Florida woman says Dollar General fired her over viral TikTok videos
Dollar General said Gundel violated the company's policy and spoke to her about it
A Florida woman says was fired from Dollar General after she began creating TikToks accusing the company of treating their employees unfairly and creating unsafe working conditions. (Credit: Mary Gundel)
A Florida woman says she was fired from her job at Dollar General after she began posted TikTok videos accusing the company of treating its employees unfairly and creating unsafe working conditions.
"I open the store at 8 a.m., and I basically had to run the entire store. I had to check in and out customers, I had to do my paperwork, I had to check in vendors, I had to check in a mystery truck that just showed up out of nowhere," Mary Gundel, who managed a Dollar General store near Tampa, said. "I had no help, I don't have enough hours given to me for me to actually be a manager within the business. And that's a big safety concern within the company."
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Mary Gundel, who managed a Dollar General store near Tampa Bay, Florida, was terminated on April 1 after she began making TikTok videos about working conditions within the company. (Mary Gundel / Fox News)
Gundel created the hashtag "Putinaticket" which is meant to mock how Dollar General handles complaints by employees, by telling them to "put in a ticket."
As a result of her TikToks, other Dollar General employees began posting their work experiences at Dollar General as well.
When she tried to raise concerns about staffing and other issues with people at Dollar General, Gundel said that she was met with the same response every time: "Everybody is dealing with this right now."
She also alleged that employees are working by themselves in the store for entire shifts.
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Mary Gundel, who managed a Dollar General store near Tampa Bay, Florida, was terminated on April 1 after she began making TikTok videos about working conditions within the company. (Mary Gundel / Fox News)
In one video Gundel posted while she was still working at Dollar General, she criticized a new company policy that allegedly limited the days in which incoming truck containers can be unloaded.
In response to the allegations, Dollar General provided FOX Business with the following statement:
"At Dollar General, we are committed to providing an environment where employees can grow their careers and where they feel valued and heard. We are proud that approximately 75% of our Store Managers, along with many other leaders, were promoted from within. Maintaining two-way, open lines of communication with our employees is a priority. We provide many avenues for our teams to make their voices heard, including our open-door policy and routine engagement surveys. We use this feedback to help us identify and address concerns, improve our workplace, and better serve our employees, customers and communities," the statement said.
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"We are disappointed any time an employee feels that we have not lived up to these goals, and we use those situations as additional opportunities to listen and learn. Although we do not agree with all the statements currently being made by Ms. Gundel, we are doing that here," the discount store chain added.
A Dollar General spokesperson said the company had spoken with Gundel about the violations of company policy it says she committed.