Papa John’s restaurant manager says he was fired after 13 years with the company for closing 3 hours early amid ongoing hiring and retention challenges

• A former manager of a Papa John’s in Colorado says he was fired after 13 years with the Pizza chain.
• He was fired a day after closing the restaurant three hours earlier due to a scheduling conflict.

The former general manager of a Papa John’s in Colorado was fired this week after scheduling conflicts caused him to close the restaurant three hours earlier on Tuesday night.

Chris Jackson told Insider he had been at Papa John’s for more than 13 years and had worked long consecutive periods from opening to closing for the pizza chain due to difficulties hiring and retaining staff during the pandemic.

In a Reddit post to the growing r/antiwork community, Jackson explained that on Monday, the Tuesday night shift manager told him they had a medical appointment and couldn’t cover the shift. work. Jackson said he too had a family medical obligation at the time and asked his area manager to cover it.

On Tuesday afternoon, Jackson was informed that no one would be coming to cover the shift, so he closed the restaurant at 5 p.m. The next morning he was fired.

“I hadn’t had any issues. That’s why I was confused,” he told Insider. “It’s the only incident that ever happened.”

Jackson’s Reddit post had racked up more than 6,600 upvotes and 650 comments on Friday, but was removed by moderators for violating the platform’s ban on sharing confidential or personal information.

Insider spoke to Jackson, who provided screenshots of text messages and emails consistent with his story, including a company form showing he was fired.

“Chris closed the restaurant without approval,” the form reads. “Closing a restaurant without permission is grounds for immediate dismissal.”

Colorado is an at-will state, where employees can be terminated at any time, for any reason or for no reason.

A spokesperson for Papa John’s told Insider that franchisees generally manage their own hiring and cooking proceedings without business involvement and that he did not want to speculate without more detailed knowledge of the situation.

the franchise the owner did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.

As a salaried director, Jackson said he was responsible for covering far more than full-time hours without additional pay.

“If I worked 50 hours or 60 hours, it didn’t matter in the salary.” he said.

Jackson said he was able to agree to a 55-hour weekly cap on his own schedule, but was not allowed to offer a wage or salary high enough to attract and retain workers and managers of his restaurant.

“They’ll just say, ‘This is the first line where we can pay,'” he said. “And, you know, it’s expensive. It’s like, it’s really expensive here.”