Kitchen crews know the value of time, especially when closing time is near.

But what would you do if your manager decided to micromanage your routine just to prove a point? Would you argue and risk fallout? Or would you quietly comply and let them feel the consequences?

In the following story, a group of cooks deal with this exact scenario and opt for the latter. Here’s what they did.

Front of house manager makes mistake.

Years ago, I worked in a kitchen.

Like in all kitchens, if it was a slow night, we would start to break down early so we could leave right after closing.

Now, if a customer came in, we would have to break back into whatever they ordered, but it was worth it to get off early.

One night, this front-of-house manager got all upset at us for some reason and wanted to throw her power around. She said “you can’t start to close down until I tell you.”

They had no other choice but to follow directions.

The next night, me and three other cooks just stood there with stupid grins on our faces as the front of the house was pretty much wrapped up and ready to go.

After about 30 minutes, the manager asked why we didn’t start to break down, and we responded, “You told us we can’t break down until you tell us to. We are still waiting.”

The look on her face when she realized that we were going to have to stay late and that they didn’t want to pay over time?

Priceless.

Wow! She should’ve seen that coming.

Let’s see what the people over at Reddit have to say about their stunt.

Apparently, kitchen staff feel a certain way.

Here’s a good point.

This person empathizes with him.

According to this person, front-of-house managers usually have no say over the kitchen.

At least they listened!

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