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Upmarket restaurant owner hits back after autistic waiter snubbed

AGXStarseed

AGXStarseed

Well-Known Member
(Not written by me. Edited to remove the word "sufferer")

Mike Jennings has said customers who are prejudiced against the staff of Grenache are not welcome

Grenache-in-Walkde_3589099b.jpg

Grenache in Walkden Photo: Facebook



The owner of an upmarket restaurant in Manchester has said customers who discriminate against their staff are not welcome.

Mike Jennings, who runs Grenache in Walkden, posted a strongly worded statement on Facebook after customers refused to be served by one of the members of staff who suffers from autism.

Andy Foster, 45, joined the restaurant three weeks ago and also looks after his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's.

“The customers seemed to have a problem with him, even though his service was good," Mr Jennings told the Manchester Evening News.


Thoughts on an incident which occurred last night....Totally unacceptable. Strongly worded but we need to get our point across.#equalopportunities
Posted by Grenache Restaurant on Thursday, 3 March 2016​

“I explained that he has autism and their response was that they didn’t want to be served by him.

"They asked me why I would give him a job in a restaurant like ours. I couldn’t believe it.”

Mr Jennings and his partner Karen backed Mr Foster at the time, saying it had hit his confidence.


No staff member should be reduced to tears...
Humanity doesn't work like that! #equalopportunities
— Grenache Restaurant (@grenacherest) March 3, 2016​

“All we care about is someone having enthusiasm and passion. The rest we can teach,” he told the newspaper.

Mr Foster said this was not the first time he had experienced discrimination because of his condition.

“I always feel that it’s automatically my fault and I go into defence mode. I always think I have to apologize," said the employee, who was diagnosed with autism seven years ago.


Overwhelmed by your response Twitter friends...
Strength in numbers!
— Grenache Restaurant (@grenacherest) March 3, 2016​

“When I apologized to the customer she made such a fuss.

“The other table I was serving left a big tip so I knew it wasn’t me.

“I try not to take it personally because it has happened so many times in the past I have just got used to it.”

The restaurant has seen a surge of support on social media. The Facebook post was shared more than 400 times and drew hundreds of comments.



This is how all employers should treat employees and see them as humans! https://t.co/9UCTN9BKo2
— Kate Kinder (@katekinder84) March 3, 2016​

Jennifer Blackburn commented: "Your post was a much needed refreshing change. Too often we let the bullies win and too often employers choose making money over staff welfare. I'm sure the employee in question is damn proud and thankful of you today. If only your business model was the norm. Well done."

On Twitter, Kate Kinder said: "This is how all employers should treat employees and see them as humans!"


SOURCE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/soc...-hits-back-after-autistic-waiter-snubbed.html
 
I don't understand why, first of all, a person who has autism would even want to work as a waiter, due to the noise, having to mix with people all day, the unpredictability of the job et cetera. It just doesn't seem like an appropriate match between employee and position held. Secondly, his employer simply must have known that something like this would happen eventually. According to the majority, people with autism/A.S. come across as being "rude", due to our abruptness, desire to get to the point, lack of concern for trivialities and gossip, and so on, so why was he at all surprised? We are only given one side to this story here, but why was it such an issue for the customers that the waiter had autism? What did the waiter do to offend the female customer he apologised to? The article doesn't even say.

"“All we care about is someone having enthusiasm and passion. The rest we can teach,” he told the newspaper." No, there are some things that can't be taught, like interpreting the signals of body language correctly. That has to be worked out, by the person concerned, via trial and error. The owner of this restaurant comes across as being ridiculously naive.
 
Bellatrix said:
I don't understand why, first of all, a person who has autism would even want to work as a waiter, due to the noise, having to mix with people all day, the unpredictability of the job et cetera. It just doesn't seem like an appropriate match between employee and position held. Secondly, his employer simply must have known that something like this would happen eventually. According to the majority, people with autism/A.S. come across as being "rude", due to our abruptness, desire to get to the point, lack of concern for trivialities and gossip, and so on, so why was he at all surprised? We are only given one side to this story here, but why was it such an issue for the customers that the waiter had autism? What did the waiter do to offend the female customer he apologised to? The article doesn't even say.

"“All we care about is someone having enthusiasm and passion. The rest we can teach,” he told the newspaper." No, there are some things that can't be taught, like interpreting the signals of body language correctly. That has to be worked out, by the person concerned, via trial and error. The owner of this restaurant comes across as being ridiculously naive.
Click to expand...
It is an 'upmarket restaurant' so if it is like other similar establishments here in the UK it would only be open in the evening for a few hours, things would be very orderly and follow a certain routine with little unpredictability, and would be fairly quiet if not 'library' quiet. I have seen the video interview with the owner and Andy the autistic waiter in question and Andy appears to be very high functioning, of course it is impossible to tell by a video alone but it would seem that the customers' issue with Andy was the very fact he was autistic and not any incapability to do his job. I am originally from not far from where this restaurant is located, Greater Manchester is a collection of small close-knit communities* where word gets around and there is sadly a great deal of old fashioned prejudice and ignorance about any type of condition that makes a person 'different', and on the grounds of race and religion as well in some cases.

*so close-knit that in any one borough of Greater Manchester, there will be several towns and each one will have a completely different accent to the next town or area.
 
What Andrew206 said. Andy Foster seem to be very well spoken and professional. Why shouldn't he be given the same respect as anyone else?
 
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