A little info about darden restaurants. **Rant**
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"Darden Restaurants" is the parent company of 4 major restaurant chains across the U.S. and Canada. These restaurants include Smokey Bones and Bahama Breeze, which are restaurants based mostly in the southern U.S. Locally known Darden Restaurants include Red Lobster and Olive Garden.
2 months ago Darden Restaurants made all of it's employees sign a contract at the end of a 10 page booklet. This booklet was all about Darden's new policies on lawsuits. After signing the contract no Darden employee could take the individual restaurants or the parent company to court. Any problems would be settled by:
- A group of peer jurors (other darden employees).
- Local and national management staff.
- Outside mediation (as chosen by the corporation).
If we refused to sign the contract we were "agreeing to voluntarily resign."
Now, 2 months later Darden restaurants is employing new policies for kitchen staff. These policies include, but are not limited to:
New uniforms-white long sleeved button up shirt, black pants, black non-slip shoes, chef hat. These uniforms must be purchased with our own money. The uniforms also can only be purchased from Darden restaurants. We cannot go to a uniform store to purchase the uniforms.
No body piercings. This includes earrings, tongue rings, lip rings, eyebrow rings, nose rings, etc...
No visible tattoos.
No facial hair.
No long hair.
The rest of the list will be explained at a meeting on Monday.
If we refuse to pay Darden restaurants for the uniforms we are agreeing to voluntarily resign. According to the talk around the kitchen, the uniforms are priced at roughly 200% of the cost of any other store.
If we refuse to take out all body percings, including those that cannot be seen while fully clothed, we are agreeing to voluntarily resign.
If we refuse to have visible tattoos removed or covered up at all times, we are agreeing to voluntarily resign.
If we refuse to keep a clean shaven face, we are agreeing to voluntarily resign.
If we refuse to keep a short hair style, we are agreeing to voluntarily resign.
I have been with Red Lobster for over four years now, I will be given no special treatment. Thanks to the contract that I signed two months ago, I cannot do anything except for throw up my middle fingers as I walk out of the meeting on monday. I will not be recieving my 3 weeks worth of paid vacation that I have earned, due to the fact that I am not supposed to get it until the second week of September.
Darden Restaurants has roughly 150,000 employees, roughly 40-50% of which do not fall within the new criteria, so a fairly large chunk of Darden's employees across the U.S. and Canada will be quitting this week.
What is the moral of the story? Don't eat at Red Lobster or Olive Garden for a while. Both restaurants are going to be hiring on basically a whole new kitchen staff that won't be worth a shit, and those that decide to follow all the new rules will probably be holding a grudge and spitting in the food for a while.
I'll probably update this again after my meeting on monday.
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damnit, and i liked red lobster. That should be (and seems) illegal to do.
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StangerBanger96 wrote:
damnit, and i liked red lobster. That should be (and seems) illegal to do.Dress codes and appearance codes are used by thousands of companies world wide. I understand why they have them, but they do suck. Paying for your own uniforms is bull shit tho. You should get those free and return them when you leave.
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StangerBanger96 wrote:
damnit, and i liked red lobster. That should be (and seems) illegal to do.As much as it may be thanks to the contract from 2 months ago the only people that can "rule" on it are fellow employees (the ones that have been there for 15 years and are all about the corporation, management, and corporate mediators.
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99slowGSX wrote:
It is only a couple of weeks tho....but if you dont believe in conforming to the rules, I understand. That is the freedom of choice.True, it is only a couple of weeks, but I have had these piercings for 6+ years, and I have had long hair off and on for my whole life.
I look at it this way, if your boss told you you were required to get a facial tattoo and a couple piercings and long hair or you were fired, what would you do?
