Chef sacked for using her phone 'for hours' claims she was just checking her exam results

A Manchester-based chef claims she has been fired for using her phone too much to check her university results.

The angry student was informed by her boss at Toast, based in Withington, that it was the “worst day of work he had ever seen” at the popular student cafe. 

In retaliation, Ms Alcock made it clear to the cafe that she has told everyone not to visit the cafe so that his business "suffers” for sacking her after a short two-week stint behind the counter. 

She also said that she informed her employer that she was waiting for her degree results and would be distracted but accepts that she was “not perfect” and could have “performed better” but feels given the circumstances her bosses should have spoken to her first. 

Once her shift was over she was told by another employee that she was getting sacked because of her “attitude” and when asking her boss if that was true, she claims she was emailed and told she was “no longer required to work at Toast”. 

She then secretly filmed her exit meeting where she said her employer claimed she was on her phone for four hours but Ms Alcock says her phone shows she was only on it for two hours and 40 minutes, some of which was before and after her shift. 

Ms Alcock does admit that she was on her phone more than usual and throughout her nine-hour shift was on her phone “around an hour” including her 20-minute break. She now believes that her former bosses failed to communicate with her and instead just sacked her.

She said: “The way he fired me was so unprofessional and he couldn't provide me with a just cause.

"He met me once and saw me work on one day and it was the day I got my degree result. I was very anxious. I told him I was getting my results and I might be a bit distracted, he seemed like it was fine. He didn't say I wasn't doing my job properly, I got out of every order on time.”

Toast has since reached out to Ms Alcock to see if she wishes to discuss it and wished her well in her future, but declined to comment on why they sacked her, reports the Mirror. 

But they did say they are “taking on board her views and reviewing improvements”.

Speaking on the moment she knew her time at Toast was over, she said: "I went in the next day and at the end of the shift, one of the other chefs came in, It was weird. She said 'has he spoken to you?' and I half-jokingly said 'no, am I getting fired?' and they said 'yes probably'. 

"I asked why and she said 'I don't know, something to do with your attitude'. I left work in tears. I was very anxious because I didn't know if I was fired, it was a rumour.” 

"I emailed him asking what was going on and he asked me to chat to him the next day. I asked him to confirm if I was fired and he said I was no longer needed. 

“He couldn't be bothered to do it face to face. I'm more embarrassed than anything because others knew before I did."

In the recording, her boss goes on to say that they’re happy to pay her but he “can’t have someone doing that little amount of work” so that would be the end of it. Sophie made one last attempt to explain her circumstances that caused her to be on her phone more than usual and was told it was not his problem and it should not have been done on his time. 

Ms Alcock said: “If I'd done a not optimal day of work, he should have told me and not fired me out of the blue because of one day of work which was a really stressful day.”

A spokesperson at Toast responded: "Toast employed Sophie for two weeks over June/July and we are very sorry to hear that she is unhappy about her time working with us.”