Fed-up Burger King staff walked off the job in Lincoln, Neb., last week, after giving their boss — and everyone else — an approximately 50-foot-high resignation letter.
“We all quit,” the sign outside the Nebraska restaurant read Monday. “Sorry for the inconvenience.”
It was a crowning moment for the now-former Burger King employees, who pulled the stunt on their last day of work. They recently gave notice that they were quitting due to poor conditions at the restaurant, including a broken air conditioner and understaffing issues.
Store general manager Rachael Flores told KLKN that she quit over sweltering conditions in the kitchen, where temperatures reached the mid-30s C range. She says she was recently hospitalized for dehydration after working a shift in that heat, and that her boss called her a “baby” after the ordeal.
“We quit (be)cause upper management was a joke and had no care for me or my employees,” Flores wrote on Facebook. “I put in my 2 weeks and so did MANY other people.”
Flores and eight others showed up early for their last day of work and changed the restaurant sign around 6 a.m., in what Flores says was an attempt to get a “big laugh” at her employer’s expense.
Her boss called her a few hours later and demanded that she take the sign down.
“I told him I couldn’t do that because we were short-staffed and lunch was starting,” Flores said.
Her boss ultimately showed up in person to fire her and take her keys. He then had the sign changed to read: “Now hiring. Flexible schedules.”
Multiple employees say the store had been dealing with poor maintenance and low staff for several weeks, and that things boiled over with Flores’ hospital visit.
“I just stayed to help Rachael out,” said Kylee Johnson, one of the employees involved in the mass resignation. “I knew what was going on, staffing-wise.
“We were just waiting for more people to come and then we got nobody.”
Burger King’s head office acknowledged the incident in a statement to CNN.
“The work experience described at this location is not in line with our brand values,” the restaurant chain said. “Our franchisee is looking into this situation to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future.”
The restaurant remains open.