Olive Garden Manager Canned for Rant About Time Off

'If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it to us'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2022 11:22 AM CST
Manager to Workers: 'If Your Dog Died, Bring Him' in as Proof
"This message is not aligned with our company's values," an Olive Garden spokesperson said.   (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

An Olive Garden manager who boasted about coming to work sick and told restaurant employees that the management team was "no longer tolerating ANY EXCUSE for calling off" is out of a job. "If you're sick, you need to come prove it to us. If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it to us. If it's a 'family emergency' ... too bad. Go work somewhere else," the manager said in a message to employees at the restaurant in Overland Park, Kansas, per KCTV. She said people were asking for time off at a "staggering rate" and that anybody who called in more than once in the next 30 days would be fired.

The manager said she hadn't called in once in her nearly 12 years with the company. "I came in sick. I got in a wreck literally on my way to work one time, airbags went off and my car was totaled, but you know what, I made it to work, ON TIME!" she wrote. "There are no more excuses. Us, collectively as a management team have had enough." She was fired after the rant went viral, the Guardian reports. "We strive to provide a caring and respectful work environment for our team members," an Olive Garden spokesperson said. "We can confirm we have parted ways with this manager."

(More Olive Garden stories.)

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