Josh Mandel tweets about Inside the Five employee going to work sick
PERRYSBURG, Ohio (WTVG) - A local brewery is making headlines after a visit from a political candidate. Josh Mandel ate at Inside the Five in Perrysburg on Friday, and the brewery has been reeling ever since.
Mandel is running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, and now the brewery is caught up in a campaign it didn’t even know existed.
“Honestly, I had no idea who he was prior to today,” says Inside the Five co-owner Chris Morris.
Morris knows who Mandel is today. The former Ohio treasurer stopped into the brewery for lunch on Saturday.
“Apparently, he took a photo with an employee and posted whatever his political agenda is on his social media,” says Morris.
Mandel’s post stated that even though an employee, “was sick today, she came to work because she knew they were short servers. These are the type of American workers that make our country strong.”
The social media backlash was swift and brutal.
“I’ll make note to never go there ever,” reads one comment.
Another blames management saying it “failed to plan.”
But Morris says he doesn’t want his employees to come to work sick.
“It is our policy for employees to inform all management before coming to work. As soon as we found out, we sent our employee home,” he says.
On Friday night, Mandel doubled down, tweeting, “Hey @InsideTheFive, instead of giving into the woke mob, how bout having your employee’s back and giving her a raise. While so many people are getting paid to sit home and do nothing, Brianne muscled through feeling under the weather and came to WORK.”
Mandel is no stranger to social media controversy. In June, he made headlines for burning a mask. But this is brand new for Inside the Five, and Morris worries about whether business will suffer.
“It’s too early to tell... anytime we’re shown in a bad light, it’s upsetting to us, but we’ll get through this,” says Morris.
For now,the employee is on the mend, and it’s business as usual, which Morris says has nothing to do with politics.
“It’s about the beer, it’s about the food, it’s about the experience. It’s about our employees and our patrons,” says Morris.
13abc asked the Mandel campaign for comment, and received no response. The Senate hopeful did tweet ten times on Saturday.
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