News

Staff Member at Bedok Burger King Publicly Scolded Junior Who Allegedly Has Special Needs

2022-09-17 , 11:48 am

While dining out is usually an enjoyable experience for most of us, some of us might witness incidents at food and beverage (F&B) establishments that may end up making us lose our appetite.

And it seems like this customer who visited a Burger King outlet in ESR BizPark located in Chai Chee experienced the latter just this week.

Customer Saw Senior Staff Member Scolding Junior Staff While Junior Was “Trembling”

Earlier this week, TikTok user @izwandelex uploaded a video to TikTok to document his experience at the Burger King branch in Bedok on Tuesday (13 September):

@izwandelex Be nice to everyone pls 👌 #bedokburgerking #tiktoksg ♬ original sound – Izwan Delex

According to him, the 44-second-long clip, which shows a senior staff member berating a junior staff member extremely harshly, took place at around 10pm that day.

Adding that it was an “awful sight”, he explained that the “uncle” (senior staff member) “repeatedly [scolded the junior staff member] at the top of his voice”, causing him to feel extremely frustrated.

He also noted that the scolding, which lasted for “at least 10 minutes”, went on for a period of time before he decided to film the incident as he could not tolerate it anymore.

The customer also said that the senior staff member gestured in a way that seemed like he wanted to “slap” his junior, and that the “poor [junior] staff was trembling” as well.

What Exactly Happened

The video captured the duo handling trash bags in a corner of the Burger King store, and it seemed like the senior staff member was teaching the junior staff member how to do so, albeit slightly impatiently.

After a while, the senior member apparently lost his temper and went, “See, see!” to his colleague before crumpling the trash bag they were holding.

He then threw the bag aside before telling the junior staff member, “Go get another one, go!”

“It was louder in real life,” the TikTok user added, referring to the volume of the senior staff member’s voice.

He also noted that the manager, who was behind the counter during the incident, “didn’t do anything about the loud scolding”.

“Perhaps it’s not the first time [that something like this has happened]?” he questioned.

Staff Member Had Trouble Understanding, Apparently Has Special Needs

However, although @izwandelex did not provide much context about why the junior staff member was being scolded by the senior, he did say that the former had some “difficulty understanding” what the latter was telling him in the clip.

He then went on to reveal that the junior staff member apparently has autism or special needs and wrote that he “is here working wanting to have a salary of his own but to have this kind of guidance is absurd”.

Adding that he was left “furious” after seeing the senior staff member’s attitude towards his colleague, he asked “why couldn’t things be [said] in a better way” to the staff, questioning why there was not anything being done to cater to his needs.

He also expressed his empathy, saying that the junior staff member is “just another person wanting to work and live a normal life.”

However, the video did not have any legitimate confirmation as to whether or not the staff member has special needs.

As for his motives behind filming the video, the TikTok user claimed, “I’m not here to get anyone fired.

“But please, change on how you talk [to] or handle situations like this to a special needs person” he concluded.

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Netizens’ Reactions

Since the video was uploaded, it has attracted over 76,600 views and more than 4,780 likes on TikTok.

Many commenters criticised the senior staff member openly, saying that his behaviour was completely uncalled for whether or not the junior staff member had special needs.

Additionally, a TikTok user said that the company and managers should ensure that there are people who can “properly guide” employees with special needs if the store decides to hire them.

“Not everyone is trained to handle [people who need special help,” another user added.

There were also netizens who blamed the manager, saying that he should have stepped in to stop the senior staff member’s behaviour.

Other commenters wrote about their own experiences, with one writing, “We came across this few months back and we stood up for the kid rather [than] taking [a] video and [spoke] to the manager about it.”

However, another netizen replied to the comment by saying that taking a video was “good too” since it meant that there would be evidence of such an incident happening.

On the other hand, some commenters expressed their empathy and sympathy for the junior staff member.

There were also people who tagged Burger King Singapore’s official TikTok account in an attempt to bring their attention to this issue.

In a more recent update posted in the comments section by @izwandelex himself, he claimed that Burger King has sent him an email and that the company will be in contact with him soon.