The former general manager of a Papa John's franchise in Colorado was fired this week after scheduling conflicts forced him to close the restaurant three hours early.
Chris Jackson told Insider that he has been with Papa John's for more than 13 years and had been working long stretches of back-to-back open-to-close shifts for the pizza chain due to difficulty with hiring and retaining staff during the Pandemic.
Jackson explained in a post that the Tuesday evening shift leader told him they couldn't cover the shift because they had a medical appointment. Jackson had a family medical obligation and asked his area manager for coverage.
Jackson closed the restaurant at 5pm on Tuesday because no one was coming to cover the shift. He was fired the next day.
He told Insider that he was confused because he hadn't had any issues. This is the only incident that has ever happened.
Jackson's post racked up over 6,600 upvotes and 650 comments on Friday, but was removed by the platform's moderators for violating the ban on sharing confidential or personal information.
Jackson provided Insider with a number of text messages and emails that were consistent with his story, including a company form that said he was fired.
The form says that Chris closed the restaurant. Immediate dismissal of employment is caused by the closing of a restaurant.
Colorado employees can be fired at any time for any reason.
A Papa John's spokesman told Insider that they don't want to speculate without a more detailed knowledge of the situation, and that the franchisees typically handle their own hiring and firing procedures.
The owner of the franchise didn't respond to the request for comment.
Jackson says he was responsible for covering more than full-time hours for no additional pay.
He said that if he worked 50 hours or 60 hours, it didn't matter in the pay.
Jackson said he was able to agree to a weekly cap of 55 hours on his own schedule, but he was not authorized to offer a wage or salary high enough to attract and retain workers and managers for his restaurant.
He said that they would be like, "This is the top line where we can pay." It's expensive. It's really expensive here.
