Woman Fired for "Promoting Side Hustle" After Customer Asked Where She Got Her Tights

A common niche of TikTok videos is the "come with me to work" ones that feature folks vlogging their shifts in various industries and businesses to give folks on the internet a real-life glimpse as to what it's like to bring home to bacon via their respective vocation.

A TikToker named Kendal (@ugcwithkendal) uploaded a "come with me to work" video of her own, but with a slight twist: the only reason she was headed to work was to get fired.

In an initial video, she records herself walking towards her job at a popular retail clothing brand that sounds suspiciously like this one. Kendal says in her clip that her supervisor called her in on her day off after they heard her mentioning a customer who positively commented on a pair of tights she was wearing.

As it turns out, Kendal makes and sells the tights she wore to work that day and informs the customer of this.

Kendal suspects that the manager didn't like the fact that she was mentioning her private business to customers while she was on shift, and that she was being called in to collect her walking papers.

"Come with me to get fired from work! Love that for me. So, basically, I work at a clothing store, I'm not gonna say which one, but it rhymes with Baritzia. Manager asked me to come in today. I'm not scheduled by the way and my last shift I got in trouble."

She explained where the source of her on-the-job woes with "Baritzia" began: "Basically I have a small business and sometimes I wear my pieces to work because I get a lot of compliments on it and people wanna know where I got it from so I always tell them my website."

Kendal cleared up that she wasn't pushing her business on customers while at her retail gig: "I'm really low key about it cause I know how managers are. I don't even talk about my business with my co-workers."

She explained why she was so reticent when it came to her personal business.

"I feel like managers hate when you have a side hustle or even another job. Anyway a customer came in an complimented the tights that I was wearing and of course I told her, told her that they were from my website. Basically long story short my manager overheard me talking talking about it with a customer and accused me of promoting my business."

As it turns out, that short conversation Kendal had with the shopper about where her tights came from was all that the manager needed to hear: "Then wanted to bring up my sales talking about how I was behind for the day and yeah. That same manager just asked me to come in and yeah I just know I'm getting fired guys," she said as she headed into work to speak with her supervisor.

So what happened to Kendal and her position at the store? In a follow-up video where she updated her followers about her employment situation, she said that she was indeed no longer employed at the store, but that her decision to leave was a "mutual" one.

"It's really hard to just stay committed to a job that you don't necessarily love especially when you're trying so hard to work on your business so it was just a lot juggling everything," she said.

Kendal also mentioned that her conversation with the customer about her tights wasn't the only reason why she was no longer working at "Baritzia" and that it mostly had to do with the fact that she simply wasn't passionate about working there any longer.

Looking at the bright side of the situation: Kendal said that after so many eyes ended up on her TikTok she did accumulate some more followers and mentioned to her viewers that if they were interested in checking out her clothing items that folks could visit her website, which was linked in her bio and if you're interested, you can check it out here.

While Kendal appeared to take the situation in stride, it looked like there were other TikTokers who replied to her video who were more miffed than she was. One person wrote: "Not leaving your home to get fired on your day off. I would told them whatever needs to be said can wait until my shift"

While another TikTok user couldn't seem to understand why her manager gave a hoot or holler that she was running another business off the clock, or told a patron where her tights were from after they mentioned like that they liked them: "Does your manager own aritzia? Why do they care so much"

There was one commenter who thought up of a revenge plot that wasn't just about spite, but securing potential future business for Kendal: "before you leave, stick your business card, any and everywhere you possibly can in the store"

The ethics and decorum of operating/promoting one's own business while working for another retailer is a bit iffy. There are some there aren't any laws that say it's illegal to do so, and generally this seems to be the case. When it's not kosher, however, is if there are employment agreements that explicitly state workers cannot launch or maintain a rival business while an employee of said company.

It's unclear as to whether or not this was the situation with Kendal's tenure at "Baritzia." In any event — she's got more TikTok followers and her own business to maintain and from what she's saying about the response from customers who visited the store: she's got folks who are interested in what she's got to sell.