Police determined the big ol pup had a microchip, which they used that to contact Bentleys owner. I am so tired I cant even talk, said one woman, who described herself as a 24-year-old store manager but did not give her name. Gundel insisted on recording the call to protect herself. The call ended politely but quickly. But by the end of last month, she had only about 130 hours to allocate, which equated to one full-time employee and one part-time employee fewer than when she started. We are disappointed any time an employee feels that we have not lived up to these goals and we use those situations as additional opportunities to listen and learn. Although we do not agree with all the statements currently being made by Ms. Gundel, we are doing that here.. Gundels viral videos appeared as Christian Smalls, an Amazon warehouse employee in New York City, who was derided by the company as not smart or articulate, organized the first major union in Amazon history last month. These women have been assigned to answer questions and concerns from fellow employees in those states and most are keeping their identities hidden because they worry about losing their jobs. I am not doing this anymore.. In one recent TikTok video, a woman shopping at a Dollar General in Florida credited Gundel with forcing the company to spruce up the store she shops in. BRADENTON, Fla. No leash, no owner, some service. Ask Amy: Maid of Honor doesnt say yes to the dress, Colorado women can face pushback when seeking sterilization surgery: "It's very demeaning", Heidi Ganahl is veering from Colorado GOP playbook in race against Gov. Bentley, nails cut and well taken care of, was just doing his own thing shopping at the Dollar General that evening, police observed. Copyright 2022 ClickOrlando.com is managed by Graham Digital and published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings. Me talking out about this is actually kind of bad, Gundel said as she looked into her camera. Social media not only gives workers a platform to vent and connect with one another, it empowers rank-and-file workers like Gundel to become labor leaders. How a Dollar General employee went viral on TikTok, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). While Gundels unionizing effort may be an uphill effort, some people say she has already had an impact. He told her to review the companys social media policy, she said. She especially liked the challenge of calming down belligerent customers and pursuing shoplifters. The store used to have about 198 hours a week to allocate to a staff of about seven people, she said. She said in an interview that Dollar General had fired her earlier this month, and that her manager had warned her about some of her videos. Look at the refrigerators everythings stacked in there, the woman said as her camera panned the aisles. So on the morning of March 28, in between running the register and putting tags on clothing, Gundel, 33, propped up her iPhone and hit record. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. Thanks, guys, for adding some more dirty work for me, McBride, 37, said in her post. Hes clean, hes a big boy.. By Michael Corkery, The New York Times Company, In January 2021, Mary Gundel received a letter from Dollar Generals corporate office congratulating her for being one of the companys top-performing employees. I wanted the world to see it, she said. As someone who had walked out of an abusive relationship with just the clothes on my back and lost her 11 year-old daughter to cancer in 2018, I wasnt afraid of losing my job, she said. A dog was reunited with his owners following months of recovery after being burned in a Bushnell car fire, according to Sumter County Animal Services. She is trying to build what she calls a movement of workers who feel overworked and disrespected and is encouraging Dollar General employees to form a union. Her videos, which she posted on TikTok, went viral, including one that has been viewed 1.8 million times. A man was bitten by an alligator he thought was a dog in Sarasota County, deputies said. The person who shot seven people in downtown Orlando remains on the run. With several animals, including a flock of sheep on property, a Central Florida farm invites dogs with herding instincts to learn how to gather the bunch. Just about every day, Gundel announces on TikTok a newly elected spokesperson each one a woman who works for Dollar General or worked there recently from Arkansas, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and other places. And with that, Gundel was instantly transformed from a loyal lieutenant in Dollar General management into an outspoken dissident who risked her career to describe working conditions familiar to retail employees across the United States. Look at it.. Now it is a daily digest dedicated to fomenting revolt at a major American company. Her grandmother worked in the gift store at the Kennedy Space Center. The owner told officers Bentley got out due to an issue with the gate and thanked the store employees and officers for looking after him. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions. Cranky customers complaining about out of stock items. Now open: Ciara and Russell Wilsons clothing boutique at Park Meadows, REI to open new store in Glenwood Springs, Historic Echo Lake Lodge near Mount Evans will close for good at seasons end, Molson Coors books its first Super Bowl ad since 1989, The New York Times News Service Syndicate, Woman falls from escalator, dies at Empower Field after Kenny Chesney concert, Kiszla: How new Broncos QB Russell Wilson is more like Tim Tebow than Peyton Manning, Ask Amy: Baby on board inspired family to descend, Rockies icon Charlie Blackmon on sticking it out with Colorado: "Never tell me the odds", The highest, lowest, deepest, darkest, quietest places in Colorado, Metro Denver in top half of vulnerable housing markets, study finds. When not writing, she enjoys travelling and performing improv comedy. Gundels protest was prompted by a TikTok video posted by a customer complaining about the disheveled state of a Dollar General store. We had to lock our doors and now I fear, like, If I let him go what can happen to him?. She earned about $51,000 a year, far more than the median income in Tampa. She has three children, including one who is autistic, and her husband works at a defense contractor. Gundel loved her job managing the Dollar General store in Tampa, Florida. We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. But the blame on employees is misplaced, she said. This will be my last day, she said, citing Gundels videos. She said the companys way of avoiding serious issues was to bury them in bureaucracy. If you need help or are having issues with your commenting account, please email us at memberservices@denverpost.com. Why arent the shelves fully stocked? When a 135-pound dog showed for a big night out of shopping at the Dollar General, the Bradenton Police Department responded to return Bentley to his owner. You know what they tell you? 911 calls