ottawa foodies

Just read the Sun article about the owners forbidding the staff to wear any red or have any reference to Canada on Canada Day. I for one will not take my business here ever again and I hope others avoid them also especially on Canada Day!

I guess some people work very hard to be idiots.

Wow. I know where I won't be going anymore.

ref: www.ottawasun.com

Isn't it entirely possible that the pub simply has a staff dress code that requires black, and this memo was a reminder to that effect? People are free to wear what they want in their own time, but a work dress code is somewhat normal.

I wouldn't jump on The Sun's outrage bandwagon and immediately see this as anti-Canadian. It just looks like the owner wants his servers to maintain their usual professional appearance. Would you be similarly indignant if Ottawa's chief of police sent a memo out reminding all officers that red bandanas are not an acceptable replacement for police hats on Canada Day? ;-)

Good grief, they're staff at a pub, not policemen and policewoman. It is possible? Maybe, but I think you'd have to be pretty naive to think so.

There was a follow up article written and apparently many staff rebelled:

www.ottawasun.com

It also mentions how staff have found the owners 'challenging' around other local holidays.

I will follow the advise of the wise Elnur Allahverdiyev, quoted in the article, and not visit this place.

Yes, I do take anything Sun News publishes with a huge grain of salt, but even they get things right from time to time.

I'd be willing to bet most of the fancy-pants restaurants in town were letting staff dress for Canada Day so I doubt "dress code" is an excuse. This place seems to be me to be far from 'fancy pants' ...

I'd really like to hear the business owner's side of the story. It's hard to believe that they are against the country in which they operate!

If there is an idealogical reason behind this, my money is on it being a protest against blind patriotism -- more commonly called nationalism. (ref: www.mahablog.com) We live in a wonderful country and we're all pretty laid back, but on Canada Day the enthusiasm is almost cult-like. But then I'm as anti-nationalist as they get and I'll very happily wear a Canadian flag anywhere and am happy to see others do it too. It's all quite strange...

I was told, although I'm not sure how much truth there is to it, that the owner is a Jehovah's Witness, and that his religion prevents the glorification of anything other than their god.

If that's the case, or even if it isn't, then I'd say that he's well within his rights to enforce whatever uniform policy he wishes on his staff - but his customers are also well within their rights to not frequent an establishment that is apparently out of tune with their beliefs.

I absolutely despite Sun Media's rabid attitudes towards pretty much everything and I disagree with their position on pretty much everything, but I struggle to sympathise with the Fox and Feather getting the treatment from them. If you're going to run a business that's so dependent upon the goodwill and loyalty of customers, then you should probably put their desires on the same pedestal as your own.

I do find it odd to be so strict but I do see some relevance on Canada Day. When you have 80-90% of your customers wearing red and white shirts it doesn't make a lot of sense for your severs to throw on red and white shirts.

I have also heard that one of the owners is a Jehovah's Witness. It is a Christian sect that does not celebrate holidays according to Wikipedia.

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that a Jehovah Witness makes his (or her) living operating a bar?

I work with two ladies who are Jehovah and I too have discovered a few ironies:

1. They won't celebrate or come to the Christmas lunch, but they have no issues accepting the gifts our boss gives out

2. They won't participate in a "cheers" when we are at a regular staff lunch but they have no issues drinking the booze

3. They are both VERY focused on appearance (hair, makeup, clothes and material goods) when I understand it is supposed to be a very modest religion

4. I once gave one of them a birthday card (without knowing they were Jehovah) and later saw it in their trash can with no mention of having received it.
I guess being rude isn't against their values.

I feel like they only follow the rules that are convenient for them.

Let's not turn this into a JW-bashing forum. I promise you can pass judgment and find similar hypocrisy amongst the followers of any other religion.

i agree with fresh foodie....fox and feather seems like a place i wouldn't want to work for that's for sure.

I do not frequent this resto or Kristy's on Richmond. Even before this Canada Day incident they are/were not a good place to work. I don't know if there are other affiliated resto's but these 2 have been noted to not treat their employees ideally.

@flexie, what's ironic about a JW running a bar? (I'm not having a dig, I know very little about the religion, it's a genuine question.)

I was at another establishment tonight where I know a lot of the servers, one of them worked at the Fox and Feather for a good while. I asked her about this story and it's fair to say that she didn't have many nice things to say about the management. She also corroborated what I'd heard about their reasoning for not allowing staff to celebrate Canada Day, so I'd stick to my original opinion - it's their business and they're within their right to run it as they see fit, but it doesn't seem like a great strategy that they're employing.

Also, as I said the other day - their food sucks and I don't understand why they've put that whacking great umbrella over their patio. I'm not going there any time soon.

Johnny English - I'm not sure whether I should answer this or not. What will the thumbs do?

I agree with Fresh Foodie and don't like what ksw had to say.

In case someone needs to hear this explicitely, ... religion is a touchy subject. I'm just surprised that a bar that seemed so main stream to me. i.e., it's style, location, etc. Would not follow mainstream business practices.

I'm not sure that introducing religious customs, JW or otherwise, into this sort of business is all that compatible. Unless you make this explicitely part of your business culture.

Hence this issue has arisen with staff wanting to act according to their values, beleifs and culture and being informed my management not to do so apparent due to managment's religion (if this is even the case).

I wonder if Fox & Feather has a policy on birthday celebrations or putting up Christmas decorations in their establishment. All very common business practices for bar/restaurants with similar locations/menus and would appear not all that not compatible with JW religion.

Enough said, infact probably too much said.

FYI I was at the F&F on Canada Day for breakfast and not only was it a festive atmosphere with music and stuff, but also each server wished us Happy Canada Day and our table's server asked us our plans and got into a chat with us about it. I had not seen this thread until now, but given that I was there on the day in question, I think this may all be for nothing because everyone was quite celebratory. I will continue to enjoy the nice patio and kind wait staff and would just like to add that I agree with "too much said" about what seems to me to be a non issue.