Tony Rohr got it right! He’s the Pizza Hut manager in Elkhart, Indiana, that got fired for refusing to keep Pizza Hut open on Thanksgiving Day. He didn’t want to force his employees to work on this National Holiday that is especially set aside for family time and counting one’s blessings.
Tony Rohr hit it on the nail when he wrote the following, among other things, in his ‘resignation letter’: "I hope you realize that it is the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible." Exactly!!
When high and mighty corporate executives make consequential decisions based on dollar calculations only, they often fail to take into account the very real personal impact that these decisions may have on countless employees and their families. Or, if they do realize that their decisions will significantly and perhaps negatively impact the lives of their employees, one could almost see these same executives responding with a condescending and dismissive wave of the hand, in effect saying something like: “Well, if they want to work here, they have to play by our rules and if they don’t like it, there’s the door.”
Tony Rohr did not like it, and he chose not to play by their rules. And he was fired for it. Did he do the right thing? You bet he did. He stood up for the little guy. He sacrificed his own security to stand his ground and make his point: That greedy corporations need to draw back and back down from grasping for more and more money at the expense of employee’s family and home life.
Of course companies need to make money and prosper. Nevertheless, they need not do so by dehumanizing their workforce—manipulating and controlling their employees as if they are objects to be exploited—simply to enhance the corporation’s bottom line.
There are of course certain professions requiring skilled workers to be on call, if not at work and on site, even during the highest of High Holidays, but that is not the issue here. Closing a Pizza Hut on Thanksgiving Day neither threatens a person’s health nor places a community’s sense of safety and/or wellbeing at risk. It’s pure dollar and profit motive to keep it open, nothing less. Thus, at some point, corporations need to stop thinking only of dollars and begin to think of its people—people count, families count, and living for reasons other than making money counts! And that is a good enough rationale to close down the store for a day or two during a calendar year.
Tony Rohr, I salute you for having the courage, conviction, and caring heart to stand your ground on principle in behalf of your Pizza Hut employees. America should not be driven only by money. America needs to be driven by deeper principles and greater truths than the mere dollar—things like, honest, caring, and respectful relationships, integrity, goodness and kindness, family life, and a wholesome respect for the dignity of all, of whatever social strata or class they identify with.
Corporations, if you only learn this most basic lesson, besides making a good product, there is no doubt in my mind that you will prosper and profit—without needing to exploit, manipulate, or abuse your workforce, especially over the Holidays.
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