from cellphones can be precisely pinpointed. You can only feel unappreciated for so long.. Ive been so afraid to post this until now, another unidentified woman said, as she walked viewers through a Dollar General store while discussing how she was forced to work alone because of labor cuts. I was not specifically told to take my videos down, but it was recommended, she said in the video. Her mother was a district manager at the Waffle House restaurants. On April 1, Gundel reported to work at 6 a.m. Guess what, she said in a post from outside the store. Jared Polis, Woman sues bishop, claiming he stole her life savings, Lollapalooza day one: Metallica fans turn out, group protests city's teen curfew, Man dumps corpse in driveway using hand truck, then walks away, Police: 3 children found dead in CT home appear to have died by strangulation. They included Crystal McBride, who worked at a Dollar General in Utah and had made a video that showed her stores dumpster overflowing with trash that people had deposited there. In a statement, Dollar General said: We provide many avenues for our teams to make their voices heard, including our open-door policy and routine engagement surveys. Neither was Gundel. To save my job and future career and where I want to go., I had to respectfully decline to remove the videos, she said. Read more about our new commenting system here. With not as many hours to give to her staff, Gundel often had to operate the store on her own for long stretches, typically working six days and up to 60 hours a week with no overtime pay. On the night of March 29, Gundel posted a video, saying her boss had called her that day to discuss her videos. If you need help with the Public File, call 407-291-6000. Im proud to go into a Dollar General now, because look at it. Before March 28, Gundels TikTok page was a mix of posts about hair extensions and her recent dental surgery. Gundel started using the hashtag #PutInATicket, which other TikTok users tagged in their own videos. But the job had its challenges, too: Delivery trucks that would show up unannounced, leaving boxes piled up in the aisles because there were not enough workers to unpack them. I just got fired., She added, Its pretty sad that a store manager or anybody has to go viral on a social media site in order to be listened to, in order to get some help in their store.. Gundel planned on a long career at Dollar General when she started working in her first store in Georgia three years ago. Gundel also got a call from one of the senior executives who had sent her the DG: 5% pin she had been so proud of. Before joining the News 6 team, Samantha was a political reporter for The Villages Daily Sun and has had freelance work featured in the Evansville Courier-Press and The Community Paper. Heres how Aurora plans to improve a vital section of the corridor. I was not going to be silenced.. Copyright 2022 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved. She grew up in Titusville, Florida, near Cape Canaveral. Samantha started at WKMG-TV in September 2020. It was fast-paced, unpredictable and even exciting. Everyone has their breaking point, she said in a telephone interview. She talked about a customer who had pulled a knife on her and a man who had reached into her car in the store parking lot and tried yanking her through the window. I feel like it would be against my morals and integrity to do so.. Gundel moved to Tampa as a Dollar General store manager in February 2020, just before the pandemic. Instead of getting mad at the people working there, trying to handle all of their workload, why dont you say something to the actual big people in the company? Gundel said on TikTok. Havana Street needs a makeover. )], (The dog was) like, Hey, Im here to go grab something and then he just really walked through the whole store and we just couldnt get him out, a store employee told a responding officer trying to reunite Bentley with his owner. Theyve got toilet paper to the roof, yall., Thank you, Mary, for going viral and holding your ground and standing up to corporate and losing your job, because it wasnt done in vain, she said. As of June 15, 2022, comments on DenverPost.com are powered by Viafoura, and you may need to log in again to begin commenting. The result was a six-part critique, Retail Store Manager Life, in which Gundel laid bare the working conditions inside the fast-growing retail chain, with stores that are a common sight in rural areas. As Gundel had predicted, Dollar General soon fired her. Gundel soon tapped into a network of fellow employees, some of whom had already gone public about challenges at work. In honor of her hard work and dedication, the company gave Gundel a lapel pin that read, DG: Top 5%.. But then it was time to close. One carrier won't install the technology in Colorado. As her online following grew, she kept posting more videos, many of them increasingly angry. Gundel who often dyes her hair pink and purple and has long painted nails that she uses to slice open packaging at work has been able to break through, it seems, because other workers see themselves in her. Technically, I could get into a lot of trouble., But she added: Whatever happens, happens. [TRENDING: Disneys Cirque du Soleil show offers Florida resident ticket deal | Merritt Island girl struck by lightning fights for her life | Become a News 6 Insider (its free! We use this feedback to help us identify and address concerns, improve our workplace and better serve our employees, customers and communities. Put in a ticket, she said. When 135-pound Bentley walked into the Bradenton Dollar General located on Manatee Avenue W. on May 31, he wandered around for hours like he owned the place, body camera footage released by police shows. Give me my life back.. She told him that she was well aware of the policy. Bentleys dad showed up as soon as he realized his good boy was missing. Gundel had heard these complaints from her own customers. Gundel did just that, affixing the pin to her black-and-yellow Dollar General uniform, next to her name badge. Hes definitely a house dog, one officer can be heard saying in the video. She understood their frustration. Why dont you demand more from the company so they actually start funding the stores to be able to get all this stuff done?. Why are boxes blocking the aisles? She was let go less than a week after posting her first critical video, but not before she inspired other Dollar General store managers, many of them women working in stores in poor areas, to speak out on TikTok. Days spent running the store for long stretches by herself because the company allotted only so many hours for other employees to work. The executive said she just wanted to talk through Gundels concerns, but did not want to be recorded. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Gundel continues to post videos regularly and recently started driving for Uber and Lyft. Something needs to be said, and there needs to be some changes, or they are probably going to end up losing a lot of people..