Restaurant manager fired for accommodating a bigoted customer's demand

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When a customer who had just been seated at an Indiana Olive Garden found out that her server was going to be a black woman she caused a scene, making comments about the server's race and appearance and loudly demanding a non-black server instead. The restaurant manager immediately acquiesced to the demand and reassigned a different waitress who wasn't black to the table.

It was actually a nearby-seated customer who witnessed the entire incident and was so appalled by both the customer's behavior and the manager's instant accommodation of it that he took to both the company's complaint line and social media to bring public notice to the situation.

Robbins wrote in his Facebook post that the customer should’ve been refused service for even making such a demand and that it is "disgusting" that the manager would honor it, especially considering the restaurant's diverse staff.

Donahue [the black server who was yelled at] said she was so upset by the incident that she began crying, which Robbins said he witnessed.

"The young lady was in tears and had no one to support her," Robbins said Wednesday. "So I felt if I didn’t write this post, nothing would have happened and she would continue to go to work for a place that she feels uncomfortable at and unwanted at."

Donahue said the manager made a decision that the customer was more important than two of his employees.

Meagan Bernstein, a spokeswoman for Olive Garden, said Wednesday the restaurant chain has zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind. Bernstein said the company completed an investigation Monday.

"As a result of our investigation, we made the decision to separate with the manager involved," she said.
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Although the restaurant's staff as noted was quite diverse, that doesn't necessarily indicate that the manager him/herself isn't particularly bigoted, and I really can't say either way without more information. Regardless, it is indeed disgusting that they didn't even hesitate to hang their own employees out to dry in the face of such overt and abusive racism at the hands of a "customer". I have to commend the other patron for making the incident public, and I think firing the manager was a fair and correct decision on the part of the company.
 
Fair play to the person for posting about it on their social media.

But I keep seeing these threads and wondering why Americans don't actually intervene at the time.
 
cullennz said:
Fair play to the person for posting about it on their social media.

But I keep seeing these threads and wondering why Americans don't actually intervene at the time.
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Don't want to be shot during any ensuing altercation ?
 
This is bad policy anyway. The restaurant has the duty to provide a workplace that is free from unlawful discrimination. It's their legal duty to not cater to such demands.
 
Disgusting. People eating at Olive Garden? I got dragged to one for a work lunch in 2001 and someone found a live worm in the salad. The manager confessed they just buy salad pre-mixed and dump it in bowls. So we burned a cross on the restaurant lawn, and rightly so.
 
Didn't plantation owners in the South usually have black cooks, servants and other black house slaves?
The degree of racial tolerance it must have required ...
 
I'm not going to assume any racism on the manager's part. I would say it was more of a situation where they hadn't had to deal with it before, panicked and made a bad choice. I'd be interested to see the history of that particular restaurant but once something like this happens the reviews generally go to hell. Considering it's an Olive Garden I can't imagine they were topping the charts as it was.

It was the wrong decision, I'll give the manager that but if an old lady is losing her mind in the middle of the room. Sometimes it's easier to just quiet them down. We do it as parents with screaming children knowing it's not right with them either as it is viewed as rewarding their behavior. I hate old people and children alike, I would throw both out in a heartbeat.
 
Agreed. Most restaurant managers operate on 'the customer is always right no matter what' philosophy, and work to keep things quiet and cash flowing, not make principled stands and loudly eject customers in front of other customers.
 
"The customer is always right, even when they are being racist" and is a racist policy.

I'm always disappointed that nobody ever just decides to completely screw with racist. If I were the manager I would have absolutely agreed and then sent out another black employee. Then another. All while telling them I totally understood their complaint and I would absolutely comply. Eventually I have to send the first black employee back out, but I would loudly insist it was a different black person.
 
Thermal said:
Agreed. Most restaurant managers operate on 'the customer is always right no matter what' philosophy, and work to keep things quiet and cash flowing, not make principled stands and loudly eject customers in front of other customers.
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A lot of that springs from corporate though, they may just have been so used to being overruled by a policy from head office, dictated by a person who 'learnt' about customer service but has never held a customer facing job in their short career...

Corporate normally sets the tone so their's a reasonable chance the guy was hosed either way
 
Mongrel said:
A lot of that springs from corporate though, they may just have been so used to being overruled by a policy from head office, dictated by a person who 'learnt' about customer service but has never held a customer facing job in their short career...

Corporate normally sets the tone so their's a reasonable chance the guy was hosed either way
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Yeah. I doubt most chains have a 'and this is how we handle racist douchebags once they are seated' course. Management was screwed as soon as the dirtbags got vocal. The manager doesn't want a scene, just needs to get their money and get them out without disrupting other guests.
 
plague311 said:
I'm not going to assume any racism on the manager's part. I would say it was more of a situation where they hadn't had to deal with it before, panicked and made a bad choice. I'd be interested to see the history of that particular restaurant but once something like this happens the reviews generally go to hell. Considering it's an Olive Garden I can't imagine they were topping the charts as it was.

It was the wrong decision, I'll give the manager that but if an old lady is losing her mind in the middle of the room. Sometimes it's easier to just quiet them down. We do it as parents with screaming children knowing it's not right with them either as it is viewed as rewarding their behavior. I hate old people and children alike, I would throw both out in a heartbeat.
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Enjoy your present age. ;)

Hans
 
plague311 said:
I'm not going to assume any racism on the manager's part. I would say it was more of a situation where they hadn't had to deal with it before, panicked and made a bad choice. I'd be interested to see the history of that particular restaurant but once something like this happens the reviews generally go to hell. Considering it's an Olive Garden I can't imagine they were topping the charts as it was.

It was the wrong decision, I'll give the manager that but if an old lady is losing her mind in the middle of the room. Sometimes it's easier to just quiet them down. We do it as parents with screaming children knowing it's not right with them either as it is viewed as rewarding their behavior. I hate old people and children alike, I would throw both out in a heartbeat.
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Agreed, on zero evidence I am assuming that Corporate's mantra is "The customer is always right" and will always throw employees under the bus when receiving complaints, from whatever source and for whatever reason.*

When you say it was the wrong decision, I have to agree from a moral point of view but from an employees point of view there was no right decision. The Manager had to purely guess who was likely to complain and from what perspective.

* This is my own personal knee jerk prejudice based on 15 years working the Food and Beverage side of Hospitality.
 
Thermal said:
Yeah. I doubt most chains have a 'and this is how we handle racist douchebags once they are seated' course. Management was screwed as soon as the dirtbags got vocal. The manager doesn't want a scene, just needs to get their money and get them out without disrupting other guests.
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I have nothing to support this but I can't imagine the age of the average Olive Garden manager is one of much experience either. If it were me, at my current experience level (38, if anyone is curious), I would be all about kicking her out with a stern, slightly condescending tone. At least then if you get fired you can file a wrongful termination civil case. If you have the employees supporting you because you defended them, which is the right thing to do, you might walk away ahead.

MRC_Hans said:
Enjoy your present age. ;)

Hans
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I can't. I have teenagers.
 
plague311 said:
I have nothing to support this but I can't imagine the age of the average Olive Garden manager is one of much experience either. If it were me, at my current experience level (38, if anyone is curious), I would be all about kicking her out with a stern, slightly condescending tone. At least then if you get fired you can file a wrongful termination civil case. If you have the employees supporting you because you defended them, which is the right thing to do, you might walk away ahead.
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I'm thinking a manager's safest bet might be to say 'I'm sorry ma'am, your request may actually be illegal, and we are unable to comply with your wishes. Would you still like to dine with us or shall we get your coats?'
 
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