We pause this blog to bring you a message from Canada: A single mother has been fired by the iconic Canadian donut chain Tim Horton’s for giving a free donut hole to a fussy baby. The chain said the worker was caught on video “stealing” the donut hole, which, in the mysterious Canadian language, is apparently called a “Timbit” and looks freaking delicious. Reader Chris, who alerted us to this story, explains: “It’s important to understand that Tim Horton’s is a Canadian national icon. That makes this story so much sadder.”
From the Toronto Star:
Nicole Lilliman, 27, was fired yesterday from her Tim Hortons job for giving one of the 16-cent blobs of fried dough to a tot.
“I have been fired for giving a baby a Timbit,” Lilliman said yesterday.
“It was just out of my heart – she was pointing and going `ah, ah…’ I should have gone to my purse and got the change, but it was busy.”
Lilliman, who has worked at the store for three years, said she thought little of the incident since Timbits are often doled out to dogs and children.
She said the baby was about 11 months old, and she gave her the treat to quiet her, since her mom – a Tims’ regular – had been “having a bad day.”
“I could see (the dismissal) if it was a sandwich or something,” she said. “But it was a Timbit.”
Three managers greeted her yesterday, saying she had been caught on video giving free food to a child.
“They said, `Remember, Monday you gave out a free Timbit,’ ” she said.
“I had to think, then I was like, `Oh yeah,’ and I smiled because I thought I’d get a warning.”
Instead, she was fired for theft.
That’s harsh, Tim Horton’s. Very harsh.
Tim Hortons fires single mom over free Timbit [Toronto Star]
(Photo: FlyGuy92586 )
UPDATE: Hey, she’s been rehired!“We’re working with the store owner on this policy,” said a Tim Horton’s spokesperson, calling Lilliman’s firing “an overreaction and not appropriate.”
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I’m really starting to hate the word, Policy.
Good God… someone overreacted, somebody redacted the overreaction, and we’re all over it. What mighty contest arise over such tidbitty things.
I used to like to go to Tim Horton’s when I’m in Portland, Maine. I’m interested in what their corporate response is to this.
Yes, I know Timbits cost money. I just don’t think this tempest fits well in the teapot (coffeepot).
@drzombie:
It’s the Wharncliffe/Baseline location. It’s infamous for terrible owners and power tripping managers. I avoid it (and the grocery stores that owner also owns) at all costs.
@Jmatthew: that manager should have been fired, not just reprimanded. Did you know that it is against the law to work off the clock in the US? The company must compensate you for the time you spend working in the store-no matter what. If you had reported them, they could have been in legal hot water and that dip shit manager would have been fired–perhaps the store manager as well for not taking appropriate action with the assistant manager.
Well, it is 16 cents Canadian, which is like fifty bucks US, right?
(Glad she got her job back)
@ThunderRoad: Sadly no. That 16 cents Canadian is now worth 16 cents US.
I long for the day not that long ago that the US dollar bought lots of buying power on my trips to Toronto, even with the GST and PST.
And as a Western NY resident, I can confirm that yes, Timbits are really good. The day Tim Hortons came to the US was a happy day indeed.
@Bladefist:
Uhh yes, b/c a SINGLE mother lost her only source (most likely) of income to, you know, support herself and her child.
The “poor single mom” shouldn’t have been stealing from the company! What if she gave a free Timbit to ALL babies coming in? She should have asked her manager if it was alright. We coddled Americans will hopefully learn someday that stealing is stealing. It doesn’t matter how little or how much. It doesn’t matter if your a single mom or a rap star.
@AlteredBeast:
yes they give free ones to dogs. If your dog is with you at the drive-thru they’ll usually give you a plain timbit (not chocolate of course!) for the dog.
yet she’s fired for giving it to a child.
@Rajio: what do you call ‘em at other doughnut shops, eh?
I heard that Tim Horton died in a car accident shortly before Timbits came out, and, well, there was some discussion about what constituted the orginal Tim’s Bits?
Well, as the update has shown she got rehired, most of the Tim Horton’s are franchised stores, not Corporate owned.
My personal take is the “Manager” was just on a power trip. It’s pretty retarded, I have lived off of Tim Horton’s on more than one road trip and in most cases the experience with the people was pleasurable and yeah, they do give extra bits and pieces here and there.
She was rehired. [www.canada.com]
Also? I figured that she was probably a bad employee that they were having issues firing. However, she worked there for 3 years. I ask you, a donut hole?
I work for SBUX and we get in trouble if we don’t give away the free occasional beverage to regulars.
