Damage Control: Tim Horton’s Reverses Firing for Doughnut Hole Freebie
May 14, 2008 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
What a schmozzle.
The recent uproar after the firing of an employee over her decision to give a free bite-sized snack to the young child of a customer lead the Tim Horton’s chain to unfire her.
The optics of firing a single mother for an act of kindness put the fast food chain in a bind.
Is this likely to set off a chain reaction of protests when some high school student has their hours cut to almost none for not agreeing to take on more shifts while studying for their mid-terms? Will others in McJobs lead a lobbying campaign to raise awareness of the many indignities service industry employees endure?
Don’t count on it. The public backlash was specifically about the disproportionate response for a breach of company policy.
The Tim Horton’s chain’s head office rightly intervened to correct the overreaction by local management. If handing out a Timbit is against company policy, that’s what supervisor intervention is for. And written warnings that clearly spell out what behavior is expected in the future.
Of course, Tim’s iconic status in Canada helped bring this case to the attention of national and international media, and the ability of people to comment and talk about the story was a big factor too. A CBC producer I spoke to told me their ‘talkback’ voice-mail crashed from overload for the first time in about 8 years.
I’m sorry to hear such a negative story about a brand I love. Hmmmmmm…Think I’ll make a pot of Timmies right now, come to think of it.