Pizzeria goes viral for looking to hire ‘non-stupid people’

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WBNS) - A restaurant in Ohio was having a hard time finding reliable employees until management turned to humor to help recruit new employees.

Santino’s Pizzeria manager Heather Stockton said the restaurant’s phone has been ringing off the hook since posting a unique employment sign.

According to Stockton, the sign saying the team is “now hiring non-stupid people” was supposed to be a joke and nothing serious. However, it has gone viral on social media.

Stockton said the sign has been on display for months, but it was a social media post this week that has taken it to another level.

“We’re going to have people that love the sign, people that hate it,” she said.

The restaurant manager said the team has had trouble hiring and defined “non-stupid people” as being reliable, on time and having common sense.

“A lot of people are lacking it nowadays,” she said.

Stockton said the pandemic is playing a huge role in the quality of applicants. She said the pizzeria keeps facing no-shows or employees that don’t take the job seriously.

“I had a high school student who thought it was OK to bring a Nerf gun in with another employee here,” she said.

But is the sign helping or hurting business?

“We’ve gotten so many new customers,” Stockton said.

New customer Paul Robbins said he thought the sign was funny.

“I didn’t think it was offensive at all. It made me really curious about this pizza place,” Robbins said. “So, that made me decide to come in and check it out.”

A fellow business owner also said they understand the hiring challenges and stand by the pizzeria.

“I thought it was awesome because they’re not saying people are stupid, they’re saying, ‘Hey, let’s pay attention, let’s communicate, let’s get things going back to the way they’re supposed to be, helping each other,” said business owner Kathy Thomas.