Last week, a delivery driver for a restaurant in Napierville, Illinois made what he thought was a reasonable request–he needed time off to have cancer surgery. He says that his manager responded in about the worst way possible–by firing him.
Jonathan Larson worked as a delivery driver at Rosebud Italian Specialties and Pizzeria in Napierville. It’s part of Rosebud Restaurants, a popular family-owned chain of Italian restaurants in the Chicago area. He is also suffering from brain and spine cancer. When Natalie Martinez of WMAQ-TV in Chicago interviewed Larson, he was in obvious pain made even worse from several rounds of chemotherapy. At one point, the pain got so severe that Martinez had to help him go to a bench and sit down.
Larson recently found out that he needed surgery to remove some of the cancer from his back and would need to be off work for six weeks. However, he says that when asked the manager for six weeks off, the manager crassly asked him, “So you’re just gonna leave me high and dry like that, huh?” When Larson promised to come back, he claims the manager told him that by that time, he’d already have a replacement. To add insult to injury, the manager reportedly added, “Just leave. I have to make some phone calls.” Larson was gobsmacked. He couldn’t believe anyone would react this way, considering this “wasn’t something I could really help.” In a colossal understatement, he said that he felt “really disrespected and demeaned.” A spokeswoman for Rosebud said that while company policy forbade commenting on specific personnel matters, Rosebud was “thoroughly investigating the matter” to determine if its procedures were followed.
Larson says that the least Rosebud can do is apologize. It looks like he may get that, and probably more. After getting slammed up and down in the hours after the story ran on Saturday night, Rosebud announced on its Facebook page that after “acting swiftly” to get a better read on the situation, it has reached out to Larson and hopes to “discuss his employment following his medical treatment” very soon. One can hope that when all is said and done, the manager who was so callous to Larson gets his walking papers.
That manager might not be the only one who needs to be out of a job for this. On Saturday night, a man named Ron Gibori posted an account of how Rosebud fell all over itself to comfort his mother after she was diagnosed with cancer. However, a quick Google check revealed that Gibori worked for Rosebud’s public relations firm. Rosebud admitted that Gibori failed to disclose his relationship with Rosebud, and deleted his Facebook post.
So far, this affair has been a classic case of how not to treat an ailing employee. Hopefully, Rosebud will get this right.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.
