Sunday, July 28, 2013

Some lack tact, turn to texts: Gene's Airport Restaurant -- Fitchburg Municipal (KFIT), Massachusetts

FITCHBURG -- Jennifer Young couldn't believe the text she was reading from her boss at the restaurant where she began to work just days before. "Hello Jessica, it's gene at the airport. I'm sry but I decided to keep looking for a server. Thank you for your time."

"I said wow, I'm not even a person to him. This was such a brush-off," said Young, 29, of Leominster. "I don't see it as professional at all. He should have sat down with me and been honest."

Gene Collette of Gene's Airport Restaurant, disputed Young's version of the story, saying he had previously told her in person he was going to hire someone else and only sent her the text message after she called the restaurant looking for more hours.

"She wasn't fired via text message," said Collette.

He said she was working on a trial basis and didn't smile enough, so when he told her he was making the schedule for next week he said he was going to keep looking for someone else. He said he didn't use words like "fired" to her because she wasn't an employee.

Young, who says she was never told she was working on a trial basis, uploaded a screen capture of Collette's text to Facebook and tagged the restaurant so it would appear on the business's page.

Collette said he wouldn't fire someone over text message and recently had two employees quit via text messages. He also criticized Young for posting the image to his company's Facebook page to try to shame him.

"That's not very professional at all," he said.

Story, Photo, Comments/Reaction: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com