Job trials are often exceptionally stressful.
When a woman in the UK wasn’t able to make her training shift due to bad weather and delayed public transport, the boss’ texts shocked her.
The exchange has gone viral, after Victoria Atkins, the potential job applicant, posted the messages to her Facebook page, slamming the cafe manager for being “very rude, racist and nasty”.
At first it all seemed fine when Atkins sent a message to the manager, apologising for her lateness.
“No problem for today. Safe Journey,” he responded.
But when Atkins, 22, asked to reschedule the trial, the manager at the cafe in England, sent a shocking response.
“Sorry you are having a stressful morning,” he began. “It’s probably better you did not succeed in getting the job because you can never be late or miss work at our business. Ever.
“You cannot ever even call in sick as this is not allowed.
“Literally, you have to be at work as scheduled with us and if you do not, you get a whole day’s wages from your previous shift docked and then are sacked if it happens just once again.”
“We are British, but generally cannot ever manage to hire British due to poor work ethics,” he concluded.
Atkins promptly slammed the boss for his discriminatory remarks.
"Excuse me? How dare you be rude to me like that because I am British. I'm glad I didn't get the job there now... You are an awful business owner," Atkins responded to the business owner's text.
Not backing down, the business owner responded to Atkins, attempting to justify why he does not employ British people. He told the woman that a poor work ethic "is highly synonymous with being British".
When Atkins replied that she felt sorry for one of their current employees because "it is not normal to never be sick in the space of 3 years", the man once again proved his awful attitude.
"Yes, it is normal for thin, healthy people who don't eat bacon," he bizarrely told the unsuccessful job candidate.
Talking to the UK Telegraph, the business owner defended his claims, and once again slammed British people for their apparent work ethic.
"Our experience of running a small, private, family-run coffee shop in Hove is that the very poorest type of employee is a British one. Full stop," he told the publication.
"The last candidate you want to take on - and we try ardently to hire everyone - is British.
A spokesperson for the Trades Union Congress also spoke to The Telegraph, confirming that "it's illegal to discriminate against job applicants based on their ethnicity."
"If he's looking for the title of Britain's Worst Boss, it sounds like he's going about it the right way."
Top Comments
My hubby had an employer in hospitality who was a law unto himself. Hubby was sacked after a few years for accepting a lift home from a coworker, something that was against the employer’s long list of crazy rules. Much later when I dropped in an article of uniform he offered to hire hubby again, who said no way.
I’m in two minds with this. The employer definitely went too far, but at the same time I understand his frustration. Weather, and it ‘taking longer than I thought’, is definitely not an acceptable reason to be late on your first day, and it’s a sign of the times that this young worker thinks it is! This is likely the same kind of worker as Yumi Stynes who thinks it is ok to be booked to work but send out a public message to all (expecting people to support her in her decision) saying she didn’t go in because ‘she really urgently need to lie around’.
We have had several of these workers ourselves over recent years who think they should be able to constantly have time off for various reasons, no matter how inconvenient to the business or how recently they’ve had time off, are constantly on social media when they are actually at work, and cry poor me if you ever actually ask them to do the job they were employed to do! These employees are very selfish, and they never stop to think about the fact that if they don’t do their job and turn up it directly impacts on the other people that work there who then have to work longer or harder to get the job done. They only think of themselves!
The employer went too far but he also dodged a bullet as he found out prior to them starting that they were going to be yet another of these employees. Work ethic people! You aren’t ‘owed’ a job - you actually have to put yourself out sometimes to earn money (including in this case bothering to make sure that come hell or high water you had made plans to be there early on your first day by planning for contingencies!).