AITA for firing a 14 year old for eating with him family?

A 24-year-old kitchen manager fired a 14-year-old employee for taking an extended break during a busy dinner rush without permission. The teen had gone to eat with his family, leading to a staff shortage and increased stress for the remaining employees.

Despite the owner’s support, other staff members think firing him was excessive, arguing he didn’t fully understand the implications of his actions. read the original story below…

‘ AITA for firing a 14 year old for eating with him family?’

I (24M) am the kitchen manager at the restaurant I work at. Tuesdays are my one day off a week, but since I live only a 10ish minute drive away I’m always on call. Last night was a busier night than normal, and around 6:45 I got called and asked to come in and help.

I get there and only see 3 of the 4 kitchen staff (Alex 17F, Bob 20M, Hal 28F, and Tom 14M) in the kitchen, with 25 orders and struggling to keep up. I start helping and ask where Tom is at. All 3 of them say they don’t know and he disappeared right before they called me.

They thought he had just went to the restroom so didn’t mention on the call to me he was gone. We had to catch up on orders so I didn’t have time to go look for him, after 40 minutes we’re caught up enough that I go to look. I go into the dining room and see him sitting at a table eating food.

I call him over and ask where he was for almost the last hour, and he said he was on break(employees get a 30 minute paid break per shift). I then asked why all 3 other staff didn’t know where he was, and he said that they’re lying and that he had asked Bob if he could have a order that was made wrong as his meal and then went on break(we let employees have mess ups for free so we lower our food loss).

I told him I don’t believe that all 3 other workers would lie about knowing he was on break, and regardless he took a break twice as long as allowed during our dinner rush so I told him to clock out and found replacements for his other shifts.

I went back to kitchen and asked Bon about the order made wrong and Bon said he did ask to have it, but assumed that he was going to box it up to take home aince he never said the work break. Today at work a few servers and bartenders asked about it since they heard he was let go,

I told them what happened and they think I shouldn’t have fired him because he was just eating with him family and is a kid who didn’t know any better. I asked them how they would feel if in the middle of dinner rush the 3rd server just left so it was only 2 servers for the entire dining room, but they said that would be different and I went too far.

He had been working for about a month, done training for 2 weeks, and clearly understood our protocols for taking a break yet still abandoned his shift for an hour causing the rest of the staff to struggle. The owners are on my side but just wanted to see other people’s thoughts.

Take a look at the comments from fellow users:

snarksallday −  YTA. He’s 14. You could have just written him up and docked his hours. He’d have learned. Plus, if things are so dire that you’re always on call and can’t get one day off, seems like staffing’s an issue. Now you’re down another person and have to train and get another person up to speed.

Urbanyeti0 −  YTA you didn’t give him a warning or an opportunity to fix his mistake, you just fired him on the spot? Couldn’t you have asked the servers on the night if they’d seen him? Presumably they knew he was in your restaurant eating?

Dixie-Says −  YTA. Why didn’t give him a warning instead of firing him? I would hate you as a boss.

TabbieAbbie −  YTA You fired a 14 year old for eating with his family. No warning, no discussion, just out the door. He probably didn’t think he was doing very much wrong, and he might even have been somewhat pressured by his family to sit down and eat with them.

Everyone deserves a warning. He definitely needed to know that wasn’t cool to leave the other workers short, but to be fired on the spot for it seems, I dunno… draconian. Is hiring a 14 year old food server even legal? In the US state where I live, I think the worker needs to be at least 16 for this type of work,

especially if your establishment serves any type of alcohol. In fact, with alcohol, the minimum age is 18. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong about this.
Yes, he did training and he had worked there for a month but 14 year olds aren’t known for their skills at making these kind of decisions.

Quiet_Classroom_2948 −  Why employ a 14 year old and then expect the maturity of a 24 year old?

xboxwirelessmic −  What the f**k are you doing with 14 year olds working for you?

ChrisHarpham −  YTA and buying into the disposable-worker, fire-anyone-for-anything attitude is AH behaviour. He’s 14, he shouldn’t even be having to work, let alone be put on the busiest shift. You’re expecting professional adult work from a child who is already showing good work ethic by having a job at all.

Confusion around break time aside, he really didn’t do much wrong. You’ve been a bad manager and need to take this as an opportunity to look at your professional behaviour. It is your fault you have a 14 year old on a dinner rush. It’s crazy that’s even legal.

carcrashcinema −  YTA. is it even legal to employ a 14 year old in a restaurant where you live? either way, you should’ve given him a warning or something, not straight up fired him. jesus. if you’re gonna employ kids, you’re gonna have to be able to deal with them messing up more/differently than adults.

[Reddit User] −  NTA It should be common sense to do your job when you’re working. Why would he think it’s ok to eat with family? I didn’t know you could work that young legally either.

People are excusing too much because of the age. If you would’ve fired an adult for doing that then of course he should be too otherwise that would not be fair to other employees.

JokerFactorr −  ESH. Kid should’ve known better, you should’ve reminded him that his job is more important than eating with his family, especially on busy nights.

He’s 14 and this was probably his first job, and you might’ve just tarnished his experience working in the food industry by firing him while he’s young. He is still impressionable and can learn from his mistakes.

What are your thoughts on this situation? Did the manager make the right call, or was he too harsh? Share your thoughts below!