French waiter says he shouldn't have been fired for being rude because it's part of his culture

Canadians have a reputation for being unfailingly nice, while the French ... don't, and waiter Guillaume Rey says this clash of cultures cost him his job.

Rey was fired from his job at a Vancouver restaurant for being "aggressive, rude, and disrespectful," The Guardian reports. The French waiter is not denying that he can be short with people, but he doesn't see the problem with his behavior and has filed a complaint with British Columbia's Human Rights Tribunal. Rey said French people tend to be "more direct and expressive," and his firing shows clear "discrimination against my culture."

While Rey is fighting for his right to be as rude as he wants to be, his former employer, Cara Operations, argues that he was warned verbally and in written performance reviews that he needed to reel it in, and because he continually violated the code of conduct, his firing was justified. Rey and the restaurant both agreed he was good at his job, bad attitude notwithstanding, and the tribunal has agreed to let Rey "explain what it is about French heritage that would result in behavior that people misinterpret as a violation of workplace standards of acceptable conduct," member Devyn Cousineau said.

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