Damage Control: Tim Horton’s Reverses Firing for Doughnut Hole Freebie
What a schmozzle.
The recent uproar after the firing of an employee over her decision to give a free bite-sized snack to the young child of a customer lead the Tim Horton’s chain to unfire her.
The optics of firing a single mother for an act of kindness put the fast food chain in a bind.
Is this likely to set off a chain reaction of protests when some high school student has their hours cut to almost none for not agreeing to take on more shifts while studying for their mid-terms? Will others in McJobs lead a lobbying campaign to raise awareness of the many indignities service industry employees endure?
Don’t count on it. The public backlash was specifically about the disproportionate response for a breach of company policy.
The Tim Horton’s chain’s head office rightly intervened to correct the overreaction by local management. If handing out a Timbit is against company policy, that’s what supervisor intervention is for. And written warnings that clearly spell out what behavior is expected in the future.
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POSTED IN: Apologies, Careers, Crisis Communications, Customers, Employee Communications, Ethics, Executive Mindset, Issues Management, Office Politics, PR, Reputation Management, Work
2 opinions for Damage Control: Tim Horton’s Reverses Firing for Doughnut Hole Freebie
Bob LeDrew
May 15, 2008 at 7:17 am
Of course, Tim’s iconic status in Canada helped bring this case to the attention of national and international media, and the ability of people to comment and talk about the story was a big factor too. A CBC producer I spoke to told me their ‘talkback’ voice-mail crashed from overload for the first time in about 8 years.
Sherrilynne Starkie
May 17, 2008 at 6:14 am
I’m sorry to hear such a negative story about a brand I love. Hmmmmmm…Think I’ll make a pot of Timmies right now, come to think of it.
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