I think it’s safe to say most managers wouldn’t be impressed with an employee who fell asleep on the job but one restaurant owner had a much more accepting reaction after catching a cleaner red-handed.
Christian Avant is one of the owners of Milky Lane burger bar in central Sydney, Australia. On Saturday (June 8) he shared an incriminating picture to the chain’s Instagram account, which is usually filled with mouthwatering pictures of food and drink.
The photo was taken from CCTV and showed the cleaner curled up on a sofa, happily snoozing their shift away. Christian received a message from the restaurant’s manager, who expressed their concern at the sleepy employee.
A lot of managers might have fired the employee there and then but Christian ‘couldn’t stop laughing at how cosy and rolled up’ the cleaner was and decided to cut the cleaner some slack. He told Yahoo News Australia the worker had cleaned two other locations prior to arriving at Milky Lane at 3am.
Christian took to Instagram to share the photo of the sleepy cleaner, where he called him a ‘little burrito’:
Found this on our CCTV at one of the sites but tbh, who hasn’t wanted a nap at MILKY LANE before. As long as the jobs done, we’re all for a cheeky siesta hahah
Speaking to Yahoo the owner pointed out everyone needs a rest every now and again, saying:
One of my managers there sent me the message and was a bit concerned, I asked if the venue was clean [and] he said ‘yes’.
So I said let him have power naps then, everyone gets tired. We’re pretty cruisy guys, as long as he gets the jobs done.
Many people praised Christian for his laid-back reaction, with commenters saying ‘well done’ and calling the owner ‘amazing’.
However, Christian admitted he wasn’t the only one to laugh about the situation.
He continued:
There wasn’t even one part of us that thought to fire him or issue a warning. We pay them to do a job. And it was done. So if you gotta curl up for a power nap, that’s totally cool.
We joked about leaving out blankets for them last night.
I’m sure everyone would love their employers to take the same stance as Christian! Who knows, we might all be a little bit more productive after a quick power nap.
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to story@unilad.com.
Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.