Kylee Johnson and eight coworkers quit their jobs at a Burger King restaurant in Nebraska in July, an event which soon went viral.
Rachel Flores
A former employee at a Burger King, where staff resigned en masse in July, has commemorated the event by having the viral message "WE ALL QUIT" tattooed on her arm.
Kylee Johnson, who had worked at the Lincoln, Nebraska Burger King outlet for around seven months, was one of nine members of staff who left the restaurant, citing problems including understaffing, long hours, low pay, and broken air conditioning.
One member of staff changed the restaurant's front sign to "We all quit — sorry for the inconvenience," and a photo of it quickly went viral.
Johnson got the tattoo as a reminder of her worth, Nebraska media outlet Flatwater Free Press reported. "I was raised to give respect. But I was also taught that when you give respect, you should be given respect back," she told the outlet.
Many restaurant workers across the US are quitting their jobs in search of better wages, benefits, and working conditions, often leaving restaurants scrambling for staff. Hospitality workers have cited long and unsocial working hours, rude customers, and fears of catching COVID-19 as reasons for leaving their jobs.
Johnson told Flatwater Free Press in a recent interview that other staff who'd quit their jobs at the Lincoln Burger King had got new roles including as clerks or cooks at sit-down restaurants, hotels, and convenience stores. Most of the nine who left have not gone back into fast food jobs, according to the outlet.
Johnson said that she'd worked at the Burger King restaurant to help out her roommate Rachel Flores, its then general manager, while also working at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant as a server and bartender. She said that after leaving Burger King she stayed working at Ruby Tuesday, and that some of her Burger King coworkers moved to Ruby Tuesday, too.
"Almost everyone that I know that left has found better jobs making at least the same or more," Johnson told Flatwater Free Press.
"There's so many openings," Johnson added. "It does leave the door open."
Johnson told Flatwater Free Press that working at the Lincoln Burger King during the pandemic was "horrible" and "exhausting."
Johnson said that management was slow to fix the kitchen's air conditioning and that the store was understaffed.
"Four or five people left and upper management had not tried to bring in anybody new," she said.
Burger King didn't respond to Flatwater Free Press' or Insider's requests for comment.
Flores told Insider in July that she'd regularly had to cover unexpected absences, leaving her working many back-to-back, open-to-close shifts from 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., with just an hour off during the day to care for her child. She said that her team frequently worked six- and seven-day weeks for weeks on end.
Flores also said that the local area managers resisted her requests to raise wages above $12.50 per hour, even for an employee who had worked for 18 years at the restaurant. She also said that she was once hospitalized for dehydration.
"The work experience described at this location is not in line with our brand values," a Burger King spokesperson told Insider at the time. "Our franchisee is looking into this situation to ensure this doesn't happen in the future."
Johnson told Flatwater Free Press that she'd now been banned from the Burger King restaurant in Lincoln, and that she'd got the tattoo in mid-July.
