09/01/2026
I've got a bit of a rant due to an incident that happened at a non-pizza shop establishment over the weekend.
There was a case where an employee did something that was not the smartest thing someone could do. A customer was (understandably) VERY upset and went on Social Media to rant about this this.
So many people were immediately calling for a massive boycott of this place, demanding they be shut down/sued out of existence. One of their competitors made a snarky post that was indirectly calling them out.
How did the business respond? Well, they instantly apologized for the employee making a mistake, clarified that the employee was not enforcing an official policy, and said that they'll go over training again.
OK, wow. Let's all move on with our lives.
That's NOT what happened at all. People are saying they don't accept the apology and still wanting to go after the business.
The staff member then quit their job. Maybe it's due to embarrassment/feeling bad. Maybe they feel guilty about their actions. Maybe it's due to fear of deranged person coming into their establishment and causing them harm and want to protect their coworkers. I don't know. I've never been inside of this particular business and don't know any of the staff or the owners, so I'm not going to speculate on why they quit, but it should be over and it's not.
This whole thing just brings up an point:
Do you really think that a business owner who potentially invested their entire life savings in a business deserves to go bankrupt because they hired an employee who made a mistake? Do you think they should possibly end up living on the street? Do you think every other employee should lose their job and have to find another one? Do you think the entire community should not be able to enjoy a business because of this?
If it was the business owner who did this? It would be a TOTALLY different story. There are businesses I don't go into due to the actions of the owner!
It the business came out, defended the actions of the employee, and said it's an official policy? Then yeah, different story. I've avoided businesses because I didn't like how they responded to things.
But come on people. You have to give a little bit of leeway to a business when they hire an employee who makes a mistake or does something not very wise.
"It's on the employer to provide better training!" Is what some people say. Yeah, it ultimately is. Businesses go over training with employees, the employees start working, then they never encounter a specific issue, they forget the training, and then the issue does come up and they handle it wrong.
Every business is going to hire an employee who makes a mistake from time to time, but how they respond is what should matter. If you're a business owner and you see one of your competitors getting dog piled over an employee making a mistake, it's probably not the best to make posts showing how much better you are than that business.
Yeah, you will get some easy clicks for a day or two. You will get an influx of new customers who are happy. But in the long run, you're just perpetuating this online mob culture. It's only a matter of time before your business hires the wrong employee who makes a mistake, and the same thing happens to you.