Not so long after this happened does another story arise that sounds oddly similar. Even making news in the UK. This makes me wonder if there actually is bad PR.

In Tim Hortons’s case, I don’t know if that story tarnished their reputation. I personally don’t know anyone that said they would stop buying Tim Hortons after the way they treated that employee. It was all anyone talked about for about one week. I think that part of the reason is because this was an isolated incident at one location in London, Ontario and perhaps the public understands that. Or Canadians are so addicted to Tim Hortons, they can do no wrong.

The case of Stacey Fearnall is quite different. This involves a single restaurant in a small town and will cause much more harm to its reputation. This is definitely an instance of bad PR. It was interesting to read the thoughtful 340 comments on the CBC article. Most of the comments were from people speaking about how unfair the dismissal was and how difficult it will be for Nathaniels restaurant to recover. I thought this comment by KenBosveld was interesting:

Hey competing restaurants in Owen Sound — offer her a waitress job ASAP, and also plan a special promotion as a Cancer Society fundraiser — and I think you’ll be amazed to see how fast the community rallies to your support.

I think this would be a brilliant idea and I am curious if any restaurant will consider it.

Another way to help this situation is for the owner to apologize. According to the CBC article:

Nathaniels owner and chef Dan Hilliard issued a statement late Thursday saying Fearnall did not advise him that she was planning to shave her head.”Mr. Hilliard had indicated that this is an employer-employee matter and such matters are not to be dealt with in the public,” the statement said.

The commenters on the CBC site saw right through this and suggested she go to the Labour Board or Human Rights Commission. However, their reaction would have been much different if Hilliard would have handled the situation differently and apologized, rather than say it was an “employer-employee matter.”

The thing I find disappointing about stories like this is that they often make huge news, but it’s hard to find information about the follow up. I’ll try to keep an eye out if anything further comes from this story.