What would you do if your manager told you to do something that you knew was a bad idea?

Would you comply and let the chips fall where they may, or would you try to explain why the decision was a bad idea?

Sometimes the best approach is the first one.

Sometimes that’s the only way bad managers learn from their mistakes, like in today’s story, which takes place at a fast food restaurant.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

Just do one job she said, so I did

Few years ago, after graduating jhs, my friends and I were able to land a part time job at a fast food restaurant.

I work on the kitchen and my job is to prepare the food that includes soup, noodles, and desserts (not all food are prepared in our workstation).

11am to 2pm is when people start flocking so the orders quickly pile up, we call it rush hour.

Morning shifts has to take their break at 10 so they could come back 11:30.

There’s a new manager.

Few months into working and I get to learn how to shift from working to desserts to meals.

If there are few orders of the meals I will help in desserts, since it always piles up.

My usual managers have no issue in here.

However this particular week, a new manager comes and the usual manager thought it would be a good idea to let her observe in the kitchen first.

She was critical of the work.

For the first few days, she would just stand in the corner and my seniors would teach her the “standard” of the food we’re preparing in the kitchen after rush hour.

After a few days, she would start to point out a few things I do, why this and that (since after orders died down, I would do the refills and such)

I don’t really mind however, I noticed she would only this to me no matter how small the mistake is like, how I’m messy I work just because there’s a few drops left on the counter whenever I refill which I quickly clean.

The manager criticized OP again.

Here comes the malicious compliance.

As rush hour comes my senior started his break a bit late, so me and my newbie co worker (in charge for desserts) were the ones in kitchen.

And since orders for desserts starts to pile up, I started to help out with desserts since I can easily finish the meals.

And this manager noticed what I was doing and instead of helping out she straight out said, “Can’t you just stay in one place?” with the hint of annoyance in her tone.

So me and co-worker just stared at her for a few seconds before continuing our work.

It doesn’t seem like the manager made the wise decision.

Then she grabbed me in my arm and drag me in the parallel workstation where I prepare meals said, “You have one job and do it here” even raising her tone.

I tried to explain that I can still do the meals while helping out and the orders for desserts are starting to pile up.

But still said the same thing.

And so I did the orders just for meals, I pity my coworker who starts to panic since there’s a lot of follow up orders.

And whenever I look at her she would just stare at us.

The regular manager put the new manager in her place.

My senior who just came back from his break quickly helped with desserts and me just taking my time preparing the meals.

After the rush hour, my senior asked me why I was not helping with the desserts and why I let the my coworker who just started recently to do the work.

I tell him what happened and my coworker also told him what happened.

Good thing he relayed it to our (usual) manager and she never did it again.

She would still point out every little mistake I did every now and then but would let me do my work peacefully.

Doesn’t the manager understand rush hour?

At least it only happened the one time.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This person thinks the manager sounds like a bully.

A former fast food employee shares another story.

This manager cleared failed up.

The manager really shouldn’t have touched the employee.

That manager needs to be trained better.

And also learn to keep their hands to themselves.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.