Current Events > Olive Garden customer demanded a nonblack server, manager complied, gets fired

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A customer at an Olive Garden restaurant in Indiana on Saturday loudly demanded a server who is not black, an employee and an observer said. A manager acquiesced, and is no longer employed by the company.
Amira Donahue, a hostess at the restaurant in Evansville in southwestern Indiana, said the customer, a white woman, complained to a manager about her and the other black hostess working during Saturday's dinner rush.
"She made comments about me to my co-workers concerning my race and saying that I should work at a strip club instead," Donahue told NBC News on Wednesday. "She asked if I'm even black and if I am from here."
Donahue, 16, said the customer who was with a handful of other people, including two children was seated at a table that had a black server, at which point she became particularly irate.
The customer then screamed her demand for a nonblack server to a manager, who complied, Donahue said.
Maxwell Robbins, 22, a customer who witnessed the entire ordeal, told NBC News he was so disturbed by what transpired that he documented it in a Facebook post and submitted multiple complaints to Olive Garden by phone. The Facebook post had been shared more than 1,500 times as of Wednesday afternoon.
Robbins, who was dining with his wife and one of their friends, said the manager complied with the customer's demand without hesitation.
Both Donahue and Robbins condemned the manager's handling of the incident.
Robbins wrote in his Facebook post that the customer shouldve 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 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 didnt 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.

Disgusting. Good on OG for firing this idiot. They also need to ban the woman from their restaurants nation wide.

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Should've just kicked her out when she became loud under guise of "public nuisance"

Not entirely sure I agree with firing the manager

Customer should've just been thrown out of the place.

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MachineJaipur posted...

Should've just kicked her out when she became loud under guise of "public nuisance"

Not entirely sure I agree with firing the manager

why would you not agree with firing the manager LMAO what kind of idiot or racist (or both) actually complies with such an absurd request

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The customer is typically wrong

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Glad they fired the moron pandering to those racists.

Imagine hating random people because of their skin so much to the point where you don't even want them delivering your food to your table...like how does a person even get to that point mentally?

The correct choice is to refuse service and tell them to leave.

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And if he had backed up the employee he would have been fired for refusing the customer. Retail/customer service is a no win situation

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Racist manager

Why does it keep happening?

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glitteringfairy posted...

And if he had backed up the employee he would have been fired for refusing the customer. Retail/customer service is a no win situation

Nonsense. Glad he got fired. Makes him just as much a racist as the customer.

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She's better off getting a table of nonracists anyways. Way to fire the manager who was just trying to minimize the situation.

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Manager probably panicked and didn't want to escalate the situation, but the customer absolutely should have been denied service. You have to stand up for your workers

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Squall28 posted...

She's better off getting a table of nonracists anyways. Way to fire the manager who was just trying to minimize the situation.

Refuse service

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Squall28 posted...

She's better off getting a table of nonracists anyways. Way to fire the manager who was just trying to minimize the situation.

At that point the best tactic wouldve been to tell them to get out. Theres folding to customers and then theres blatant right and wrong

that said I agree with everyone saying the manager probably panicked

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Indiana

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eston posted...

Manager probably panicked and didn't want to escalate the situation, but the customer absolutely should have been denied service. You have to stand up for your workers

This is why I don't necessarily agree with firing the manager.

This is a perfect teaching moment, especially if they were a newer manager.

And I don't agree with it making the manager racist to comply. An idiot sure.

Squall28 posted...

She's better off getting a table of nonracists anyways. Way to fire the manager who was just trying to minimize the situation.

Everyone's better off not encouraging this behavior

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SpaceBear_ posted...

Nonsense. Glad he got fired. Makes him just as much a racist as the customer.

Not necessarily. It could've been he was trying to do what they're taught to do: give the customer what they want. When your job is on the line, you tend not to take chances.

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eston posted...

Manager probably panicked and didn't want to escalate the situation, but the customer absolutely should have been denied service. You have to stand up for your workers

This is what I was thinking as well. I know it's easy to pretend to be morally superior, but this sounds just like a panic situation as opposed to a calculated decision. Still not ideal, regardless.

