do not have a shortage of people willing to work just a shortage of people willing to work for complete d*cks
Why didn’t the boss just come to the restaurant, instead of telling her to wait all night? What a horrible person.
They didn't want you to call the authorities because they would've been fined or possible shut down. It is illegal to have a business that only has one method of exit, in the case of fire, active shooter, or some other emergency how would you escape if your exit is blocked. I am surprised that the business was even approved to operate. Also, if I were you I wouldn't be worrying about whether or not I would have a job the next day, you should be reconsidering your job given the fact that they would rather you stay there all night til the next shift instead of getting up to help you...I would've already collected reports from the fire dept and police and figured out which lawyer could get me the best settlement!
Hold up...this is a restaurant with no emergency exit? What the hell would happen if there was a kitchen fire? This is insane. I hope that the store AND the store manager were sued. (And Walmart should have ensured that any "store within their store" had an emergency exit and were up to speed with all the building codes).
Boss has no grounds to fire you -- you gave him a fair shot at opening the door and he couldn't do it. The fire department would rather cut you out now than have you get trapped in a fire, and it's not reasonable for you to remain trapped there overnight. I wouldn't even wait to see if you get fired, start looking for another job ASAP.
So, if they're paying you to stay there all night, it might not be too bad. But!! If you're working for a big corporation, try calling corporate and tell someone above your boss of the situation, and see how quickly it gets handled. They hate being sued
This makes no sense. The employer has ZERO legal basis for recompense. If an employer has not ensured that all escape doors and hatches are fully functional, they should 1) be fined and/or shut down by the city for failure to provide working emergency exists at all times , 2) be reported to the state, and 3) be reported to OSHA. According to OSHA, Employers are required to provide a minimum of two working emergency exits for their workers, regardless of their work stations. Failure to do so can get them HEAVILY fined and even shut down. So this guy has no legal issues because his employer hasn't a leg to stand on. In fact, the OP can sue his employer for creating a hostile work environment, violating state and federal whistleblower laws, and more. This is a non issue.
What if you had children at home? Would you then tell your daycare provider that they have to stay all night and you pay them too? I can't imagine that the Walmart Corporation would be okay with someone locked in the store all night. Unfortunately when you accept a Supervisor/Manager position then it's your job to step into situations like this and handle them. I own a Contracting company and it is illegal to not have an Emergency exit. The Fire Marshall will fine Walmart and force it to be closed until it is corrected. The Fire Captain would be disciplined for not reporting them. The company you work for and the Walmart Corporation would both be liable if anything happened while you were forced to remain over night. You could have tripped and fallen, had a seizure, it could have caught fire or been robbed. A place as big as Walmart certainly has a maintenance crew on call 24/7. I can't believe Walmart security would allow you to stay overnight either. Kind of makes me wonder if this t
So sad OP is scared they'll lose their job. What a horrible place to work at with horrible people running it. I hope they find something better.
Talk about abuse of staff. Expecting a young person to stay locked in all night by himself is terrible. If the manager had done his job (called up the line) he probably would have been given instructions to find an emergency service for rolling doors (they do exist - I used to run a storage facility that had tons of doors like this). When the door won't budge, it usually means one of the two big springs has snapped or come unhooked. An amateur could not fix it. Employee safety should be the number one concern of every business. They're lucky the kid doesn't sue them.
No one is possibly believing this gibberish; the story appears to have been written by an elementary or middle school student.
I fond this really hard to believe there wasn't an emergency exit inside a sub store of a Walmart facility. When I worked at Walmart as an area manager, I frequently visited and inspected/reviewed safety protocols in every building, including the sub stores in the buildings. Walmart is liable for any incidents that happen on their property. So I find it hard to believe the area manager would have over looked the lack of an emergency exit in this restaurant. Sounds to me like it's a BS story that is leading to a go Fund me page to con people into giving the person money. Same as the con people who post made up recipes claiming they didn't receive a tip after serving a large party. Every one of those were found to be a scams, and people fell for it.
If the door truly malfunctioned, isn't that part of the infrastructure provided by the landlord i.e. Walmart? Why would the restaurant manager care what happened to the door?
Load More Replies... They stated that no locksmiths were available and that the door techs would not make it until the following afternoon.
Load More Replies... Oh what a relief! Damon, the arbiter of all truth and fiction on the intarwebs, is here to make everything clear to us. I don't know what we would have done! Thank you for taking time out from your very busy Facebook shift.
Load More Replies...
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