It would appear that restaurants can treat their employees any way they want to, a practice that has evidently been going on since I worked at a Ponderosa steakhouse in the early 90′s. 

Last week my sister-in-law,(we’ll call her sis for the rest of this post) came home not very happy from what had transpired at her new work establishment, Via, a sweet Italian restaurant on Shrewsbury St.  She started there about a month ago,and so far, has loved the work environment and the money.

When she filled out an application for working at Via, she wrote down that she was able to work 6 days a week.  The day she could not work was Sunday.  She attends church on Sunday morning (Fellowship Church represent) and generally tries to rest the remainder of the day.  So she was very up front with them that she was available the remainder of the days in the week, but Sundays were off limits.

So she was surprised to see that she was on the schedule to work for Mother’s Day Sunday, May 11, 2008.  She immediately went to the scheduling manager and they debated for the next several minutes as to why she should have to work or not on this particular Sunday.

How’s this for an answer Via  – “The answer is NO.  She was up front with you, and she told you the truth, saying she could never work on Sundays.  You hired her that way, and from the schedule you’ve given her in the last 3 weeks, I suppose you think she’s doing good work (5 days a week), so leave her alone.  She can’t work on Sundays.”

A similar situation happened to me 16 years ago when my scheduling manager at Ponde-gross-a tried to make me work on Mother’s Day Sunday.  My dad, who is a pastor in the midwest, had a few things to say about that, and so that case was closed.
But what about sis, who needs the money and likes working there, but is already being disqualified in her work schedule (coincidentally, this last week she was cut down to 3 days of work) for saying she could not work on the very day that she told them before they hired her that she could not work?

My assumption is that the scheduling manager will eventually forget this Mother’s Day and that she will be on for 5 days again after about a month, but what about next Mother’s Day?  Does she have to fight and then lose days of work again?

I say she goes to work for Chick Fil-A, because they’re closed on Sundays, but she’s not agreeing.

This post is a part of Watercooler Wednesday with Randy Elrod!