Timbits are like doughy, delicious crack. Clearly this was a situation where she was providing a controlled substance to a minor and that’s why she got fired. TimmyHo’s soon realized though, that much like the tobacco companies, they have to start hooking them as young as possible.
mmmmmm.timbits.mmmmmm.
Uh, to those of you freaking out over this 16 cents and making comparisons to theft and shortchanging and all that:
The store stands to gain a lot more by giving away once in a great while an inconsequential item for the benefit of a customer – trust, loyalty, the likelihood of people (like those who read the Consumerist) to say “hey, that’s a cool company, I’ll do more business with them”. There’s no loss of consequence to the store, everyone is happier, they get repeat business, and some good word-of-mouth. Wins all around.
If it’s a huge stinking deal, and your store will be BROKEN by SIXTEEN FUCKING CENTS, ask for the change for that one fucking donut hole back from the employee, you greedy fucking whores who can’t see past a few nickels for the people you’re serving. You can probably dump that much out of the “take a penny” tray, you fucking hosebag.
Asvetic: Policy is a 4-letter word.
@courtarro:
For the record when anyone on this planet says America they mean the USA and Canada is the only Douchebag country that seems to whine about it.
You are not part of America, you are part of North America.
If the employee had eaten it, I would say fire her. But this is plain customer service. That mom is going to remember this long after the bean counters have tallied up that months profits or losses.
This Tim Hortons is about 2 miles from my house. Thankfully there are literally about 30+ others within a 10 minute drive. Plus, McDonald has better coffee at a better price.
@drzombie:
Wharncliffe and Baseline (really its Wharncliffe and commisioners), then one in the plaza with No Frills and across the street from a Volkswagen dealership I think.
Great, my dog was reading this with me and now he wants to take a trip to Canada.
Up yours, Tim Hortons!!
that was pretty quick!
and no we don’t have tim hortons in WA, at least not yet. supposedly soon, or so they tell us. i realize that much of Washington is completely indistinguishable from Canada other than the flags…and the lack of tim hortons. i wanna double-triple.
@AlteredBeast: Yes, they do.
It’s specifically the plain Timbits (no sugar-coating, icing, jelly, etc.)
My doglet gets *really* frustrated if I take her through a drive-thru that doesn’t result in a Timbit.
@Rupan: not .16 cents…
16 cents
or .16 dollars
unless you work at verizon, of course…
When I “gave away” free food at TGIF, like chips or an extra breadstick, they just took it out my check. This always yielded more generous tips, so the 10 bucks was no big deal. Lost 10, gained 50.
@balthisar: In Canada we don’t recognize any other donut shop. That would be sacrilege!
THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE.
That’s weird. Whenever I’d pull up to a Tim’s with my dog they’d always give him a plain timbit. Even the managers.
What the heck difference does it make that she is a “single mom?” Is mentioning this in the article trying to gain our sympathy, as if it’s somehow worse to fire someone for stealing if they are a single mother as opposed to a single child-free person, or married father, or whatever? The fact is, her marital status or if she has children has no relevance on the story or on whether she should have been fired or not. I hate it when the media does that!
i used to work for a large US pizza chain. every day we made several extra pizzas and put them in the freezer. once a week a man from the local homeless shelter came to collect them for dispersal among the needy. when the corporate office found out about our *unauthorized* giveaways, they commended us rather than penalized us…
some managers have no heart
@Bladefist:
You’re really fishin ain’t ya? They said she’s been working there for 3 years. You’d think in that amount of time something would come up a little bit better than that.
Yeah, people get fired for stupid shit. My ex got fired from her job because she was in Hawaii and there was a major earthquake, knocking out power, water, etc to the entire island. Incredibly scared and alone, she called the people she was working with at the Hawaii office and they ignored her calls and never called to make sure that she was OK or needed anything. She called her boss back here in SD to see what was happening and he launched into a tirade about how they’re not responsible for anything and then fired her. He had also not called her to make sure that she was OK, yet they all had her cell number (which wasn’t working that well due to the massive amounts of calls) and her hotel # and room #. Pretty lame if you ask me.
@brookeln: I agree
@brookeln: To be honest it tells us a bit about the character of person that would give a fussy child a Timbit. They’re simply giving you background on the subject of the story, a PERSON who was fired for giving a baby a Timbit. You know… “WHO, what, why, where, and how?” If they didn’t tell us who it was, the blame the victim crowd would be speculating on a person who they felt deserved to get fired.
“They give free donut holes to dogs?”
Yes they/we really do.
If you want to see outrage go to the CBC page discussing this story.
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/05/08/timbit-lilliman.htm
We really, really do care about being human up here. Come up and visit sometime.
