Having a job that you enjoy and are good at is a real blessing, even if you know it isn’t what you want for a career.

What would you do if a new boss came in and started making the job you love miserable?

That is what the restaurant worker in this story experienced, but eventually, he stood up to the new manager and got his revenge.

Check it out.

Complain about me one more time and I’ll give you something to complain about

When I was a sophomore in college, I got a job as a waitress at a restaurant near campus.

It was a pretty small place, so servers often helped out with other things, like dishwashing and cleaning.

There were a lot of call-outs (it was a restaurant after all), and I was willing to pick up the hours because money, so within a few months I had gotten used to doing everything.

And I do mean everything.

Seating tables, dishpit, running register, even some prep and other things on the line.

I had gotten so good at other things that I was put on the schedule for other stations if there were any gaps.

I busted my ever-loving butt for that place, all without ever losing my smile, and after a while it began to show.

The managers loved me, my co-workers loved me, the customers loved me.

It seemed like just about everyone enjoyed working with me.

Well, almost everyone.

The kitchen manager, henceforth known as Betty, was not my biggest fan, to put it mildly.

She was nice enough at first, but began to grow cold and distant as time wore on, and eventually became outright hostile.

Why are some people like this?

She was mean to everyone, but seemed to take pleasure in going above and beyond with me.

A few examples of what she did to me include, but are not limited to:

• Throwing dishes into the pit while I was washing, breaking them. She ran to the manager and tried to blame me.
• Telling the front end manager to stay in the office with me when I counted my drawer (my drawer was never off the whole time I worked there)
• Telling new hires to “watch out” for me
• Constantly dissing me behind my back to others, which I always found out about because people liked me
• Forcing me to stay later than I already did to “deep clean” various things in the kitchen
• Throwing away my time-off requests when she thought no one was watching

In general, this woman did everything she could to tarnish my name and make my life unpleasant.

She was the only bad thing about working at this restaurant, and at times it got so frustrating that I went home and cried.

The only person she didn’t whine to about me was the owner, and that’s only because she was scared of him.

He had five other locations around town, and he just went around to each one throughout the week. This will come into play later on.

Avoiding conflict too long can have issues.

I’ve always been an introvert who shied away from confrontation, and this resulted in me keeping my mouth shut and putting up with Betty’s antics far longer than I should have.

Now, ten years later, I would have told her where to go from day one, but college sophomore me was shy.

Besides, this was a temporary job, and I just kept reminding myself that I was going to get a degree and move on eventually.

To set the scene– Betty had been particularly nasty to me over the past week, and I was extra-stressed because it was midterms.

I think it was these two factors that led to me finally snapping at Betty.

I had just walked in for my shift and was chatting with some co-workers when Betty walked up to me.

She asked me why under the ovens weren’t clean. I said I didn’t know.

She said that she had asked me to clean under them last night, which absolutely wasn’t true because I had left two hours before closing the previous night.

I could feel the rage building inside me. I was about to blow up.

Not wanting a confrontation, I just shrugged my shoulders. “Well,” Betty said, “I wish you would do a better job of cleaning around here.”

Something inside me snapped.

Wow! Good for you!

I screamed “YOU ************* PIECE OF ****” as loud as I could.

Betty jumped about ten feet in the air and had eyes as big as saucers when she landed.

It was now dead quiet in the kitchen– you could hear a pin drop– and all eyes were on me and Betty.

I jabbed my finger into her chest and said “If you complain about me one more time, I will give you something to complain about!”

“Well, it’s true!” Betty replied.

“Alright then. I quit.”

I flung my name tag and apron in her face, walked out of the kitchen, and walked straight out the door, never to return.

The kicker– I was scheduled to do the dishpit that evening.

I would be surprised if she actually did the work herself.

With me gone, Betty would have no choice but to either pull someone off the line and screw up the whole dinner service, or to do it herself.

Perhaps the story would have ended there, but things were about to go from petty to pro.

I got a slew of phone calls that evening from former co-workers (this was long before social media) asking me what happened, telling me how much they would miss me, and/or congratulating me on finally standing up to Betty.

One phone call was the manager asking me what happened, and I gave my side of things (and apologized for quitting in such an abrupt fashion).

I heard what happened the next day from my former co-workers.

It just so happened that it was the day that the owner was due to stop by and check on things.

Upon arriving and looking around, he asked where I was, since I had worked almost every day for nearly a year.

He was informed that I had quit, and that naturally led to him asking why.

Well, everyone told him.

Betty was due to come in for her shift a little after the owner arrived.

When she showed up, he was waiting for her by the time clock.

He told her that under no circumstances was she to punch in.

Effective immediately, she was suspended.

She had three days to give him a written letter offering an explanation regarding her behavior towards “one of the best employees he’s ever had” (his words, not mine), and if he didn’t find it sufficient, she was barred from ever working at a location he owned ever again.

So, Betty goes home, writes up an explanation (I still sometimes wonder what she wrote), and brings it in the next day.

Wow, that is quite a demotion.

The owner reviewed it and told Betty that, after a week’s suspension without pay, she was allowed to come back and work for him.

As a dishwasher.

I don’t know which is funnier, the fact that she was demoted, or the fact that she was desperate enough for a job that she took him up on the offer.

Betty went from being in charge of everyone behind the kitchen doors, to being a minimum wage dishwasher.

It gets better– a few months later, sales were down, and in the restaurant business, it is notoriously hard to turn a profit.

The owner decided to close the location next to campus, but was kind enough to offer everyone positions at his other locations.

Well, everyone except one.

There is an epilogue of sorts to this story.

A few years later, I was shopping at the grocery store when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I turned around and felt my stomach drop when I saw who it was.

It was Betty!

Wow, she actually learned from her behavior!

To my surprise, she apologized for how she had treated me.

She said she was going through a divorce at the time and didn’t handle it very well, taking it out on the people she worked with.

I accepted her apology, and she gave me an awkward little hug before going on her way.

So, I guess despite the awful time she pulled towards me, she wasn’t so bad after all.

She got what she deserved and then learned her lesson, what a great story.

Take a look at what the people in the comments have to say.

A good employee is invaluable.

This commenter thinks the manager was a bad person.

The manager was going through a hard time.

This person makes some great points.

This person loves the happy ending.

A great revenge story with a happy ending.

Who could blame him for losing his cool?

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.