Muffin Break Boss Backpedals After Sook Over Kids Not Begging To Work For Free

We can all agree that Natalie Brennan, general manager of perennial suburban food court staple Muffin Break, had a pretty appalling weekend. In an interview with news.com.au published on Saturday, Brennan sounded off on the yoof of today and their obstinate unwillingness to put themselves out there and beg their monied overlords to let them work for free.

It was inevitable that the internet would respond accordingly. Turns out people get somewhat pissed when you say they’re bad, lazy people because they’re not falling over themselves to work for a muffin shop for free.

After a weekend of raw fury, Brennan has given a statement clarifying her original remarks. On the Muffin Break Facebook page, which is presently an absolute warzone of negative comments, she states that the “article does not reflect [her] values or those of Foodco,” and that she has worked with “young people who are motivated, passionate and hard-working.”

She goes on to say that she doesn’t expect anyone to work for free, and that the official Foodco policy to pay everyone, including interns:

I don’t expect anyone to work unpaid and Foodco Group policy is, and has always been, that all employees including interns, employed either directly or through our brands are paid according to relevant awards.”

The unpaid work I referred to was supervised programs run through schools, TAFEs or universities, which provide valuable gained experience to people before they enter the workforce full-time. I want to apologise for any misunderstanding or upset caused by my comments.

For comparison’s sake, let’s return to her original comments to news.com.au:

There’s just nobody walking in my door asking for an internship, work experience or unpaid work, nobody. You don’t see it anymore. Before that people would be knocking on your door all the time, you couldn’t keep up with how many people wanted to be working. In fact I’d run programs because there were so many coming in.

Brennan’s comment follows an op-ed from Frank Chung, author of the original interview, in which he defended her from the backlash and clarified that she “was talking about head office-type roles like marketing and middle management” – something very much not suggested by the original story.

I probably don’t need to point out that Brennan’s apology very much sounds like someone who showed their ass on an issue quickly backpedaling after realising it simply does not align with the dominant view of the population.

We live in an era of increasingly unstable work, casualisation and underemployment. Employees are more productive than ever, while wages remain stagnant. People are far more cognisant of the crookery which businesses – both small and large – attempt to foist on young workers. Maybe Brennan should reflect on that!

(Also, as an aside, it’s entirely plausible that people aren’t bashing down Brennan’s door to work for nothing because we have broken free of the delusion that muffins are good. They just aren’t.)

The full apology post is below for your delectation. The comments are not good.

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