Restaurant Manager Questions Employee’s Logic for Not Showing Up to Monday Shift

Human beings are routine-based creatures that constantly seek patterns and some kind of structure to their lives. This is a fact of life that's even ingrained in the types of songs that end up becoming popular. It's why there are a million seasons of The Curse of Oak Island or a show like Law and Order gets a gazillion spin-offs.

And sometimes, being creatures of habit, whenever an errant anomaly is introduced to that routine/pattern that threatens to throw it off, we can feel a little anxious, or, our minds can choose to ignore it entirely.

This seems to be what happened to an employee that this TikToker, @gangsta_gramps managers at his place of work.

In the video, the TikToker expresses his shock and confusion at a worker's decision to not come in for a Monday shift.

Gleaning from the information provided in the video, it seems that the employee, despite the fact that they were scheduled to come into work on a Monday, ultimately chose not to come in.

The reason being? He usually doesn't work on Mondays, so he thought his name being placed on the schedule for that shift was just a mistake. The TikToker couldn't understand why this person wouldn't just ask him whether or not he was supposed to come in.

@gangsta_gramps says in the video: "So this is an actual conversation I had with an employee," the TikToker says before going into a re-enactment of what transpired between him and his worker.

Gramps: Hey Steve what happened yesterday you didn't show up for your shift?

Employee: I usually don't work on Mondays.

Gramps: I understand, but your availability says that you can work Mondays.

Employee: Oh yeah I can work Mondays no problem. I just didn't know I was working Monday because I usually don't work them

Gramps: Well, you know, when I checked the hot schedules I saw that your last login was 3 days ago so you saw that you were working Monday, correct?

Employee: Yeah I saw I was working Monday but I usually don't work then.

Gramps: Were you not able to work this Monday?

Employee: Oh no I could work but I usually don't work it.

Gramps: You're gonna have to help me out. You can work it. You were scheduled to work it. You saw that you were scheduled to work it. But you just didn't come in because you usually don't work it?

Employee: I just thought it was a mistake.

Gramps: So if you saw it when your schedule came out 10 days ago and then again three days ago, why wouldn't you inquire about it instead of just not showing up?

At this point in the video, he looks the camera with a concerned expression on his face, asking: "did I miss something?"

Different TikTokers had different responses to his video. There were some who thought that the onus of the scheduling woes lay on @gangsta_gramps, in that he shouldn't be changing the schedule around: "A good reason not to keep changing schedules on people without communicating."

This is a sentiment at least one another person echoed: "Give people set schedules. Why all this rotating schedule stuff? It’s dumb"

However, someone else thought that the employee didn't want to call or ask his manager if he was really supposed to come into work on Monday is because he didn't want to work that day: "The reason the employee didn’t call was that he was afraid the schedule was correct."

However, there were others who thought that the worker was in the wrong, citing that they, themselves, understand that they're responsible for knowing when they're supposed to show up for work: "I went into work yesterday even though I haven’t worked a Wednesday since I’ve started there. It’s my responsibility to know & understand my schedule"

But there still were those who thought that manager should've reached out to his employee, especially since they normally don't work on Mondays: "How about you say something to the employee when you haven’t scheduled them for the past 10 Mondays?"

While another expressed that they probably would've thought it was an error as well: "I would’ve thought it was a mistake too honestly"

To which @gangsta_gramps replied: "I get that, me too. However, saw it twice and ignored. I found it to be intriguing to say the least"

What do you think? Should the employee have said something? Or was the manager in the wrong for not following up with them because they usually don't work that day of the week?