Restaurant manager stands up to upper management after they demand employees walk to work during a blizzard: ‘People staying home for their own safety is not costing us anything’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Feb 4, 2026 9:00 AM EST

With all due respect, boss, work is not everything, and no one should risk their life for it.

While it's true that the majority of us spend most of our day working or doing work-related tasks, we don't consider our jobs the only important thing in our lives. Love or hate our jobs, we should all have more going on in our short lives. This is why there should be limits to how far we are willing to go for a job. No one should give them all for it, especially in unsafe situations like the one described in the story below.

Many blizzards and snowstorms are making their way around the country at the moment, which means that most people can't really go outside. Snow is piling up, the roads are slippery, and it's generally freezing, so it is best advised to just stay at home and wait for the storms to pass before we get on with our lives, right?

Well, not according to the upper management of this restaurant. They don't care that there were 8 inches of snow this week, or that the ice on the roads has yet to melt; they fully believe that work is more important. When they heard that their employees had no way of getting to work in these conditions, they demanded people power through it and came to do their jobs.

When one employee, who lives three miles away from the restaurant, informed her boss that her car got stuck and that she couldn't come in, the boss went as far as demanding she walk to work instead. Yup, you read that right–he wanted her to walk three miles during a blizzard to serve at a restaurant. He didn't even care that the restaurant was basically empty due to the weather; he just wanted every single employee to be there like he was.

This demand led another manager to stand up to him, in an attempt to make him see just how unsensible and irresponsible his claims were. Did it help? Keep scrolling to read the full story to find out. After that, check out this story of a neighbor who refused to help an elderly woman after she slipped outside her house.

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  • Winter Blizzard Warning Sign
    via Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "There's nothing wrong with walking," says boss who has never had to walk to work in his life, much less during a blizzard.

    I'm in part of the US that's been getting hit by winter storms for about a week straight.
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  • We had one earlier in the week that left 8 inches of snow and additional ice which has yet to melt at all and barely any of it has been removed from our local roads and parking lots.
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  • Yesterday we had another blizzard which left us with even more snow. The roads are in terrible condition, many people have been unable to get out of their houses and every day commuting is very hazardous especially for people who live on back roads and away from town.
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  • Obviously in light of that, some people have not been able to make it to work at the restaurant I manage.
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  • I've personally missed two days myself and have only been able to come in otherwise because a coworker with a massive truck has been kind enough to transport me.
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  • I understand that people can't come in at all and others are needing to come in late or leave early so they can avoid driving on the road when it's coldest out.
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  • I think it's fine and frankly we're not getting much business anyway -- yesterday we only made $2000, a typical day usually nets us between $8000 to $10000.
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  • That's been all week. My upper management however finds any absences or lateness completely unacceptable during all this.
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  • Yesterday DURING the blizzard our GM told one person that "there's nothing wrong with walking" when she informed him her car was stuck and she couldn't come in.
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  • She lives three miles away. I asked if he had ever had to walk to work in weather like this and he saud he's never had to walk to work at all.
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  • People Walking in Snowy Urban Street Scene
    via mehmetography

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Our supervisor has said if she can come in, no one else has an excuse she lives -- along a major highway, one of the few roads to have been salted and scraped, and has a weather appropriate vehicle.
    via cheeseballgag
  • Again, we are making virtually no money this week. Yesterday those of us who made it in were basically standing around doing nothing all day.
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  • People staying home for their own safety is not costing us anything but even if it was, I would still understand!
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  • The lack of empathy is not surprising but fuck them.
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  • BesusCristo I would quit any restaurant job that said this to me. No notice. Pretty much anyone can find. another restaurant job within a few days.
    via BesusCristo
  • kschmit516 If everyone did come in - they would bitch about labor, and tell you to cut people. And ask why you didn't call ppl off before the shift if business has been down all week.
    via kschmit516
  • Sandman64can The US doesn't have walkable streets. Instead of sidewalks they name the roads after pedestrians killed walking them.
    via Sandman64can
  • Diorj Why doesn't the boss offer to pick up the employee then... Its only 3 miles away...
    via Diorj
  • erwaro An awful lot of "leadership" these days consists of "I don't want to think about this, and therefore it isn't a problem."
    via erwaro
  • jodrellbank_pants You can't walk in minus figures, you would perish, it's not a race the the north pole
    via jodrellbank_pants

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boss workplace-stories storm employee blizzard manager job snow tales-from-the-workplace restaurant workplace company
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