@brookeln:
More facts give you a fuller picture of both the story and the impact of the situation on the players involved. It’s up to you as the reader to decide whether or not the info is relevant. I’d rather have too much info as opposed to too little.
Hey, in Canada 16 cents is no small deal. I hear my usually level-headed friends up north get all excited over the US Dollar vs. the Canadian. In all seriousness though, mentioning she’s a single mom was unnecessary. If it was a fat middle-aged virgin who trolled people online would that suddenly make it alright to fire them over such a small thing?
I agree it was stupid to fire this woman but what does the fact that she is a “Single Mom” have to do with it?
Would it have been any better to fire a “Married Mom” or a teenage boy? No.
@MadelineGauzer: so far as i’d be concerned, they can keep their damned job after some bs stunt like this. you just know that woman will be watched til she quits or goes insane.
@trujunglist: wtf?! glad she’s ok but man sounds like so better off than working for that asshat & his company.
I find it hard to imagine a company that makes millions. fires a worker who may have created a client for life that is the child by giving one sample. Over zealous junior manager fires this lady yet 2 other managers where sitting there did nothing made her sign a statement of guilt she had handed out the sample.This sample may cost 2 to 4 cents to produce.This young lady may have her job back when and where in london yet to be determined . Unfair dismissal charges against this company should be leveled. Chances of me ever going to a Tim Hortons again are slim to none.
i remember getting free samples at baskin and robins, there staff was encouraged to give samples.
This black eye will no go away Tim Hortons Company it should extend to the company that owns Tim Hortons as well .
I still love Tim Horton’s and will continue getting my coffee/donut fix from them. You just have to be selective about what Tim Horton’s you go to- the vary quite a bit from store to store. Unfortunately, I used to work by the best Tim Horton’s ever, but I transferred to a different location and the Tim Horton’s here sucks!
WOW…is all I can say…but I won’t. I am going to tell you my point of view of the whole thing.
You guys have to look at the whole picture and quite taking sympathy out on a “SINGLE MOTHER OF FOUR” That’s not Tim Horton’s fault that she is a single mother of four. SO WHAT??? And So what that she makes min. wage, again that isn’t Tim Horton’s fault. You don’t like the wage your getting….get another job. Tim Horton’s or any other restaurant/coffee shop is not going to pay you more based on being a single parent. Now that your all getting a grip on the real issue here…lets move on.
Some things that you should take into consideration before passing judgment::
You don’t know if there has been food cost issues at the store, you don’t know if there have been memos posted reminding employees that handing out free food is theft.
You don’t know if the employee has been talked to previously about this or other theft related issues, such as eating food without paying for it herself.
You don’t know if she has been a problem employee?
In other words you don’t know the whole story, so it isn’t fair to pass judgment on Tim Horton’s.
I would also like to add one more thing….No Tim Horton managers I know have the time or the inclination to seat and watch the monitors to see if an employee will hand out a free Tim bit, usually things like this is reported by a co-worker and than as a manager. They must investigate the situation. GOOD GRIEF, for you to think that a manager has that much extra time on her hands.
And furthermore as the saying goes: THEFT IS THEFT, CAN BE OF PRODUCT OR TIME. SIGNING IN WHEN YOUR NOT REALLY THERE, TAKING LONGER BREAKS THAN YOUR TO BE TAKING.
Now saying all that. If by chance this was the first incident, no past reprimands, than I would agree that this was not handled correctly. But without knowing all of the details. I am not judging.
Now everyone “pitter patter and get back to work”
OMG! This story happened where I live (Port Elgin, ON). I was in there today getting a IcaCapp. The store has new owners as the last batch were ‘fired’ by the coporation for tax evasion!
Giving timbits to babys and dogs has been a common pratice in this town for a LONG time. It was a bit of a ‘scandle’ here in town and alot of people were pissed about it.
Glad to hear she got rehired!
Working the Drive Through at Tim Hortons was my first job as a teenager. I
worked there for 2 years and during that time, we (the staff) must have
given away hundreds of Timbits to dogs and young kids. It’s not a unique
incident. I eventually became the baker for the afternoon and weekend shifts
and discovered that it only took about 2 minutes to make a batch of over 200
timbits. I also discovered that Tim Hortons turns a profit of about 300% on
their doughnuts and timbits. I remember reading this story on the front page
of the newspaper, and my initial reaction to this incident was disgust, a
sentiment that was shared by most Canadians.
Looks like it’s time for an update post. They have not learned thier lesson.
[www.thestar.com]
Headline: “Tim Hortons in a new PR jam. Good Samaritan scolded after buying a homeless, pregnant woman food – then leaving her to eat it”
My guess is that the manager came on to her, she said no, and he looked for an excuse to fire her.
Hence this story.