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99slowGSX wrote:
Dress codes and appearance codes are used by thousands of companies world wide. I understand why they have them, but they do suck. Paying for your own uniforms is bull shit tho. You should get those free and return them when you leave.Its not really the dress code that pisses me off. It's the fact that tattoos and piercings that cant even be seen can get you laid off? thats bullshit. Leave a persons personal choices that arent publicly viewable alone. And yes the fact that they have to 1) pay for their own code-enforced uniforms and 2) have to pay jacked up priced uniforms from only their company, and not another is rediculous. They should have NO say in where you spend YOUR personal money. As long as it conforms with the dress code they should have no say in where you get it.
Kinda off topic but its also retarded as hell when a company will fire employees who smoke. If they cant smoke in the building then they cant hurt anyone else in the building with 2nd hand smoke. Other than that its their own choice and nobody should have a say in whether or not they do it and it shouldnt affect their employment. Wow common sense has died and rotted and other things.
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StangerBanger96 wrote:
It's the fact that tattoos and piercings that cant even be seen can get you laid off? thats bullshit. Leave a persons personal choices that arent publicly viewable alone.
not bullshit, you're getting paid to represent a company. if the company feels that what you are doing is bad for their image, they have every right to ask you to stop. like elvis said, if they are visible they must be covered or removed- pay for their own code-enforced uniforms and 2) have to pay jacked up priced uniforms from only their company, and not another is rediculous. it's a write off as a work expense, just like your mileage to and from pracs, or anything that you buy to endure the study, etc.
They should have NO say in where you spend YOUR personal money. As long as it conforms with the dress code they should have no say in where you get it.
and if their dress code just happens to include "must be product X because no one else conforms to our standards"? many companies use this tactic; for example, the employee information portion of aflac's website only works with internet explorer, because they gave proprietary rights to microsoft.
Kinda off topic but its also retarded as hell when a company will fire employees who smoke.
this IS illegal, UNLESS they get fired because they refuse to smoke in a designated area.
every company has the right to enforce a dress/appearance code, and you have no right to complain. why? before starting at company Y, you knew what would be expected of your appearance, and before any dress code was changed, you were given sufficient notice.
- pay for their own code-enforced uniforms and 2) have to pay jacked up priced uniforms from only their company, and not another is rediculous. it's a write off as a work expense, just like your mileage to and from pracs, or anything that you buy to endure the study, etc.
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darkelvis wrote:
True, it is only a couple of weeks, but I have had these piercings for 6+ years, and I have had long hair off and on for my whole life.I look at it this way, if your boss told you you were required to get a facial tattoo and a couple piercings and long hair or you were fired, what would you do?
No I would quit, but then again I got 6 weeks of vacation saved up.
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I agree 100% with Out There on this one. I'm not saying I agree with the rules, but the rules are clear and you are hired to represent them, not the other way around.
I have a dress code as well, I have to wear dress pants, dress shoes, and a button up/polo shirt for my current employer. Yes, I can get my clothes elsewhere, but I'd rather wear a T shirt and jeans. But its not my choice. like he said, you should be able to write off those expenses come tax time.
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In my employee handbook within the first 2 pages it states that anyone can get fired, for any reason, at any time, and without any warning.
We had some lawyers come and talk to us about harassment, and mentioned that you cannot get fired for reporting harassment.
kinda conflicting?Oh yeah, i have uniforms too. that i have to pay to get cleaned every week. BUT, the cost is reasonable....
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slowvo wrote:
In my employee handbook within the first 2 pages it states that anyone can get fired, for any reason, at any time, and without any warning.
We had some lawyers come and talk to us about harassment, and mentioned that you cannot get fired for reporting harassment.
kinda conflicting?
right to work state, no contract for employment; you can be fired for any or no reason, you have no job security. however, if you are fired and you suspect the reason was something unfair, if you: are a male, are overweight, smoke, prefer to walk to work, or like the packers, you can get your ex-employer for something like discrimination. talk to an attorney and they will tell you what's what.
it is correct that you can't be punished for voicing your opinions on how you are treated. got more questions? my aunt has managed restaurants in 3 states, i know most of this stuff
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