I run a small mom and pop style restaurant. We have a total of about 120 seats in our store. As many restaurants in our community close (other than fast food) for Easter Sunday everyone goes out to eat on Saturday. That means we get SLAMMED for breakfast and lunch.

Well, I'm also rather detailed when it comes to the Employee Handbook. After 25 years in the industry, and 18 years owning my own place, I've found it much easier to enforce rules when they are clearly spelled out in writing and given to every employee. I've amended the handbook a handful of times to update loopholes that people have exploited. (For example "informing us you're ill" now must be a telephone call to the store AND talking to a manager. I once had someone post it to my facebook wall 45 minutes before their shift started and they didn't see the issue.) Well, one of those rules is that you can call out sick/ go home sick but not call-out "drunk or hungover" (yes, this has happened several times).

Low and behold, the day before Easter one of my teenage waitresses came into work at 8AM still hurting from her booze cruise the night before. Was she drunk? No, if she was I'd have sent her home. She was however hurting in the extreme. 30 minutes into a shift and she was begging to go home. I told her she made some poor decisions, and if she wanted to quit, she could, but I'm not overloading everyone else to accommodate her. If she could find her own replacement she could go when they got here. Of course no one would be a last-minute fill-in on a Saturday.

So, IATAH for basically forcing an extremely hungover and hurting teenager to finish their work shift?