As more restaurants open on Thanksgiving to boost sales, one Pizza Hut manager decided that he'd had enough.
The move cost him his job, according to Tony Rohr.
After working his way up from cook to general manager at the company, Rohr was fired, he said, for refusing to open his Elkhart, Ind., store on Thanksgiving, which he was told was mandatory.
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"I just decided I wasn't going to agree to it," Rohr said. "All of these people the whole year had been told they were going to have the day off."
He said that in his 10 years with the company, this was the first time any location has asked him to work on Thanksgiving.
Many spots are opening on the national holiday in an effort to squeeze out extra sales from holiday shoppers.
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"They just said it was a competitive decision and that everyone was open, so we will be too," Rohr added. "I said, 'Why can't we be the company that stands up and says we care about our employees, and let them have the day off?' "
He has not been in touch with the chain since his termination, he said.
On Wednesday evening, Pizza Hut issued a statement on its corporate Facebook page saying the company regrets what occurred in Elkhart and is evaluating the situation. "We respect an employee's decision not to work on a holiday if they so choose, which is why the vast majority of Pizza Huts in America are closed on Thanksgiving," the company said, in the statement. The Pizza Hut stores that do open on the holiday are "staffed by team members with the willingness to work on this day as determined by their own personal situations."
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Despite being laid off right before the holiday season, Rohr has no regrets.
"No, not at all," he said. "I'm glad I did that."
—CNBC's Katie Little. Follow her on Twitter @KatieLittle
