Fired From Whole Foods Over a Tuna Sandwich

by Emily Matchar, Posted Mar 17th 2009 @ 4:00PM

After college, I took a job bussing tables at a very high-end restaurant attached to a very expensive country inn near my hometown. It was the kind of place where you had to stand with your arms spread at the beginning of a shift and submit to having the maitre d' inspect your cuffs and the knot in your tie (even women had to wear ties).

I'd been working there for a few weeks when I noticed that employees were throwing away massive platters of food from the wedding buffets that took place nearly every weekend afternoon -- I'm talking untouched trays of smoked salmon, artichoke hearts, blinis with caviar and mini lemon souffles. I also noticed that the wait staff would pour the remaining pitchers of fresh-squeezed orange juice straight down the sink after brunch. Finally, I asked the head waiter why we didn't just save the food to eat at employee mealtime.

"Because, if we allowed employees to eat leftover food, pretty soon you'd all be eating whatever you wanted straight out of the fridge," he told me sniffily.

What, like untrained dogs?! I gave my two weeks notice the next day.

I was reminded of that incident when I read this New York Times post, about a man fired from Whole Foods for trying to save and eat a tuna fish sandwich that was about to be thrown away. Whole Foods claimed that the man's behavior was "misconduct," which means, in addition to having lost his job, he'd be denied unemployment benefits. The man, Ralph Reece, challenged the misconduct ruling and won.

Good for him, I say. Not only is keeping employees from eating leftover food degrading and wasteful, the "misconduct" charges were, according to Reece's lawyer, souped up in order to save Whole Foods money for not having to pay unemployment. And this from a company that is supposed to be one of the best places in America to work!

Source

Filed Under: Business, Food News
Tags: Economy, Jobs, Whole Foods, WholeFoods, Work

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Reader comments (Page 2 of 2)

3-20-2009 @5:09PM Linda said... Not only is firing someone for eating food that's thrown out in this economy like something out of a Dickens novel, but someone on a morning talk show had a good point. What's Whole Foods doing throwing out food? They could be donating it to food banks. The host even knew the name of one in NYC off the top of her head.
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3-26-2009 @2:32PM john said... In times like these Its just plain dumb that resturants waste food by throwing them out.like someone said in their post.

I use to enjoy going to Tim hortons but it really irks me is when patrons at tim hortons would take their half eaten food and dirty dishes and trays and take them back to the counter where they serve food to me that's a food violation under health and food act.
Thats the resturants business to clear tables not the customers so why do people think they half to do it?
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