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Good thing I wasn't the manager there, lol.

I would have done the same thing just to get that person out of the restaurant asap and with minimal confrontation as possible.

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glitteringfairy posted...

And if he had backed up the employee he would have been fired for refusing the customer. Retail/customer service is a no win situation

I'd respect him more if he chose his employees. Take care of your employees, the ones you work with every day, and they'll take care of you. He wasn't putting much consideration in the consequence of his choice. He was purely in the "how to make things right" mode that you normally would be as a manager/server to squash any problems and keep things moving. I don't think this is worth getting fired over but is definitely something an upper level authority would have to step in to quell and reinforce.

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MachineJaipur posted...

This is why I don't necessarily agree with firing the manager.

This is a perfect teaching moment, especially if they were a newer manager.

And I don't agree with it making the manager racist to comply. An idiot sure.

I'm pretty much in agreement with you on this, but at the same time it kinda causes the employees to lose faith in their management and that could cause issues down the road especially if this isn't the first time

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Firing is too good for that manager. Make up some fake legal violation to put her away for 20 years.
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gsninja posted...

This is what I was thinking as well. I know it's easy to pretend to be morally superior, but this sounds just like a panic situation as opposed to a calculated decision. Still not ideal, regardless.

Exactly. I feel like most of these posters never had a service job. You don't get to tell off customers.

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Sad_Face posted...

I'd respect him more if he chose his employees. Take care of your employees, the ones you work with every day, and they'll take care of you. He wasn't putting much consideration in the consequence of his choice. He was purely in the "how to make things right" mode that you normally would be as a manager/server to squash any problems and keep things moving. I don't think this is worth getting fired over but is definitely something an upper level authority would have to step in to quell and reinforce.

Sadly when things like this go up the corporate chain everything you just said doesn't matter. Corporate doesn't view their employees as actual people. I spent ten years in retail and five of those in a management position. Corporate will burn people down in a heartbeat if customers get involved. MAYBE it might have not gone that way cause this is a race related thing but 99% of the time corporate will side with the customers no matter what.

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SpaceBear_ posted...

Nonsense. Glad he got fired. Makes him just as much a racist as the customer.

People get fired for less. Customer complains and you are gone. The higher ups don't give a shit about what happened.

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Pretty fucked up to fire them. Why not just have a training session to better educate managers on how to deal with situations like this. I doubt dumbass racists acting the fool is a common occurrence at olive garden.

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Squall28 posted...

Exactly. I feel like most of these posters never had a service job. You don't get to tell off customers.

Theres a difference between telling off a customer and refusing service. Surely you learned this in your many years at McDonalds.

Leave it to this shithole board to defend the manager

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EndOfZangoose posted...

Theres a difference between telling off a customer and refusing service. Surely you learned this in your many years at McDonalds.

Not to the higher ups. If the customer complains enough, they wont care to hear about your side of the story. Unless it blows up in social media.

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Squall28 posted...

Exactly. I feel like most of these posters never had a service job. You don't get to tell off customers.

Well, as a manager you do have some authority in a situation like this.

It comes down to experience. A lot of people still have it in their heads that customers are untouchable no matter what they do, and there are plenty of situations where someone can be promoted to a leadership position in customer service without having to deal with a truly unruly customer like this lady.

My point is that as one deals with customers and maintains transparency with what he can or can't do wtih his own superiors, a manager has every right to kick this kind of customer out; in this case, on a basis of being racist to his employees and being a public nuisance since she was screaming.

This guy unfortunately made the wrong decision either by lack of experience, panic decision-making, or both. We're all prone to mistakes.

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Squall28 posted...

Exactly. I feel like most of these posters never had a service job. You don't get to tell off customers.

If its as blatant as this you absolutely can refuse service and expect minimal pushback. You dont have to go off on a tirade

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Squall28 posted...

Exactly. I feel like most of these posters never had a service job. You don't get to tell off customers.

I was a manager for 6 years in a service job. I was 20 years old when it happened. I handled disgruntled customers all the time. I never once caved into demands half as absurd as this.

