So much that goes on at work requires trust between managers and employees. When that trust is broken, things can go downhill pretty darn fast.
OP enjoyed her job as a pizza place employee and she was good at it, too.
I was a delivery driver for 6 years at various pizza places, picking up and moving on to greener pastures whenever it suited me. Granted that only happened a couple times because I am unfortunately a very loyal employee.
To be honest I should have done that before this whole thing ever even happened.
The store I was at was part of a nationwide franchise, and the waters had gotten choppy. All of the managers quit at once and they just couldn’t seem to get one to stick around.
It got so bad that the Area Manager had to come in as acting GM and brought a manager from another store with him.
These two are the main characters of this story. Well, besides me, obviously. For the purpose of this story we’ll call them Jeff and Cait and I’ll just be… me.
Jeff was 45 and had been with the company for a long time before I started, worked himself up from the position of driver all the way to being the one to oversee about 20 stores.
He was actually married to another Area Manager. I got along okay with Jeff for the most part.
On the other hand Cait and I got on like a house on fire, both being ladies of a similar age. She often confided things in me that she would soon bite her in the ass, figuratively.
I considered myself a decent employee as far as pizza slingers go, came to work on time, did all of the dishes, got along with everyone, and had the best delivery times.
Because of this I usually landed all the best shifts, including opening on Saturdays. If you’ve never worked a ‘tip’ job, you know that shift is the most coveted out there.
Working through both the lunch and dinner rush before going home is well worth having to get up earlier.
One holiday season they asked to get off early one night for a family function.
That information is relevant to the story, trust me. You see, there are always 2 drivers who do that shift. One comes in earlier and leaves earlier, and I was the one who got to come in just before we flipped on the ‘Open’ sign and went home once dinner rush began to die down. This is also relevant.
The final vital bit of info you need for context is that my brother goes a bit wild at Christmas. His favorite thing to do is book an entire movie theater for everyone he knows to see a movie of his choice.
This particular year was when The Last Jedi came out, and he is a Star Wars fanatic, so that was what we were going to see. Unfortunately it would be at 6 on a Saturday, at least 2 hours before I would get off.
At this point Jeff and Cait had been with us for 3 months without managing to find suitable replacements, and I made an arrangement with the other opening driver to switch shifts because his ended right when I would need to leave to make the movie. I then cleared it with Jeff and he agreed to let me go at 5:30.
I was all set. Or so I thought.
Even though the boss agreed, he tried pulling rank at the last minute.
You see, that Saturday we started busy. Very busy. So busy that at 5:30, when I went to hand Jeff my slips, he had already dispatched me out on a double delivery. I took them, but reminded him that I needed to leave when I got back. I just hoped the trailers were long enough that I didn’t miss much of the beginning of the movie.
I got back from my double and by that point it was already 6 and the theater was 20 minutes away. I had to leave. Once again I went to hand my slips to Jeff, but he got in my face.
“You leave when I say you can leave.” He told me.
“You’re not going to let me?” I asked, incredulous that he was reneging on our deal. I came in early! I did my time, dammit.
He looked so very smug. “No.”
So OP quit…
Well, I made a decision right then and there. There are so many pizza jobs out there that they needed me more than I needed them. I took my slip book, you know, the kind that you see in restaurants?
I’ve found they’re great for delivery because not only can you store all of your slips in them, but they’re hard enough for customers to bare down on to sign. Anyway, I slapped that in his hand and said, “Fine then. I quit.”
It was his turn to look incredulous. After making sure I meant it, he checked me out and I left the store fuming. I missed the entire opening of my movie.
But the story doesn’t end there. Oh no, you remember how I said Cait would confide in me?
She loved to tell me all about how often she and Jeff would meet at a hotel after work. She even horrified me by telling me Jeff would turn off the cameras so they could have nookie in the back office when the store was empty, in a chair I had sat in multiple times!
Cait was even so obliging to give insignificant details like the date and time this happened.
…and took the opportunity to pay him back for his antics, too.
So I put in an anonymous call to the franchise’s HR and told them what to look for when it came to checking the tapes. I told them everything Cait had told me. But I still wasn’t content with leaving it there.
So I went to my local pizza place, that just happened to be in Jeff’s wife’s area (remember when I said she was also an Area Manager) and I got to gossiping with the workers there while they made my pizza.
I was well aware it would make it back to her. Food employees can’t keep such juicy gossip to themselves.
Jeff got demoted to store manager, then transferred to the same store in his wife’s area I went to so she could keep an eye on him. I guess it didn’t work out because last I heard Jeff’s wife divorced him and he no longer worked for that franchise.
And none of that would have happened if he had just let me leave on time.
Does Reddit think she could have just quietly gone on her way? Let’s find out!
The top comment figures this man must have deserved it.
You get what you deserve when you treat people like crap.
This person thinks this is the perfect pro revenge.
Or how about no employees.
This is a pretty typical story on this site.
That doesn’t make it any less satisfying to read, though.
If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.