The manager of this bagel shop was fired. So, the rest of the staff walked out in solidarity.

All the employees at a Noah's New York Bagels in Vacaville, California, quit after its manager Bre Kowalski was unfairly fired. In a now-viral TikTok video posted by former staff member Beonce Sarmiento, all 15 workers can be seen walking up to the storefront. The clip reads, "When the whole team pulls up on the same day to quit." The 10-second clip has garnered over 6.5 million views. The story made it onto the local news, where Sarmiento discussed some of the issues that management had ignored, leading to the show of solidarity. She has also since uploaded follow-up TikTok videos, where she highlights how management had essentially bullied Kowalski after she refused to move to a different store. Sarmiento claimed management had been waiting to fire her, Business Insider reports.

As per Sarmiento, management ultimately told the group of workers that their manager had been let go as she had failed to open the store on multiple occasions. They also claimed she had not maintained proper channels of communication with higher-level managers. Furthermore, they fired Kowalski for not taking a deposit to the bank, on "the one day she was not there," the former staff member recalled. In an interview with KCRA, Kowalski revealed that she had been informed she was on suspension. However, she noticed she had been sent a final paycheck to her bank account soon after. Upon clarification a few hours later, she was told that she had been fired.

"The way he went about firing her was awful in our eyes," Sarmiento stated. "So we stuck beside her and quit the next day." In addition to this, she clarified that her fellow colleagues had quit as they believed they were being paid unfairly. They also said they were treated badly by rude customers. Some customers, they alleged, had informed staff they came into the store while they had the Coronavirus. In response to the mass exodus, a Noah's NY Bagels spokesperson shared, "We take the treatment of our team members very seriously and are looking into this matter. As an organization, we pride ourselves on providing a rewarding work experience for all our team members as we seek to provide the best possible experience for our guests."

The former bagel shop workers are but one example of a large resignation trend across the United States. Over the course of the pandemic, US job resignation rates have hit record highs as Americans leave exploitative jobs, particularly in the food and beverage industry in search of better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Incidents of workers leaving en masse have also become far more common. For instance, nine Burger King workers at a restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska, recently quit over problems such as understaffing, long hours, low pay, and broken air conditioning, as per this report. Similarly, five Chipotle workers were reported to quit their jobs at a restaurant in Austin, Texas, in November over matters of understaffing, burnout, and a surge of to-go orders.