Photo by Paul Weaver
A Burger King employee was fired after giving her son and his friends summer jobs.
WLBT3 reports that the Mississippi mom believes they were unfairly handed pink slips after a pay policy misunderstanding.
Shakayla Dixon wanted to give the friend group jobs to keep them out of trouble. The employment acted as a safe haven from the prevalent violence in the Jackson metro area. They lived in Clinton, which is a short drive from the city where violence is heightened in the summer months. Furthermore, she thought it was a great way for the teens to earn money before school started.
One of the boys hired, Corderrion Valentine, 15, the son of Dixon, stated, “I felt like it was a good thing because we could have really been out doing violence or shooting…” but they “went out and worked.” Shakayla was so proud of the group that she posted a photo of them working on Facebook. She said, “later that evening…the post started doing numbers…” It quickly went viral. Host Nick Cannon even reposted the pic on Instagram. He garnered over 90,000 likes.
The Burger King crew were ecstatic about the positive attention until Dixon received “a call from [her] manager and district leader.” The mom stated she was told that they “don’t want to turn something good into something bad, but we have some concerns. The concerns she had were the fact that Corderrion is my son and how much they were getting paid.”
Shakayla told the outlet she was told, “A minor is supposed to get paid differently than what an adult gets paid. It was never brought to my attention beforehand.” She added, “I feel like policy wasn’t in play at the beginning.” Her son was disappointed after being fired. Corderrion said, “I felt like it was a fun experience to get you ready for the real world.” Since her firing, the mom set up a GoFundMe because she is unsure how she will now pay her “mortgage” and for “school clothes.”
It looks like that old saying might be true — No good deed goes unpunished.
