A recent spate of pranks by various staff members in convenience stores and chain restaurants being uploaded to Twitter, which began with a Lawson employee lying down inside an ice-cream freezer cabinet, has come to a head this week, when a part time staff member at steakhouse chain Bronco Billy uploaded a picture of himself clambering into one of the large kitchen freezers in one of the company’s Tokyo restaurants.
The company responded quickly and decisively, closing down the branch within a week of the prank being discovered. Many netizens think this is an over-reaction on the company’s part, but some point out that it may finally lead to an end to such incidents.
From Yahoo! Japan:
Umejima, Adachi Branch Of Bronco Billy’s Closes Following Photos By Part Time Staff
The offending picture of a staff member in a freezer.
On August 12, it was announced that the problematic Umejima, Adachi Ward branch of the steak restaurant “Bronco Billy” (Meito Ward, Nagoya) was to be closed after a photograph of a male part-time employee inside one of the kitchen freezers was uploaded to Twitter on August 6 and caused uproar.
Furthermore, with regards to the part time staff member, who had already been fired, the company has also initiated an inquest as to whether they should sue for losses.
The company had temporarily closed the restaurant on August 6. They also fired the part time member of staff involved, who had apologised on the telephone by saying “I was just messing around”. In addition, other full time members of staff are to be retrained, and are preparing to resume business; however, the company decided that “As we are lucky enough to have the support of our clients, it is our responsibility to respond through the efforts of the entire company and all its employees, by contiuing to work so that we can fulfill our clients’ expectations. Therefore we cannot allow the branch to reopen as things stand”. At a special meeting of shareholders held on August 12, it was decided that the branch was to be closed.
In recent weeks, there have been a series of problems where shop staff have been taking pictures of themselves at work and uploading them onto the internet.
Comments from 2ch.net:
名無しさん＠１３周年：
And there it is ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━!!
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Now then, I wonder how many tens of millions of yen they’ll sue for?
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Wonder how much the compensation for making one branch go under will be…
名無しさん＠１３周年：
See…you reap what you sow.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Well, seems like an obvious measure to take.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Another life ruined ＼(^o^)／
Take a good look, idiots on Twitter.
This is you in the future.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Still, bit over the top to close the branch.
This is the result of a stupid part timer climbing into the freezer which for him was just a bit of fun.
Now the branch has closed, he’ll probably get sued for a massive amount of losses, life over, huh.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Suing a part timer for losses www
That ain’t gonna work.
You gotta educate them properly as members of the company from the start.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Bet they were thinking about closing this branch all along but couldn’t make up their minds w
名無しさん＠１３周年：
The other companies where stuff like this has happened ought to sue too.
Bronco Billy made the right choice.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
This is a really loyal response from the company to its customers, but isn’t it going a bit far to close the branch?
Would be enough if they just sued the ass off the bastard who was screwing around.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Feel sorry for the store manager w
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Thing is, if they go too far with everything then it’s actually gonna end up giving them a worse image, probably.
I guess that as a public flogging this will have a uniform effect throughout society though.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
This has to be the harshed punishment so far.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
It makes sense to fire the guy, but I think it’s impossible to try to get compensation out of him.
The decision about whether or not to close the branch can only be made by the HQ, and the guy didn’t do anything that would warrant suddenly closing the shop down.
