If you’ve ever worked in a kitchen before, you know that the clean-up process at the end of the day takes a while AND can take even longer depending on how busy your day was.

So that’s why I can’t stop shaking my head about this story from Reddit’s “Malicious Compliance” page.

Telling a pitmaster at a BBQ joint that they have to be gone at a certain time, no matter what?

Bad idea!

Check out how the pitmaster handled this situation.

Manager says to be off the clock by 1 pm.

“I work in a BBQ restaurant as the pitmaster, so I run the smokers and handle all raw meat preparation.

I have to get there by 5 or 6 am depending on the day in order to have food ready to open the restaurant at 11.

The GM laid down the law.

Well the General Manager(GM) decided she was spending too much on labor and needed to cut my hours.

As such she told me at around 2pm on a Thursday the following; “I need you to clock out by 1pm every day no matter what.”

I asked for it in writing, and got it.

So the next day, I went to the Head Chef when I got there that the GM said I had to be out by 1pm no matter what, and showed him the signed note.

I set an alarm on my phone and got to work. I got through all the prep for the next day and was starting on the cleaning when my alarm went off.

You can imagine what happened next…

Now the pit area looked awful.

The walls had some smoke stains that come off pretty easily with degreaser, but build up over time, the cooler floor had some blood on it that needed to be cleaned up before it spoiled and started smelling bad, my table had some seasoning left on it from where I seasoned the pork for the overnight load, the walls still had bits of skin, gristle, etc stuck to them, the trash can was full.

I told the head chef it was 1 pm and I had to go.

He looked in the pit and said… “Yep… This is what I expected…”

But he let me clock out and go.

Did someone learn a lesson here?

This goes on for about a week, with the pit looking worse and worse each day.

Then the District Manager(DM) comes in on my day off…

The Head Chef told me that the DM immediately started on the GM for the pit looking awful and how the pitmaster needed to stay until the pit was clean no matter what.

So I got it in writing and am now currently working to about 2:30pm every day doing the full cleaning I was doing before again.”

Here’s how Reddit users reacted.

This person talked about the importance of CYA…covering your ***.

Another individual added on to that sentiment.

This individual said you always need to make copies.

One individual shared their own story.

And this reader asked the real questions that were on everyone’s mind.

Good thing they got it in the writing.

Sounds like the smart thing to do!

Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.