No business could survive on a model that allows employees to give away its products willy nilly, but does a few free condiment packets a corn muffin mean someone should lose their job? A73-year-old greeter at a Florida Cracker Barrel says he’s out of work after passing a muffin, a tartar sauce and a mayo packet to someone who looked needy.

The veteran has been working at Cracker Barrel for the last three years, and while he admits he’s been written up for violating company policy twice before — for getting a fountain drink without paying for it and giving a customer coffee (which he claims she paid for — this time he’s out of a job.

According to WWSB News, the worker said he thought a man who might be homeless walked into the Cracker Barrel where he works as a greeter, and asked for mayo and some tartar sauce because he was going to cook a fish.

“I got it for him. As I walked out I put a corn muffin in,” he tells the station.

Afterwards, the general manager took him aside and let him know that he’d been let go.

“It’s a rule. They legally can do this because I did break the rule. I completely forgot about it,” he explains. “I am a host at Cracker Barrel with a little above minimum wage job.”

And now that he’s out of work, he says it’s going to be tough to supplement his Social Security, so he’ll need another job. But that doesn’t mean he’s angry, necessarily, at Cracker Barrel.

“I feel badly. It shines a bad light on the company,” he says of some of the backlash against Cracker Barrel now that the situation has come to light. “I would not want that on any company, but it happened.”

A Cracker Barrel spokesperson issued a statement on the situation, noting that he’d been employed since April 2011 with the company.

“During the time he was employed, he violated the Company’s policies regarding consuming food without paying or giving away free food, on five separate occasions. [He] received multiple counselings and written warnings reminding him about the company’s polices and the consequences associated with violating them. On the fifth occasion, again per Company policy, [he] was terminated.
Cracker Barrel is grateful for and honors [his] service to our country as we honor all service men and women and their families.”

Venice veteran says he lost job after giving muffin to needy person [WWSB News]

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