We recently reported the story of a male manager who fired a female employee for not having sex with him. Evil and creepy? Yes. But he was also stupid. Not only did he fire the woman via text message, he outlined in the message that the reason she was getting fired was because she resisted his sexual advances. The woman sued and the manager was recently ordered to pay out $700K.

So, we covered the story and asked if he was the worst manager ever. But now we have another contender for that title: the manager who fired a pregnant employee because she wouldn’t pay back money she gave up during a robbery.

Khou.com reports that Marissa Holcomb, a manager at a Texas Popeyes, was fired the day after she was robbed at gunpoint.

Holcomb, a mother of three who is five months pregnant with a fourth child, reportedly says she was terminated because she refused to pay back money that was stolen during a March 31 robbery. Z&M Foods franchisee Amin Dhanani reportedly said Holcomb was actually fired for repeatedly breaking company policy and keeping too much cash in the register.

Holcomb, however, says the store was particularly busy that day because of a 2-piece chicken meal for $1.19 and that she moved money as fast as she could. She says the robber, who was caught on camera waving a gun around and forcing employees to the ground, grabbed her by the back of her shirt and pulled her up. “He told me to give him everything out of my safe,” she says, but she could only open the registers. The thief wound up getting away with nearly $400.

Holcomb says she was told by one of the managers to pay back the money or be fired. “I told them I’m not paying nothing,” Holcomb said. “I just had a gun to me, I’m not paying the money.”

She said, “I don’t think it’s right because now I’m struggling for my family because what I had to do to keep my life.”

Khou reports that Dhanani – it’s not clear from the report I read if he’s the one who did the firing – has since apologized and offered Holcomb her job back, along with $2000 in back pay.

“He just apologized and pretty much offered me if I wanted to go back to his business and work there again,” she said.
The company has also released a statement that reads:

“We deeply regret the way this matter was handled. We are committed to continuing to work with Ms. Holcomb, and we apologize to her, our employees, the public and other franchise operators of the Popeyes system. We have let them down and are committed to do better.”

Holcomb isn’t sure she wants the job though.

“I do need a way to support my kids,” she says. “I don’t want to go back to a business where I’m treated the same and I just get pushed back out if something else happened.”

Granted, we don’t know the whole story. Maybe Holcomb is actually an irresponsible nightmare of an employee. Still, it’s just not a great idea to fire pregnant people right after they get robbed at gunpoint. It might make you look a little insensitive.

At the very least, this is a massive PR fail.

Meanwhile, remember, no matter how bad your boss is, I bet he/she would never fire you for getting robbed at gunpoint when you’re five months pregnant. So, at least there’s that.