A former Red Lobster server went viral on TikTok after claiming she got fired by a new manager for her hair color.
In a 34-second clip with 1.5 million views, Kiara Barnett (celebertey_taylor) said the new manager told her she’d have to dye her hair a “natural color” if she wanted to keep her job. The content creator decided to record their interaction and share it on TikTok.
The former Red Lobster server filmed the general manager as she spoke to her. A text over the clip read, “POV: [your] job gets a new GM and on her first day she says you can’t [be] there because of [your] hair color.”
Kiara said to the manager, “Hair color? You’re gonna have no workers. You’re running this, you came in here today and this is how you’re treating all your workers? You’re gonna have no f**king workers.”
The manager, who was stood by with her hands folded, replied, “I’m very sorry if you feel I’m disrespecting you. I do.”
Kiara continued, “I really do because my hair color has nothing to do with how I work and if I can work in a professional place. This is Red Lobster, you know that?”
The general manager quickly cut her off, and told the TikToker, “You’re getting inappropriate I’m gonna ask you to leave.”
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“I wasn’t even yelling at you I was talking,” the Red Lobster employee stated before the video cut out.
Most TikTok users in the comment section sided with Kiara.
“As a customer of Red Lobster I don’t care what color hair, how many piercings, or how many tattoos. I care about service,” one user wrote.
“Hair color should be the least of her concerns when she is probably understaffed,” another added.
In a follow-up clip, Kiara said she was hired while donning the same hair color during her first interview with the food chain, and her former manager didn’t mind the ‘unnatural’ red hair.
She later reached out to the Red Lobster corporation for clarity on their policies, and claimed that corporate told her that the new GM was wrong and she should be rehired.