A restaurant manager shared the frustrating experience she had in handling an employee’s schedule after the young woman told her that she had a death in the family.
Kellie (@ambryae) has gone viral on TikTok in the past for sharing her stories of working in the food service industry and this time, her story time has to do with a lie she caught one of her workers in that spiraled out of control and culminated in the employee’s mother showing up at the restaurant with the intention of chewing Kellie out.
@ambryrae I miss yalllllll❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️!!!! #restaurant #manager #foodservice #serverlife #serverproblems #employees #storytime ♬ original sound – Kellie With A *IE*
Kellie begins her video with a little bit of background detailing her working relationship with the subject of her story, a server named Lena, “One time I worked with this young girl, her name was Lena, she was 16 years old, she was a cool little girl. She was a little goofy, you know the kind that you gotta kinda stay on top of to make sure they don’t get distracted so they can do the job? Other than that she was a pleasure to work with.”
The TikToker says that aside from intermittently having to refocus Lena’s attention while at work from time to time, she never had any serious issues in dealing with the employee that prevented her from performing her job duties.
Kellie went on to say that her trouble with Lena began when reached out to her 30 minutes before her scheduled shift time one day to inform her that her grandmother had passed away and that she wouldn’t be making it into work as a result: “Oh my God like I totally understand don’t worry about it I’ll get the shift covered let me know if you need anything my condolences to you and the family,” Kellie said.
Kellie said that she understood Lena wouldn’t be able to make it into work that day, but that the young woman was scheduled to come in the following day at the same time. She ended up being a no-show, to which the TikToker chalked up to her still grieving over her grandmother’s loss: “She doesn’t call, she doesn’t write anything on the staff forum, nothing. So I’m like OK I know what she’s going through I’m not even gonna worry about it.”
The TikToker said that when it happened for the third day in a row, she didn’t want to bother her, but that she needed to check in to see if Lena was planning on coming in for her shift so she could appropriately staff the restaurant: “Next day she’s scheduled for 4 o’clock again. And no Lena. So this time I call her, and I reach out to her in writing I’m like hey I understand what’s going on with your family and I really don’t mean to bother you all but you are scheduled you have been scheduled and you haven’t shown. So in order to, you know, save your position here if you can just reach out to me really quickly let me know what’s going on, that way I know how to move forward with the schedule. She doesn’t write back. So I have to make the schedule for the next week and technically I have grounds to fire her because she’s done two no-calls, no-shows in a row…that’s job abandonment.”
Kellie didn’t want to take any disciplinary action against Lena, and since she was left in the dark as to what her availability was, she decided to leave her on the work schedule and allow her to pick up shifts whenever she wanted. The restaurant manager goes on to say that she even over-staffed one of the shifts she put Lena on just in case she no-showed again.
Kellie couldn’t imagine what would happen next: Lena’s mother showed up to her job, asking why her daughter was removed from the schedule. The woman demanded to speak with Kellie and ask why her daughter was being “bullied” at work. “Couple days go by and I’m in the office and I get a call on the walkie for me to come to the front. I go to the front and it’s Lena and and older lady who I just naturally assumed was her mother. I get to the host stand and she’s like oh so you’re Kellie? So I’m like yeah I’m Kellie, I’m Lena’s manager and I look at Lena I’m like hey baby I’m glad to see you…we missed you around here we hope everything is OK with you and your family and the mom interrupts me and she’s like uh-ah don’t be nice to her now since I’m standing here why you take her off the schedule? Now I’m confused and I say ma’am Lena’s not off the schedule…she’s on the schedule for next week like I’ve never taken her off and she interrupts me she’s like yeah she’s been telling me she’s been having issues with management in here and she’s been too scared to say something so I’m like well Lena’s never had an issue with me I said there’s been times which she’s been really distracted and I’ve had to say something to her about her job performance, but other than that she tells me about school, she talks to me about her brother… I’m really lost as to what you’re talking about. So now the now mom is saying something about bullying and I’m looking at Lena like girl you better say something she’s looking at me like girl I ain’t saying nothing.”
After Lena refused to set the story straight with her mother, Kellie decided to explain why she gave the employee reduced hours, and mentioned that she was trying to be considerate of Lena’s time since she just experienced a death in the family.
As it turns out, that death was news to Lena’s mom: “So now the mom is getting loud and telling me that I better tell her why I took her daughter off the schedule so I said well listen No. 1, I manage the business here so I’m allowed to make the schedule as I see fit. No. 2: Lena isn’t off the schedule she has one day next week. And No. 3, the reason that Lena has one day next week is because she said her grandmother died and for three days she did not show up to work. That’s why she has one day. So then the mom says a death in the family?! She turns to Lena with her hands on her hip and says who died?! Let’s just say we never saw Lena again,” Kellie says, laughing at the end of the video.
One TikToker who saw Kellie’s story speculated that Lena was simply trying to get out of her shifts: “Lena didn’t want to work.”
Another commenter relayed a similar experience they had while on the job: “We had a girl have her mom call and say she took her daughters car for two weeks as a punishment and wanted me to hold her job. I said respectfully no.”
One TikToker who said that they also work as a restaurant manager has encountered instances where their younger employees told tall tales to their mothers and fathers: “As a restaurant manager myself, lord them kids stay telling stories to their parents.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Kellie via TikTok comment for further information.
