Burger King workers wrote ‘we all quit’ on sign and walked out of Nebraska restaurant

Employees and a general manager at a Nebraska Burger King quit citing poor work conditions. Not only did they quit, they let the customers know they were quitting by using the restaurant's sign. “We all quit,” read the sign at the Lincoln Burger King. “Sorry for the inconvenience.” The general manager along with eight other employees at the store put in their two weeks of notice before posting the message on the restaurant's signboard, reported Kiro7. Rachael Flores, who has been the general manager since January, said the restaurant was short-staffed and there was no help coming from the district managers. The working conditions at the restaurant had become too much for the employees.

“They have gone through so many district managers since I’ve been GM,” said Rachael Flores. “No one has come to the store to help me out. They’re so in and out.” Flores said she ended up working 50 to 60 hours a week due to the lack of staff. Flores added that at one point they did not have working air conditioning in the kitchen, where temperatures touched a scorching 90 degrees. Flores ended up having to go to the hospital after becoming dehydrated.

The employees joked Friday about putting up the message and then went ahead and did it on Saturday, but they didn't think it would go viral. “They wanted to put up a sign to say, you know sorry there’s really not going to be anyone here,” said Flores. “Just kind of a laugh to upper management." Flores said they didn't think anybody would really notice it but someone posted it on Facebook where it was shared widely. "I got a call from my upper management and they told me I needed to take it down,” said Flores. She was fired later that day. The location remains open as of now.

The working conditions and poor wages have always been an issue in the service industry, but the pandemic made it worse and employees have started calling out their employers. Many establishments in the service industry had to raise their wages to even get people to turn up for job opportunities. After businesses opened throughout America earlier this year in May, they have raised wages to recruit employees to cater to the demand. It appears workers weighed in the option of being underpaid and risking catching the virus against sitting in the safety of their home and receiving benefit expansions.

McDonald’s, Sheetz, and Chipotle have followed in the footsteps of Amazon, Walmart, and Costco in raising their wages to $15 an hour or even higher. This has sparked a debate online with many stating that it highlighted that businesses could always afford to raise the wages and offer benefits to workers, but chose not to. Some argued that only big businesses like Amazon and McDonald's could afford to increase wages, adding that it would kill small businesses.

McDonald's announced in May that it would increase hourly wages “by an average of 10%” for more than 36,500 employees at its 660 company-operated restaurants in America. People working at entry-level jobs will earn in the range of $11-$17 an hour, while shift managers will see their wages increase to $15 to $20. "Our first value is taking care of our people, and today we are rewarding our hardworking employees in McDonald-owned restaurants for serving our communities," said Joe Erlinger, President McDonald’s USA, in a statement.