Dollar General Manager Fired for Exposing "Labor Hour Cuts" on TikTok

Most people can agree that working a retail job can be quite harrowing at times. Whether it be internal issues, problems with customers, or a whole host of other things that can go wrong, keeping a store running is far from an easy task. Those issues are amplified even further when you're the manager, and sometimes it just becomes too much to handle.

That's exactly the circumstance that drove former Tampa, Fla. Dollar General Manager Mary Gundel to post a series of now-viral TikTok videos detailing her experience working for the company. In the clips, she speaks out against unfair treatment, unequal pay, and various related grievances she has with the company. Now, the company has fired her for speaking out. Keep reading to check out what went down.

In a viral video posted to her page, Mary told viewers, "A lot of people don't understand what it's like to work for this company. I, however, have been employed with this company in my position for three years."

After being called "lazy" by a customer, Mary began her series of TikToks on March 28, 2022.

"After three years of busting my a--, six days a week, 50-60 hours a week dedicating my life to this job, never seeing my kids, barely making it home for dinner, to hear customers say that we're lazy, it really got me heated," she explained. Mary further noted that the issue with workplace productivity stems from a lack of full-time workers at the store. Without enough workers, the shelves can't stay stocked, the store remains unkept, and customers wait longer for assistance.

Mary continued to air similar grievances against the company in a series of TikToks that followed, addressing wage discrepancies and other hot-button topics. Ultimately, however, when her superiors took notice, they decided to terminate her. Four days after the videos were posted, Mary was fired from the company.

Nonetheless, Mary has taken the situation in stride, organizing further action against the company while reestablishing her life.

She updated fans after it all went down and explained, "I was never a disgruntled employee. I was always a good little worker bee who did what I was told." Mary is now working as an Uber and Lyft driver to earn extra money, per The New York Times.

In response to being fired, Mary is now organizing a national Dollar General walkout on May 2, 2022, as well as a petition.

The New York Times also noted that Dollar General issued them a statement with regard to Mary's claims about her workplace and the wages that employees are paid.

"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," they said in a portion of the statement, but Mary's firing was not addressed.

This isn't the first time that workplace complaints about Dollar General have been raised. According to a 2021 release by OSHA, the budget retail company continues to "put workers at risk," and due to a variety of violations, OSHA has issued over $3.3 million in penalties across 54 different Dollar General locations that were analyzed.

Dollar General operates roughly 18,000 stores and 17 distribution centers in the U.S. and is based in Tennessee, per Wikipedia.