" Not . Your . Business . " — u / Mackhealth1
You’ve probably heard ofAsk Reddit, where people can ask the internet pretty much anything they want. Well restaurant servers have their own sector of the site calledTales From Your Serverwhere service industry employees can share horror stories, advice, encouragement, etc.
Recently,u/Familiar-Feedback801the askedr/TalesFromYourServer page, “Should I tell my coworker they’re planning on firing him?”
Here’s the situation:Familiar-Feedback801has been working at a fine dining restaurant for years, and they’re about to exit stage left. However, before leaving they got some interesting information, “Our management has been very unstable. I found out they plan on firing some of our staff because they’re ‘lazy.'”
Before you answer, the user shared some important information about their own employment situation to add some context. “I have plenty of references, so I’m not worried about that. I also know he would never tell anyone it was me who told him. It’s just one of those awkward things where I don’t know if it’s my place, in case it’s ‘all talk.'”
Responders were split, and presented some solid reasons why:
“If he is a friend or acquaintance you care for, absolutely. I will always be more loyal to people than a company or a restaurant,” userSimplyKendrawrote.
Those who voted yes in regards to telling their coworker agreed that employees should look out for each other.
“Yes, I would tell him if I were you,” usersixhundredkinaccountagreed. “But if you want to protect yourself try telling him anonymously. Maybe leave a note in a place he’ll find it.”
Some people like userthatburghfansuggested ways to tell him that were just safe enough to leave the job unscathed.
" I would just tell him you overheard that they were pass away to make some staffing cut . That should be enough information to get the point across , " they aver .
Then there’s userdraizetrainewho thinks this isn’t even a conversation, “Whywouldn’tyou tell him?”
On the other hand, there were people like userMackhealth1who had a very detailed answer todraizetraine’s question, and suggested the original poster stay as far away from this situation as humanly possible.
Speaking from experience, userzzzongdudeadded: “This is the right thing to do, but I’ve had situations where I warned another employee about the possibility of getting fired because I heard a manager talking about people possibly getting fired… and he went around telling everyone I was threatening him… I think it’s better to just stay out of it.”
And finally, there were people who acknowledged there’s a lot of grey area here, and beggedFamiliar-Feedback801to move cautiously.
“It all depends on your relationship with this coworker. I’ve been on the other side of this where I was about to be fired and my coworkers, some of whom I was extremely close to, kept their mouths shut fearing retaliation,” userJG307wrote.
" I get where they were coming from now , but at the sentence it was an incredibly hurtful betrayal . Not that they did n’t choose me over their own business ( I would never take that of anyone ) but that they did n’t desire me to take the heads up and still protect them . "
H/Tr/TalesFromYourServer
Some response have been edited for length and clarity .
