'We still have a business to run': Company offers employees a pizza party in lieu of grieving time after a young coworker unexpectedly passes away

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
May 5, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

They might say that they're "family," but we all know that that's just a line they read in some nepo-baby CEO handbook to help boost team morale. Another hot take from the CEO handbook would be the tried-and-true pizza party. Is your employee base on the verge of revolt? Give 'em that cheesy tomato bread instead of well-deserved raises! 

When they came to work that day, nobody at his fast food restaurant thought that they would be faced with the callous audacity of corporate greed and inhumanity. u/Bad_Wolf87 opened up about a traumatic experience at his work that left Reddit shaking with fury. Their crew of employees was all very close, and they had just learned of the unexpected d3ath of one of their coworkers, a 19-year-old line cook who was well-loved and even lived with several of the other folks on the team. 

Bad_Wolf87 was the manager of this crew and learned of the tragic news as several employees were calling out of their shift that day, unable to face their grief in the direct line of sight of every hungry customer that walked into their joint. The manager was incredibly understanding and only opened the store for drive-thru. Then he received an angry call from corporate saying that they didn't care about their half-staffed, grieving crew and that they 'still had a business to run'.

Then they did the unthinkable. In order to boost morale and convince workers to come in for their shift, corporate offered the team a DANG PIZZA PARTY after they clocked out. As if that could fill the void of losing a friend and coworker…

 

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    Cheezburger Image 9760262144
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    Font - r/antiwork Posted by u/Bad_Wolf87 1 day ago 2 A coworker dod yesterday.
    via Bad_Wold87
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    Rectangle - Having a coworker suddenly really brought to attention how little corporate America actually cares about its employees. This kid was only 19 and his death was very sudden. Being as we were all incredibly fond of him, and several of the crew lived with him, we were of course pretty distraught over the whole situation.
    via Bad_Wold87
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    Font - So we end up with a crew of four on what should have been a crew of eight. I called and let my district manager know we were closing the lobby and just running the drive through cause there was no way we would be able to do both with what we had. He was sympathetic and said yes of course.
    via Bad_Wold87
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    Font - Then an hour later I got a call from him. He's spoken with his boss and they have determined, "we still have a business to run," and demanded that we open the lobby and serve guests through there as well. I refused. My crew was already incredibly stressed out and I wasn't going to add to it by having a bunch of people in the lobby being pissed off that their fast food isn't fast enough.
    via Bad_Wold87
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    Font - He did offer to buy pizza for the crew and to try to entice people to come in and help us out.. but who the f wants to have a pizza party when they are upset about the loss of a friend? And why is that always the go to?
    via Bad_Wold87
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    Font - I hate working for these people. I hate knowing that if any of us drop dead our corporate doesn't give two f s about us. I just needed to get this off my chest.
    via Bad_Wolf87
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    Rectangle - Doctrevil 1 day ago Ah yes the universal sign of corporate "empathy", a ing pizza party. Super disgusting by them, good on you though for standing your ground f
    via Doctrevil
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    Human body - classyraven 18 hr. ago The pizza party is the corporate version of thoughts and prayers.
    via classyraven
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    Font - Full_Prune7491 · 21 hr. ago I worked for Bank of America and after a violent robbery. They bought us teriyaki and told us to get back to work. Some of the tellers were still crying.
    via Full_Prune7491
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    Rectangle - Doctrevil 21 hr. ago "I'm very glad to hear that the chicken was so good it brought your tellers to tears!" - some sociopath in management
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    Font - ivanadie 16 hr. ago I worked with a man who was disciplined for not clocking out or notifying management when he received a call at work that his teenage son had been kil. 123 Reply Share DeschutesBlackButte 15 hr. ago OMG!!! What is wrong with these employers?! This is shocking!
    via ivanadie
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    Font - Default1355 13 hr. ago It's not shocking. This is the dystopia capitalism leads to. The wealthy using the poor as slaves. It's always been this way since the dawn of time Those at the top are selfish and heartless, they don't see us as human beings but slaves like cattle
    via Default1355
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    Smile - Artistic-Baseball-81 19 hr. ago If they had just sprung for pizza everyone would've been immediately un- traumatized.
    via Artistic-Baseball-81
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    Font - Trauma_Hawks. 19 hr. ago I worked for an office that was trying to build morale and engagement with the staff. For whatever reason, the boss asked my opinion. They floated the same old ideas. I told them straight up, "If you want more engagement and all the other unicorns, it's money." That's the only answer.
    via Trauma_Hawks
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    Rectangle - umme99 20 hr. ago It's so insulting. Shows you what they think of workers. "They just want free food like animals" instead of grieving time.
    via umme99
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    Font - EsQuite Mexican 16 hr. ago Everyone likes pizza and donuts, so it's the easiest, fastest, cheapest way to give the appearance of appreciation that most employees will accept with little objections. Even if you're mad that all they gave you was pizza, hey, at least you got pizza, so you can't get as mad as if they gave you, say, a salad as your treat. Plus it's salty and fatty so it will chemically reduce the anger in your brain. It's as mathematically close as they can legally get to give
    via EsQuiteMexican

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staff corporate employee drama manager audacity Death work coworkers friends trauma funeral mourning grief story roommates company coworker pizza party grieving
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