I think you guys just make shit decisions.

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ASithLord7 posted...

Leave it to this shithole board to defend the manager

Nobody is defending what happened. The manager doesn't own Olive Garden...right? We agree to that? Maybe they figured it would be easier to de-escalate rather than this insane customer throwing a fit and causing even more of a dramatic scene?

The Manager likely isn't where the buck stops, right? There's higher people on the chain of command? It's very possible the manager could've gotten in trouble for NOT complying with this shitty customer. Maybe they got in trouble in the past for NOT complying with a previous customer and got reamed out by a supervisor?

You can't just assume things.

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glitteringfairy posted...

And if he had backed up the employee he would have been fired for refusing the customer. Retail/customer service is a no win situation

At least he would have kept his dignity

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If your immediate "panic" reaction to a customer being racist to the employees under your care is to validate that racism, you absolutely should not be a manager of anything.
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DeadBankerDream posted...

If your immediate "panic" reaction to a customer being racist to the employees under your care is to validate that racism, you absolutely should not be a manager of anything.

+1

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The manager jeopardized the mental well being of their employee to pander to an overt racist. 100% deserved to be fired.

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A fact overlooked is that this was Saturday evening. The manager did not have the luxury of time to refuse service and potentially call police if the racist didnt comply.

This was a knee jerk way to handle it asap. Its cowardly to fire the manager as if they were incompetent.

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There sure are a lot of people on this board who would tolerate racism
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cuttin_in_farm posted...

A fact overlooked is that this was Saturday evening. The manager did not have the luxury of time to refuse service and potentially call police if the racist didnt comply.

This was a knee jerk way to handle it asap. Its cowardly to fire the manager as if they were incompetent.

"It was rush hour, I didn't have time to think to not enable racism against the employees in my care."

Now that's a new one.
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Lol at people calling for the managers head on a silver platter. Typical Im offended era

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cuttin_in_farm posted...

A fact overlooked is that this was Saturday evening. The manager did not have the luxury of time to refuse service and potentially call police if the racist didnt comply.

This was a knee jerk way to handle it asap. Its cowardly to fire the manager as if they were incompetent.

"Please leave"

*aggressively ignores racist*

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DeadBankerDream posted...

"It was rush hour, I didn't have time to think to not enable racism against the employees in my care."

Now that's a new one.

As is this situation. This is like so many people sitting on their couches condemning the school security guard for not stepping up to a school shooter.

An Olive Garden manager doesnt anticipate this happening often Im sure.

Lets get off the moral high ground a second.

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cuttin_in_farm posted...

As is this situation. This is like so many people sitting on their couches condemning the school security guard for not stepping up to a school shooter.

An Olive Garden manager doesnt anticipate this happening often Im sure.

Lets get off the moral high ground a second.

Let's not blatantly defend racism while pretending to just be "keeping it realz" for a second.
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It amuses me people claim to know how they would react in these situations.

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glitteringfairy posted...

Sadly when things like this go up the corporate chain everything you just said doesn't matter. Corporate doesn't view their employees as actual people. I spent ten years in retail and five of those in a management position. Corporate will burn people down in a heartbeat if customers get involved. MAYBE it might have not gone that way cause this is a race related thing but 99% of the time corporate will side with the customers no matter what.

I've been lucky in that I've only worked at Ma and Pa esque restaurants. Even better (or worse), I mostly worked in the kitchen. I can understand how you say doing the right thing isn't easy in those types of environments. Given how ubiquitous these types of jobs are, no doubt there will be people who bend and break their backs to cater to every whim of the customer.


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cuttin_in_farm posted...

As is this situation. This is like so many people sitting on their couches condemning the school security guard for not stepping up to a school shooter.

An Olive Garden manager doesnt anticipate this happening often Im sure.

Lets get off the moral high ground a second.

Thinking on your feet is a big part of working and just life in general. They weren't being forced to engineer a vaccine, just not enable some racist asshole at a restaurant. Quick thinking doesn't give you carte blanche to think poorly.

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