7-11 Clerk Who Lost Job Over Good Deed Gets a Better Offer
bootlegga @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 5:35 am
$1:
In a striking example of poetic justice, a Massachusetts teenager who says she was fired from 7-Eleven for giving a cup of coffee to a homeless man has landed a new job within days—at a homeless-services organization.
“My lesson learned is that good deeds pay off,” Ava Lins, 19, tells Yahoo Shine. “Do what you believe is the right thing, and stand up for what you believe in. Only good things will come of it.”
The story began last Thursday, when Lins, a clerk at 7-Eleven in Salem, says she began chatting with a customer about how he didn’t know where he was going to sleep on that freezing night. Lins, who immediately empathized given her own recent struggles with being homeless, gave him a small cup of coffee. “It directly influenced my decision,” she says. When storeowner Romany Youseff appeared and allegedly accosted the man, demanding to know if he had paid for it, Lins lied and told her boss that he had. She fessed up the next day and paid for the $1 coffee herself, but, she says, she was soon fired.
That’s when Lins, nearly out of money and wanting her job back, took to social media and contacted local news stations to get her story told. Kudos and job offers began streaming in, including a Facebook message from Citizens for Adequate Housing in Peabody.
“Our mission is about restoring hope and dignity to homeless families, and what she was able to do with a simple cup of coffee was just that. It was very inspiring,” Executive Director Corey Jackson tells Yahoo Shine. “We want more of that in the world.” Jackson asked Lins for her resume, as his organization was about to list an opening for a part-time administrative assistant position. She responded right away, went in for an interview on Tuesday, and left with the job, which she started on Wednesday. “We loved her,” Jackson says, adding that he hopes the job develops into a bigger position for Lins. “I feel like this all fell into place for a reason.”
As for Youseff, after first telling WCVB that he could not allow employees like Lins to "steal," he has since told various media outlets that he was fine to forget the whole coffee incident, and that Lins could have her job back. Contacted by Yahoo Shine on Thursday, Youseff says, “She’s lying in her story. I did not fire her.”
Social-media reaction has been supportive of Lins. Tweets on the topic include, “The owner of the 7-Eleven store was cruel and heartless!” and Facebook comments, particularly those on the 7-Eleven page, have been similar. “That was just cruel & inhumane, not to mention downright greedy,” wrote one critic. Meanwhile, a fan of Lins’s wrote on her page that she was “a blessing from God doing what she did to help out a homeless person.”
Either way, Lins says she did not want to continue working for Youseff, and that she’s thrilled with the outcome — especially after being kicked out of her mom’s house at the age of 18, during what she calls “just a bad time in my life.” She spent time living in her car and couch surfing at friends’ apartments and is now living with her boyfriend. Lins says she is ready to focus on homeless advocacy. “I am so excited to be a part of their cause.”
“My lesson learned is that good deeds pay off,” Ava Lins, 19, tells Yahoo Shine. “Do what you believe is the right thing, and stand up for what you believe in. Only good things will come of it.”
The story began last Thursday, when Lins, a clerk at 7-Eleven in Salem, says she began chatting with a customer about how he didn’t know where he was going to sleep on that freezing night. Lins, who immediately empathized given her own recent struggles with being homeless, gave him a small cup of coffee. “It directly influenced my decision,” she says. When storeowner Romany Youseff appeared and allegedly accosted the man, demanding to know if he had paid for it, Lins lied and told her boss that he had. She fessed up the next day and paid for the $1 coffee herself, but, she says, she was soon fired.
That’s when Lins, nearly out of money and wanting her job back, took to social media and contacted local news stations to get her story told. Kudos and job offers began streaming in, including a Facebook message from Citizens for Adequate Housing in Peabody.
“Our mission is about restoring hope and dignity to homeless families, and what she was able to do with a simple cup of coffee was just that. It was very inspiring,” Executive Director Corey Jackson tells Yahoo Shine. “We want more of that in the world.” Jackson asked Lins for her resume, as his organization was about to list an opening for a part-time administrative assistant position. She responded right away, went in for an interview on Tuesday, and left with the job, which she started on Wednesday. “We loved her,” Jackson says, adding that he hopes the job develops into a bigger position for Lins. “I feel like this all fell into place for a reason.”
