After Dine-and-Dasher's Old Posts Surface, Chipotle Hastily Rehires Manager
In a knee-jerk reaction to a Twitter video, the Chipotle restaurant chain fired a St. Paul, Minnesota, manager accused of a form of racial profiling.
After more evidence surfaced, including old posts belonging to the profiling “victim,” the burrito chain is quickly changing its tune on the ex-manager, even offering her job back.
Chipotle’s abrupt about-face comes after a surge of complaints across social media, focusing on the company’s swift decision to fire a manager who was apparently only trying to protect her store. Now, the company is trying to correct its mistake
“Based on our review, we have offered our manager her job back,” the company told Business Insider.
“While our normal protocol was not followed serving these customers, we publicly apologize to our manager for being put in this position. We will work to continue to ensure that we support a respectful workplace for our employees and our customers alike.”
The manager’s tweeted response and upbeat attitude underlines what a serious error in judgement Chipotle made when they fired her without evidence. She celebrated the “kind words, positive vibes, prayers and warm thoughts” that came to her during this ordeal.
Racism is a real issue that I do not take lightly. Racism must be addressed, but what happened here was just wrong. Falsely accused and in return, cut off from a goal that I worked hard for. Today, I was “officially” offered my job back. I’m truly grateful for all the support. https://t.co/83EUsIqt4I
— Dom (@Dom3Marie) November 19, 2018
The entire debacle stemmed from a video uploaded to Twitter on Thursday.
The video, posted to an account belonging to a Masud Ali, shows a group of young men at Chipotle harassing the workers after being refused service. It has racked up over 10 million views in less than a week.
Can a group of young well established African American get a bite to eat after a long workout session. @ChipotleTweets ?? pic.twitter.com/Sj8RaeINj6
— Masud Ali 🍑 (@Masudaliii) November 16, 2018
Ali’s story of “a group of young well established African American” men just trying to get a bite to eat quickly fell apart as his past actions came to light.
Users were quick to sift through Ali’s Twitter account, finding information that threw Chipotle’s hasty firing into question.
Posts were found seemingly celebrating the dine and dash system and sent to the company. (Note: Some rough language is in the tweets.)
@ChipotleTweets you need to look deeper into this. That manager had obviously previously dealt with these guys who don’t pay. They’ve bragged about STEALING from your business (and others) serveral times.
You should have your employees’ backs instead of the immediate optics. pic.twitter.com/JkdLBMo7ep
— Tony (@SeriouslySerio) November 17, 2018
Ali’s actions sparked a massive outcry on Twitter.
What may have seemed like a harmless prank rapidly turned into a crusade for truth and justice. Ali was quickly inundated with sobering comments that showed how far-reaching and damaging his actions were.
As an African American male I just wanna say: people like YOU are the reason we will ALWAYS be looked down upon. You have no shame for setting that poor lady up like that to lose her job. If anyone knows of a GoFundMe for her termination, please let me know.
— The Joker (@TheJokerOfNY) November 18, 2018
Congratulations you are now viral as a person well known for dining and dashing, and you made it more difficult for people that experience actual racism to call it out. You’re a National Treasure
— Danny Gordon (@DannyGordonLaw) November 20, 2018
— Flathau’s Fine Tunes (@FlattyMusic) November 20, 2018
Although the company has hired their manager back, there’s no guarantee that it will begin defending employees against vile accusations.
Most business owners would reward managers with a raise and more responsibilities if they guarded the store’s profits this professionally.
Chipotle had that choice, and instead chose to fire theirs with little to no evidence.
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