Employee is fired for refusing to work off the clock, accused of not acting like 'family': 'No severance. No warning. Just out'

An employee declined to work for free. Then they paid the price for it. 

"When you're here, you're family" is something you really only want to hear at Olive Garden, or at your own house. You probably don't want to hear it at work. It might sound like a nice idea, but it bespeaks something a little more concerning. Family usually doesn't have to pay you to be there. But would you go to your job for free? Probably not. So maybe it's something other than family. 

Employers who say this also tend to expect too much from their employees. It's okay to want your charges to put in a little more effort than they might be used to, but you can't expect them to work without pay. That just doesn't float anyone's boat. What would be especially wrong would be if you fired them for not complying with your unreasonable expectations. But that's exactly what happened in this story, when an employer had it out for one of their employees. After asking them to work for free, the employee understandably declined. But they couldn't have expected what was in store for them next.