Businesses are required to give their employees breaks.

Even if a business is really busy, the employees still need their required breaks.

What would you do if a manager told you to end your lunch break early?

Would you do it, or would you follow the rules?

In today’s story, one McDonald’s employee decides to follow the rules even on a really busy night.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Employees are not allowed to leave the break room on their break… Whatever.

This happened a few years ago when I worked at McDonald’s.

The one I worked in was near a bunch of schools so most of the staff was high school kids.

As summer vacation started, we began having the trouble of an employee getting break and then spending their break eating their meal and conversing with their friends who were still working in the kitchen.

It was having a seriously bad effect on productivity as well as posing quite a few health risks so our manager finally initiated a rule that if you were on your break, you couldn’t leave the break room until your break was over.

This went swimmingly until the kids went back to school.

Now there’s another problem.

We then had a new problem.

Short staffing during break cycles meant our ticket times would skyrocket during rushes.

Management lifted the rule so that employees on break could clock in early and help out with the rush, however… The District Manager didn’t like the implications of employees working shortened or no break shifts and forcefully reinstated the rule.

They also doubled down by saying that employees who tried to work during their scheduled break would be written up and/or terminated for doing so.

It was a really busy day.

Cue MC.

The date was 4/20 a day when nobody wants to be working at any fast food place, much less McDonald’s.

We had been getting slammed so hard from the open of the store, that we called in extra help from other stores, including the regional and district managers.

As the break cycle began, the management was pleased with the sub two minute ticket times they had managed to maintain.

It started out okay…until some big orders came in.

A few breaks through, and we were managing well.

Then came my break.

As soon as I sat down to eat, someone came into the store and ordered 47 double quarter pounders (this was right after the fresh initiative where all Quarter Pounders were made fresh so this was already a minor panic.)

Immediately after that order, someone in the drive through ordered 75 – 20 piece nugget meal.

Suddenly, the manager wants to change the rules.

The amount of panic in the kitchen was palpable.

I was comfortably lounging in a chair browsing my phone and enjoying my meal while the kitchen struggled to keep up with the orders.

As ticket times began to soar, the Management did exactly as I expected.

District Manager came into the break room and demanded me to end my break early and help in the kitchen.

He explained why he wouldn’t end his break early.

My response was very simply: “I’m sorry but according to the rules YOU made, I can be written up or terminated for completing your request.”

I then continued browsing my phone, trying to enjoy the last ten minutes of my break.

The Regional Manager entered the room and said that he would personally terminate me if I didn’t do the thing that I wasn’t supposed to do.

This threat scared another employee who was on her break.

The other employee who was on break with me immediately rose and clocked in despite still having ten minutes left on her break.

She was written up for breaking the rule after the shift was over, so I felt good sitting in my chair and continuing to ignore them.

They lost a lot of money that night.

In the aftermath, the people who made the giant orders took what was made after half an hour and left with refunds for the unmade food. (Nearly $150 each.)

Customers who were waiting for smaller orders were compensated with gift cards for their patience, yet many walked out without even getting their orders.

(We paid out nearly $1500 in gift cards.)

Because customers were walking out on orders without collecting them, we had nearly $5000 in food waste that night. (All of the closers went home with nearly two bundle boxes of burgers, fries, and nuggets.)

Regional and District Manager were moved to a different region.

He was rewarded for sticking to the rules.

The rule was edited to say that you were able to clock back in early at the manager’s discretion in the event of a rush.

Because I was the only employee who held his ground against the Regional and District Managers during the rush, I was rewarded with free meals and drinks until I moved away from my hometown and couldn’t eat at that McDonald’s anymore.

(Although when I come to visit friends, I occasionally get rung up a manager discount by the few employees who still remember me.)

Who orders that many burgers and nuggets at one time?

That’s crazy! It seems ridiculous to even try to accommodate an order that big.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

I completely agree with this comment.

It was a customer problem not a break problem.

His manager was breaking the law.

This person shares when they would or would not comply with a request to end their break early.

It’s never a good idea to break the rules at work.

Especially when it comes to breaks.

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.