Texas Roadhouse may have wrongfully terminated an employee who was allegedly harassed and berated by a male co-worker.
In a series of viral videos, Texas Roadhouse server Addison (@addibaddie89) made jokes at her own expense after getting fired. One of the clips has a whopping 1.9 million views, in which she shows how she made her absence known.
In one video, she lip-synced and danced while imagining her table’s confusion at never getting their orders since she got fired before putting it in.
In another, she goes to Texas Roadhouse’s competitor to “make them lose business.”
As more and more people kept asking Addison for storytime on the situation, she finally shared the backstory.
Texas Roadhouse worker speaks out
Addison explains that on Valentine’s Day weekend, she was working the bar and making drinks for servers to take to their tables.
One server came up to her, upset, because he thought she hadn’t made his drink when in reality, another server took it. Addison says he immediately started yelling.
“He didn’t even give me a chance to process and realize what he was saying. He was just straight up yelling at me, asking me, ‘Where the F is my drink at,’” Addison says.
Addison says it “turned into a bigger bit of an altercation” when the man slammed his hand down on the well with the receipt and started cursing again.
The TikToker, not one to just take mistreatment, told the man not to talk to her in that tone.
“Shut the [expletive] up, [expletive],” the man told her as he slammed his hand down again.
“I’m baffled, I’m literally shocked,” Addison recalls.
Up until that point, Addison considered the guy a bit of a friend, so even though she was upset, she wasn’t going to “snitch on him.”
A Texas Roadhouse manager intervenes
Someone standing nearby told Addison that if she didn’t tell the manager about the guy’s inappropriate and outsized reaction, they would.
Addison spoke to a manager she trusted and explained the situation. The manager then spoke to each of them separately. When it was the guy’s turn, Addison could see he was very animated.
One of Addison’s friends overheard the guy, who allegedly claimed that Addison has been “on one all day.” He also said she’s always going to the bathroom to vape and ignoring her work responsibilities.
The next day, two managers confronted Addison, asking her if she vapes. They weren’t specific about whether she vapes in general or on the job.
When she said yes, they terminated her on the spot.
Addison says the same server who threw a temper tantrum has a past of cursing women out.
Was her firing illegal?
Addison is an at-will employee. This means she can get fired at any time for no reason unless it violates state or federal law.
In this case, Addison may have a few avenues into a case. It seems the strongest would be claiming retaliation since she was specifically fired after making a report about a hostile work environment.
“Did they ask you if you vape on the clock or just if you vape? Because unless they have PROOF of you going on the clock, this sounds like wrongful termination to me. You were literally getting cussed out, took it to a manager, and somehow you are the one getting fired?” a commenter added.
Another avenue that may be more difficult to prove is that she was discriminated against based on her gender. This would only work if management allowed other employees to vape on the clock without getting fired.
Other Texas Roadhouse tales
“Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by thinking Texas road house is a good job until you work at Texas Roadhouse,” a person said.
“Girl I got wrongfully terminated from roadhouse as well!! The company is super weirdddd,” another wrote.
“Every texas roadhouse i go to i can see their vape in their lil pouch sorry girl f them,” a commenter added.
@addibaddie89 my bad for owning a vape guys!!
♬ Shake Dat Ass (Twerk Song) (feat. GloRilla) – BossMan Dlow
The Daily Dot reached out to Addison for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and to Texas Roadhouse via email.
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