A server went viral on TikTok after uploading a tearful video where she revealed she was fired from her job right before Christmas despite never making any significant mistakes at her place of work except for displaying somewhat of a bad attitude towards them once.
Caitlyn (@madeinkoreaxo) believes that her firing wasn’t justified, and intimates that there was some type of double standard in check by management who either had a personal issue with her, or Caitlyn’s husband, who works at the same establishment, and then took the issues they had with her husband out on her, and decided to get rid of them at the same time as some part of spousal 2-for-1 offboarding deal.
She states in her clip: “Guess who just got fired from her job, two weeks or wait, three weeks or whatever before Christmas? And might I add for absolutely f*cking nothing, literally f*cking nothing. I was never late, I never called off, I was really good with all my tables, I was a great team player, but I made one f*cking mistake and then I lost my f*cking job.”
@madeinkoreaxo no, i’m not okay. i did not deserve this.
♬ original sound – caitlyn
The video has amassed more than 519,000 views in just three days. Naturally, there were some viewers who wanted to know what the mistake was, which she delineated in a follow-up video. Caitlyn said that, while she didn’t claim to be a “perfect” employee, that she never personally had any issues with management, and has never given any of her supervisors an attitude. The worst behavior she’s ever exhibited while on the job is maybe be in a bad mood, but she said she never took her personal issues or feelings out on others.
From the way she described it, it seemed like there was some miscommunication about her willingness to run food to tables while she was rolling silverware. She says that she didn’t hear anyone from the kitchen staff ask for “hands” to run food to a table, and when her manager asked her to bring it out, Caitlyn, since she was in the middle of rolling silverware, asked if any of the other available runners could bring it out. The manager must’ve perceived that as her not wanting to do her job, and they doubled down and asked her to bring it out. She took off her gloves, tossed them beside the silverware, and then went and grabbed the food to run to a table, kicking the bottom of a door open en route as her hands were full of food.
She went back to rolling silverware and, unbeknownst to her, must’ve been expected to be available to bring food out to tables. She was then told that she was being asked to leave the floor, by a different manager, which resulted in her having a “mental breakdown,” and that she got her shift the following day covered by a co-worker. Caitlyn admits that while she was giving the first manager a bit of an attitude, she wishes she would’ve just addressed her directly about any gripes she had with her behavior instead of asking a co-worker to send her home.
Things escalated when Caitlyn’s husband, Tyler, went into work to give his two weeks notice, which culminated in a big argument between the him and the management. The TikToker says that her name was constantly being tossed around in the conversation, with the manager stating that both her and Tyler were “mentally unstable” and the restaurant has no idea which version of the two of them that’s going to come into work on any given shift.
When Caitlyn worked her next shift, she was asked by management to come and have a private conversation. She initially thought was about her behavior from the previous day. However, she was informed that she was ultimately being let go because she “kicked the door on a Saturday in front of other people.”
@madeinkoreaxo Replying to @Shaboingster ♬ original sound – caitlyn
She found this puzzling as she says that she does this all of the time, but the decision stuck. Caitlyn, presumably in an attempt to see if she was out of pocket for thinking that she shouldn’t have been fired, or to vent to her co-workers, or maybe a combination of both, went on to say that she texted several other folks that she worked with who also didn’t think that her being fired was fair, as she never displays a poor attitude while on the clock.
“They’re like you’re not even a negative person they’re like [the manager is] a negative person. You know how many receipts I’ve gotten from people saying how she’s the awful person to work with, how she makes work a living hell sometimes.”
Again, Caitlyn reiterated that she has indeed had her bad days at work and that she has cried while on the clock, but has made sure to go to the bathroom to do so in private, collect herself, and then get back out on the floor.
“I never once had to leave during the middle of my shift because I was having a mental breakdown,” she said, adding that she’s never once taken a bad mood out on a manager or “yelled at someone or cussed at someone.”
One commenter who saw Caitlyn’s video said that they were impressed by how much she cared about her server job: “I wish i cared about my job like she does… i just steal everything from my office thats not nailed down hoping they catch me and fire me…”
Another person wrote, however, that they would’ve liked to hear the manager’s viewpoint on the matter. “Always like to here the managers side of the story,” they wrote.
Caitlyn offered to show the “receipts” of her conversations with coworkers who talked smack about their boss. “or how about i show screenshots of all the employees saying how awful and manipulative she is??” she replied.
Someone else said that they thought Caitlyn’s workplace sounded “toxic” and that she was better off for getting out of there. “They had a problem with you and just picking at you toxic work place your better of so really you win cause your emotions are worth more,” the user wrote.
As heartless as it may seem to fire someone right before the holidays, there are some who say that this is somewhat of a holiday tradition. New Republic writes that businesses often lay folks off around the holidays, which just so happens to coincide with the end of the year, so that companies can start the next fiscal period “fresh” and get all of their budgets in order. In fact, the outlet states that there really is “no reason” for many companies to engage in this practice, except to make balancing their checkbooks and prepare their finances for tax season a bit tidier.
The Daily Dot reached out to Caitlyn via TikTok comment for further information.