I am so unbelievably angry right now.
My older brother, loyal employee of McDonalds Canada for several years and two-time employee of the month, was axed today by the owners of his location because they couldn't justify keeping the laughable wages they pay him for a couple of days a week on their payroll.
I know it's a business decision. But how, in good conscience, can you fire a mentally challenged person who LOVED his job and DIDN'T CARE HOW MUCH YOU PAID HIM?
Someone please answer me that.
The location in question, AFAIK, is not hurting all that much. Even accounting for the economic downturn, it's located in a high traffic area where business will never run dry. Plus, management - at the owners' prompting - had already cut my brother's hours down from full-time to a couple of days a week. So it's not like he represented a huge chunk of the payroll. Any decision to cut him would, logically, have been based on performance.
My brother's responsibilities were minimal: keep tables clean, mop up, take out the trash. That sort of thing. From what we've been told, he's a diligent worker. Certainly he had his off-days, but who doesn't?
I suspect the problem is that he has difficulty adjusting to sudden changes in routine. For example: if you ask him to do something he has never done before, or something to be done in a different way, don't expect him to get it right the first few times. But when he gets it right, he'll keep getting it right.
He also - and this goes back to trouble adjusting - gets very flustered when someone new talks to him, or asks him to do something. New people make him nervous because they don't know how to talk to him, and they get upset and frustrated with him, which in turn makes him upset. It's not that he can't understand what people tell him, it's just that he has a very hard time. But if you're patient, and you explain clearly what you need from him, and he's familiar enough with the task, he'll get the job done.
The situation, as far as I understand it, has been going on for some time. Whenever the owners made their occasional inspections, it seems they felt it necessary to test my brother by asking him to perform certain tasks for them. And he wouldn't do what they'd ask. He'd freeze up, either because he didn't understand what was asked of him, or what was asked of him was completely out of his routine. Naturally, this would piss the owners off greatly.
The managers I have no beef with. They covered for my brother as best as possible, provided what support they could and looked out for him. They like him, and they like my parents, and we don't hold them responsible because they need their jobs and only cut my brother's hours - and eventually, fired him - because the owners insisted.
I don't know what to do. On the one hand, I understand that they're running a business, not a charity. If you expect a minimum performance from your employees, and they don't meet that standard, you are well within your rights to cut them loose. I'm well aware of my brother's limitations. He's only suited for certain types of work, and most - if not all - of those tasks can easily be handled by someone else with twice the responsibilities in half the time. I'm under no illusions that keeping my brother on makes financial sense.
That being said, his managers and co-workers assured us that he's a good worker. Not spectacular, but steady. Steady enough and likable enough to rack up a couple of Employee of the Month awards (which he is very proud of, and shows to every new person who comes to my family's home). He's harmless - in fact, he is good-natured and friendly to everyone, even people who are mean to him. He smiles before he does anything else.
God, I'm so fucking angry. My brother doesn't care about the pay. He just wants the chance to be out there with people - to feel the same sort of satisfaction that all of us working stiffs experience from knowing we've contributed, however marginally, to the human machine. The kind of satisfaction that only a job can provide.
He's upstairs crying right now.
I can only speak for myself, but if I knew that the cost of a person's self-respect was a mere $285 Cdn a week (minimum wage over three days), and I could reasonably afford it, I would gladly pay it. Cut him down to two days a week. One day. Two half-days a week. But don't fire him. Don't fucking take this away from him.
Update:
My heartfelt thanks to everyone for the kind words. I'll try to respond to each and every one of you for as long as possible, but I have work tomorrow morning and I'm exhausted. At the very least - no matter what my family and I decide to do - I know we won't be alone in this.
I've already spoken with my best friend, who has a few leads on work for my brother, so hopefully something good will come from it soon.
As for my brother's former employers ... still deciding what to do. Will sleep on it.
Thank you all again, so much.