Rude diner complained about disabled worker — so the owner shut him down with powerful sign on the front door

A single opportunity does make a lot of difference in a person's life. A pizza place owner in Greenville gave that opportunity to people with special needs. The owner, Amanda Cartagine, revealed in 2018 that 63 percent of her kitchen staff had special needs, per WYFF4 News. So when a customer complained about a situation with one of her employees with autism and told her to put a sign outside her restaurant, Cartagine was very upset. However, she did something to get her point across without being rude.

Cartagine shared that she went above and beyond to help everyone feel like a part of the team despite their limitations. "If you have the patience to let them take their time and learn at their own pace, when the light bulb comes on, they are unstoppable," she shared. Cartagine pointed out how her employees have an incredible work ethic. It could be washing dishes or serving pizza; they do their work with a smile. However, one day, a customer complained about the service and shared that they had asked an employee with autism to refill the lettuce bowl. "My manager explained to him the situation privately, 'That's not his job. We've trained him to do this and there are special circumstances,' and the customer was still not happy."

The customer told her to put a sign outside her restaurant to inform people about her hiring practices, and Cartagine decided to do just that. She put out a sign that read, "We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and hire ALL of God's children. -INN Team." The owner explained, "These are like my kids, and it made me angry. I wanted to do something that was not rude, but got my point across." She went on, "If he is not OK with that, then I'm OK with him not coming back. That's a dollar that I don't need." The staff at Pizza Inn was quite diverse due to their policy. "Some of us have different color hair, some of us have tattoos, some of us have different walks, different personalities," Cartagine continued. "But as a unit, we are a family."

"In today's time, when we get caught up in our day-to-day lives and the busyness of it all, they make you take a step back and slow down," the owner remarked. A woman, Angie Mosley's son, Ryan, has Down Syndrome and started working at the place one summer. "He loved the first paycheck. He loved the fact that he has money in the bank and he could actually go buy his favorite video game," Mosley expressed. So when she learned that someone had complained about the staff, she was disheartened, as not many businesses took the time to train people with special needs, according to her.

She hoped that the sign would encourage people to become more open-minded. "We parents with special needs (children) are always faced with breaking down barriers, stigmas, teaching other people that our children are more like them than different," the mom expressed. "People with disabilities are teachable and they are employable and it just requires a little bit of outside-the-box thinking and patience." A 2021 study from Nature.com also highlighted the economic advantages firms can get by hiring disabled employees. Higher motivation to work, loyalty towards the employer, friendliness while dealing with customers and more economic advantages were highlighted in the research.