Utah Mother Calls Out Olive Garden After Her Autistic Son Was Offered a Job but the Restaurant Claims “He Was Never Hired”
A mother from Utrah has taken to TikTok to call out her local Olive Garden after she claims that restaurant offered her autistic 21-year-old son a job only to deny doing so a few days later. The angry mother even shared evidence proving that her son had indeed been given the job, but the restaurant still insisted “he was never hired.”
Olive Garden hasn’t had a very good year with regards to PR for the chain. Earlier this year a controversy unfolded on TikTok with the restaurant at the center after an employee was allegedly fired after receiving a huge tip.
Now the people of TikTok are once again storming the digital gates of the Olive Garden TikTok account to demand accountability for another mistake the company has been accused of.
The Olive Garden drama explained
According to a video posted by Pancakes & Pandemonium, a TikTok account run by a mom to five neurodivergent children, her son, Alex, who has autism, was offered a job at Olive Garden after attending an interview. Alex was sent an email confirming he had the role working as a dishwasher in the kitchen. He was even given onboarding paperwork to complete.
The email confirming as such was shared to TikTok by the mother, who explained in the caption that just days after being given the job, Olive Garden took it away, denying that her son had ever been hired by them in the first place.
When the mother contacted the restaurant to clear things up she was told over the phone “I don’t know who sent him a welcome letter, but he wasn’t hired at my restaurant. That position was filled.” She states that Alex had been “incredibly proud of himself” for doing so well in the interview, especially when his job coach couldn’t make it, meaning he had to go by himself.
The restaurant response
Following the claims made by Alex’s mother, people made their way to the social media accounts belonging to Olive Garden to make their opinions on the young man’s treatment known. “Justice for 21yr old Alex,” reads a comment underneath the chain’s most recent TikTok post, other comments refer to the server who was let go after receiving a huge tip. Olive Garden has responded to a few comments with the same statement each time.
“Our team members are the heart of our restaurants, and it’s a big honor when someone wants to work with us. A mix-up in our hiring process led Alex to receive the response he did. We’ve apologized and are excited to welcome him to our team.”
Alex’s mother confirmed in another video that she had spoken with someone from Olive Garden who took responsibility for the mix-up and that they had since created a position for Alex at the restaurant. However, many viewers still think it shouldn’t take a whole social media campaign for a company to do the right thing.
(Featured image: Pancakes & Pandemonium, TikTok)
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