Posted on 11/16/2011 3:46:55 AM PST by Dacula
CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill. (CBS) — A Crystal Lake waitress says she lost her job because she wore a Tea Party bracelet to work.
As WBBM Newsradio’s Bob Conway reports, Megan Geller, 23, tells the Northwest Herald she wears the bracelet with the words “Don’t Tread on Me,” the phrase that appears beneath the iconic snake on the yellow Gadsden flag, and which is often seen and heard at Tea Party rallies.
Geller tells the newspaper a couple she was serving at the local Outback Steakhouse took offense and complained.
Geller said her mother, Tonya Franklin, got the bracelet at a Tea Party event, and a couple dining at the restaurant did not like it and asked for the manager, the Northwest Herald reported.
After Geller was fired, a group rallied in front of the Outback Steakhouse, waving American and Gadsden flags and accusing the restaurant of violating her free speech rights, the Northwest Herald reported.
Company officials tell a different story. They say Geller was inattentive to diners at two tables and say that if the bracelet had been a problem, managers would have told her to remove it, the newspaper reported.
I keep a Gadsden flag in the back window of my Silverado dually. Does that mean the State troopers can arrest me if a motorist complains?
Leftists are all petty dictators. What happened to freedom of speech?
If she was an illegal alien or a Moslem,
the DOJ would be all over this in a heartbeat.
We should thank the liberal couple and the restaurant for creating another life-long, hard-line Tea Party activist. They did it in one day. I wonder how many other Americans feel a need to rebel against this kind of liberal BS. Obama is toast.
Being a waitress sucks. You have to deal with people all day, and some of them are jerks who will complain about everything.
Management can certainly ask this employee to remove the bracelet. Free speech doesn’t enter into it.
Vicki McKenna had the mother of this young woman on her program here in Milwaukee yesterday. The young woman is from Wisconsin. The mother claimed that the Illinois employment bureau, (or whatever it is called), has already ruled in her favor for unlawful termination. Some caller claimed he called the restaurant in question and the person who answered simply laughed at him. This makes me sad because I have enjoyed myself very much at Outback. I will not be returning until this is resolved the way I believe it should be.
No, but it means they’re going consider you a potential terrorist...
This is why almost any restaurant will prevent the waitstaff from wearing political buttons or devices. If she wears the bracelet, it offends the ever-so-easily-offended liberals who may be her customers. If she is prevented from wearing the bracelet, it offends TEA Party supporters, who also may be customers.
The restaurant just wants to sell inferior cuts of meat at inflated prices to unsuspecting rubes who don't realize that for a third the price and five minutes work, they could have an infinitely superior dining experience at home. Politics gets in the way of that.
Well, I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants. There’s absolutely no way any manager in their right mind would fire someone for wearing a bracelet. Most likely the girl was a problem employee. Then, she encountered a hostile table of libtards. There was probably a discussion at the table about her bracelet in which she vociferously defended her political beliefs. Then the table complained and she was fired for being a crappy waitress generally and a troublemaker specifically. That’s how these things go down.
I agree that any intelligent business will not allow any type of political statement. It can only offend some customers. Why do that? Most businesses would then simply tell the employee to remove the problem until after work. Your answer does not address the mothers’ claim about the ruling. I was simply pointing out what she said. As to your comments about Outback itself, those are opinions and logically irrefutable. Rubes need restaurants too.
InvestorRelations@outback.com
The owners support GOP and hate the Left.
You know that from what source!?!
But here's the thing: no matter where one works, there is no such thing as free speech on company time. In the employers eyes, you're there to do the job they hired you for, not express one's own opinions.
Yes, the customers were likely liberal arseholes, chances are the employer was looking for a reason to fire this waitress anyway. If she were any good, likely he'd have simply placated the "customers" until they left and asked her to simply remove it. There has to be more to this story than meets the eyes here.
Given that being true, perhaps someone ‘up the chain’ at corporate should know a local restaurant manager in Illinois is more left leaning than not.
One instance of being "inattentive" gets a waiter/waitstaff a warning or two at any decent restaurant. A history of it ceretainly gets one fired.
By the way, I ate at an Outback Steakhouse in Orland Park, IL ONCE. Whoever said "cheap cuts of meat at inflated prices" above had it exactly right. Once was more than enough for me.
If I really want a good steak, I head to Gibbons Gardens in Orland Park, or Ruth's Chris, or Chop House in Downtown Chicago. Anywhere else is a waste, IMO.
Sad really that the rest of us are stuck with the choices of the uninformed, unwashed, ignorant masses that are dependent on sucking at the government teat after each election
2 years and counting, and I'm outta here.....
You “get” steakhouse dining.
I don’t get it either. Especially now that USDA Prime steaks are readily available at Costco.
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