Gas Station Clerk Fired After Note To Boss Goes Viral

When Joe Blumm finished his shift as a gas station clerk at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, his replacement was not there. The replacement was over an hour late. Blumm decided to close the station and posted a note on the front door addressed to his boss.

The note read: “Hey boss, learn to be on time or at least communicate when you are going to be late. +1 hour with no phone call is unacceptable. As you can see, the doors are locked. I went home. Fire me if you must, but realize I walked out due to YOUR negligence.” The note was posted on Reddit.

Blumm told The Grand Rapids Press: “After being stuck there for over and hour with no contact from the person supposed to replace me, I was at my breaking point.”

He said it was the third time his boss had been late recently. “In the previous situations, she communicated. It wasn’t an enormous problem. I understand people are late. It’s life. Things happen.”

Blumm told Fox 17 “I know I struck a cord with a lot of disgruntled low paid employee who get the short end of the stick. I had enough of that unprofessional atmosphere, having to deal with that tardiness and have it come down on me.”

Blumm lives just a few blocks from the gas station located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Just as he suspected, Blumm was informed by a BP regional manager his services would no be needed at the station.

In September 2013, three employees at a Journeys footwear store at the Marketplace Mall in Rochester, NY quit in a similar fashion. They also closed the doors to the store and posted a note to their boss on the closed gate for anyone walking by to see. The trio had grievances against their boss, including bullying, swearing and saying the boss claimed “Cancer is not an excuse.”

After the note went viral, Blumm said that was not his intention. “I don’t really have much of an online presence. I don’t have a Facebook page or anything like that.”

“People are saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve had days like that. I know how it feels,'” he said.

“I’m quite anxious about my job prospects, this is a lot of excitement. It’s bigger than I know how to cope,” he said.

Blumm has already been contacted by a gas station manager in nearby Cutlerville about a possible position.