Thousands of Applebee‘s employees resigned in Lawrence, Kansas after a franchise executive suggested cutting new employee wages due to rising gas prices in an email.
According to Vice, manager Jake Holcomb printed out two dozen copies of Exec Wayne Pankratz‘s already leaked emails and scattered them all over the Applebee’s restaurant for employees to see.
According to Restaurant Business Online, Holcomb quit immediately, four out of the six managers, and at least ten other employees followed suit. Pankratz has since been let go, per the report.
“I gave everyone in the restaurant their food for free. We didn’t even close the store,” Holcomb said.
One of the servers at the location, Adrian Kelley, 22, told Vice that the incident was “a straw that broke the camel’s back situation” after employees already felt “unappreciated” and “understaffed.” Kelley explained that the email “was so atrocious that it kind of just tipped everyone over the edge.”
“Oh my gosh, I was so mad,” former manager Jenna Willis said. “I let the staff that showed up to open that morning read it, and they were livid. So I told them if we wanted to make money, we would open, but I didn’t really feel like we should at that point.”
The email read that “as inflation continues to climb and gas prices continue to go up, that means more hours employees will need to work to maintain their current level of living.”
According to Kelley, the location was already having issues before the email was sent out. Kelley explained that they work in a “college town,” so it can get “busy out of nowhere.”
Willis added that servers were making close to $60 a night. She said the store couldn’t get “anybody actually to show up to the store after being hired.”
“I really hope that more and more people see what’s happening and see the support that the community has given everybody that chose to leave,” Holcomb said. “I hope that people realize they don’t have to be walked all over by the company that they work for.”
The company’s COO Kevin Carroll explained that the contents of the email was an “opinion of an individual, not Applebee’s.”
“The individual has been terminated by the franchisee who owns and operates the restaurants in this market. Our team members are the lifeblood of our restaurants, and our franchisees are always looking to reward and incentivize team members, new and current, to remain within the Applebee’s family,” he added.