As for Youseff, after first telling WCVB that he could not allow employees like Lins to "steal," he has since told various media outlets that he was fine to forget the whole coffee incident, and that Lins could have her job back. Contacted by Yahoo Shine on Thursday, Youseff says, “She’s lying in her story. I did not fire her.”
Social-media reaction has been supportive of Lins. Tweets on the topic include, “The owner of the 7-Eleven store was cruel and heartless!” and Facebook comments, particularly those on the 7-Eleven page, have been similar. “That was just cruel & inhumane, not to mention downright greedy,” wrote one critic. Meanwhile, a fan of Lins’s wrote on her page that she was “a blessing from God doing what she did to help out a homeless person.”
Either way, Lins says she did not want to continue working for Youseff, and that she’s thrilled with the outcome — especially after being kicked out of her mom’s house at the age of 18, during what she calls “just a bad time in my life.” She spent time living in her car and couch surfing at friends’ apartments and is now living with her boyfriend. Lins says she is ready to focus on homeless advocacy. “I am so excited to be a part of their cause.”
http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/ellen-g ... 34376.html
commanderkai @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:02 am
Eh, a good deed is if he paid for the cup of coffee and gave it to the homeless man, not giving charity with somebody else's resources. She lost her job for that, and lying to her boss after.
Jabberwalker @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:47 am
commanderkai commanderkai:
Eh, a good deed is if he paid for the cup of coffee and gave it to the homeless man, not giving charity with somebody else's resources. She lost her job for that, and lying to her boss after.
Yup. The clerk was playing "Robin Hood". It isn't a donation if he "borrowed it without compensation" and gave it to someone else. What does he think he is? An NDP government?
andyt @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:51 am
My thoughts too.
Thanos @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:59 am
Places like 7/11/Mac's/MCD's/Timmie'/etc dump so much unsold coffee during and at the end of the day it's unbelievable. Each store or franchise could give a free cup of coffee to a hundred different homeless every day and it wouldn't even budge their daily revenues towards the red.
This is bullshit. The girl had a heart, helped someone out on a brutally inclement day, and paid the cost of the coffee anyway. The owner's an asshole, plain and simple, and he could have just warned her not to do it again instead of tossing his usual "ay-yai-yai-yai!" Third World temper tantrum and firing here. He deserves every bit of excoriation he gets for firing her for doing the humane thing. I hope he loses a thousand times more in lost profit from people shunning his store for what he did than he ever would have from giving some poor slob a cup of free coffee. 
andyt @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:03 am
Places like this have to keep an eye on pilferage. She should not have lied, number one.
I actually doubt they pour out much coffee, but I wouldn't really know. But from what I see, McDs (they actually have pretty good coffee) makes a pot at a time, runs it right dry and then makes another one. 7/11 by what I can tell does it the same way. Restaurants, I'm told, make their money on drinks. So I would be surprised if they could afford to dump a lot of coffee or other drinks down the drain.
Jabberwalker @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:06 am
I'm all for giving someone who is having a hard time a cup of coffee. The ethical thing for that clerk to do is give the coffee, then put a buck in the till to cover it ...OR ask the franchisee if it s okay to give away the stale coffee to poor needy people.
It was a noble deed, maybe but it wasn't the clerk's coffee to give away.
Thanos @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:26 am
Girl gave away a cup of coffee to a desperate person, paid for it later, and is really only guilty of making up a small fib. Mr. Franchise Owner throws a fit, not untypical of the way most of his people behave back home in AyYaiYai-istan practically all of the time, and fires her over something so inconsequential it's laughable. A sternly-worded "don't do it again" isn't good enough? Fucker has to drop the a-bomb with firing her? Fuck him.
