As more and more Frisch’s locations close across the Tri-State , some restaurant employees said they’ve been ordered to sign documents or lose their jobs.
“They kept telling us we’re going to stay open, there was a continuance, which we found out later was a lie,” said Haley Johnson. “And then the day of us closing is the day we found out it was closing.”
Johnson said she felt blindsided walking into work Sunday and finding out it would be her last day working at the Middletown location.
“It was really sad,” she said. “We had regulars come in, there was a lot of tears shed, it was horrible.”
Several customers said they also felt blindsided driving up to the restaurant only to find out it was closed.
“We get the rude awakening that everybody else has that’s been driving up that it’s shut down — no notice,” said Sarah Karafa.
On the topic of notice, Johnson said she also received a document on her last day asking her if she wanted to transfer to another location. It asks the employee to write down their two preferred locations. The other option is resigning. She refused to sign the document, and on Tuesday, she found out she was fired for not signing it.