25-05-2025
Olive Garden facing walkouts over very embarrassing uniform change
Olive Garden servers are hoping their employer will change a potentially messy uniform policy.
The pasta chain — which is famous for its endless soup and salad — has asked servers at several of its 900 restaurants to swap out black shirts for white button ups.
New outfits pair the white shirt with an olive green apron and dark wash blue jeans.
On social media, multiple servers, who have complained about carrying dishes full of stain-inducing plates, are not pleased with the stain-prone white top.
'Can the employees of Olive Garden go on a strike due to the white shirt uniform?' one employee asked on Reddit.
'I've bought over 15 white shirts and it has been getting messy.'
On the same thread, a customer said the shirts were 'sauce magnets.'
Insiders at Olive Garden, who agreed to anonymously speak to out of fear of losing their jobs, said that some stores have not made the switch over to the white shirts.
'It's unpopular,' the server said. 'My manager would never ask us to show up to work with a white shirt.'
Olive Garden has required servers to bring black button ups to work since 2013.
Before the black shirt request, servers were asked to wear white button ups with wide, colorful ties.
'We wanted a significant change, and black is obviously the opposite of white,' Olive Garden's now-CEO, Dan Kiernan, said in 2013, when he was vice president, about the change to black.
Olive Garden isn't the only chain facing major revolt over its employee clothing policy.
Starbucks is also facing backlash after asking baristas to wear 'solid black short and long-sleeved crewneck, collared, or button-up shirts' and water-proof shoes.
The coffee chain said it was rolling out the new uniform to create a 'consistent coffeehouse experience' across the brand.
It's part of an ongoing reboot from Brian Niccol, the new CEO, to reinvigorate America's most popular coffee brand after it reported lagging sales.
Unionized Starbucks employees have taken issue with the policy, saying that executives didn't properly consult the most impacted baristas.
The union, Starbucks Workers United, said the new code was 'restrictive' and represents the company's 'bad faith bargaining.'
More than 1,200 employees at 100 locations participated in a nationwide walkout from Starbucks, the union said.
Starbucks employees who voted to unionize have been deadlocked in a three-year battle to hammer out a collective bargaining agreement.
But Olive Garden workers don't currently have a national effort to create a union. Other employees threw cold water on any attempts to walk out of the pasta chain's stores.
'We're not unionized,' an employee pointed out. 'If people start "protesting", they start firing or replacing.'
A representative for Olive Garden didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Olive Garden's parent company, Darden Restaurants, has been on a blistering sales run.
Last year, Texas Roadhouse, the corporation's other revenue gem, took the crown as the highest-earning mid-tier restaurant chain in the US.
Olive Garden came in second on the list, ending its seven-year reign as the highest earner.
It pulled in in $5.2 billion from just under 1,000 restaurants.