I like the part where I'm one of the toughest law & order proponents on this board, near to the point of fanaticism on some things, yet I end up being the one to have to explain the concept of a second chance to everyone else. Minds are being blown! 
andyt @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:28 am
I don't think he should have fired her. But shouldn't just have let it go, either. Lots of room between those two poles. Making racist remarks about it certainly isn't helpful either.
Don't know where you live or work, but you start giving out freebies to the homeless and before you know it they're all clustering around trying to get their deal. You know that I advocate for doing more for poor people, but this isn't the way to do it. Let the govt take care of them properly, not depend on charity from individuals. I never give money to beggars. Sometimes I've bought them food, if it looks like they really need it. But when you have somebody ask you for money for food, you bring them some food and they throw it away and ask what they're supposed to do with that, it hardens your mind pretty quickly. Deal with homelessness properly, in an organized fashion.
Jabberwalker @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:43 am
I agree. Firing her was a serious overreaction and the bad publicity is a reasonable return for that. It was petty and cheap.
Even so, ...
If someone decided without your approval to take and redistribute your belongings, it might upset you.
fifeboy @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:52 am
Thanos Thanos:
Places like 7/11/Mac's/MCD's/Timmie'/etc dump so much unsold coffee during and at the end of the day it's unbelievable. Each store or franchise could give a free cup of coffee to a hundred different homeless every day and it wouldn't even budge their daily revenues towards the red.
This is bullshit. The girl had a heart, helped someone out on a brutally inclement day, and paid the cost of the coffee anyway. The owner's an asshole, plain and simple, and he could have just warned her not to do it again instead of tossing his usual "ay-yai-yai-yai!" Third World temper tantrum and firing here. He deserves every bit of excoriation he gets for firing her for doing the humane thing. I hope he loses a thousand times more in lost profit from people shunning his store for what he did than he ever would have from giving some poor slob a cup of free coffee.
This is bullshit. The girl had a heart, helped someone out on a brutally inclement day, and paid the cost of the coffee anyway. The owner's an asshole, plain and simple, and he could have just warned her not to do it again instead of tossing his usual "ay-yai-yai-yai!" Third World temper tantrum and firing here. He deserves every bit of excoriation he gets for firing her for doing the humane thing. I hope he loses a thousand times more in lost profit from people shunning his store for what he did than he ever would have from giving some poor slob a cup of free coffee.
I really have to agree with you here. The owner is an a-hole. The kid, just doing a good deed. Her money or company money, no matter.
xerxes @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:54 am
That's some good karma there. I can't believe the owner had a crap attack over a $1 cup of coffee though.
peck420 @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:03 pm
fifeboy fifeboy:
The kid, just doing a good deed. Her money or company money, no matter.
Would you say the same if it was a computer?
How about a car?
A house?
Yes, yes, I know...this is "different", "it's just a cup of coffee", etc, etc.
It's called principals...this girl has none. I wouldn't trust her with my pen, let alone a job.
Brenda @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:07 pm
The cost for the company, including the paper cup, is about $0.10. Seriously. Get the fuck over it.
And I think I am actually really royal with my estimate now.
westmanguy @ Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:19 pm
I've worked for two different convenience store/gasbar chains (not 7-Eleven), and both allowed us as employees unlimited free coffee and slurpees while on the job. The cost of the product and cup is literally pennies....
EVERY store throws out LOADS of coffee everyday to keep up the "fresh" standards (usually 90min to 2 hours and if nothing sold the whole cambro of coffee is dumped).
The manager obviously had a stick up his ass. And I've witnessed my former managers at these jobs give out free coffees to construction workers, police officers, delivery guys, etc.
---
This one time a guy came in after he bought a large coffee and spilt it all over is car. He was having a bad day. Really friendly talkative fellow too. He got another large coffee and came to pay for it. I wouldn't let him. I let him just go. I wanted to pay it forward and change the trajectory of his day. Put some good energy in the world.
I guess I "stole". But the way I did it is whenevever a customer didn't want change or gave an extra quarter here or there, I never kept it I just always left it in the till. So over an 8h shift, I could easily afford to give a way a coffee or two with the extra change customers left behind.