Imagine working night shift at a retail store stocking shelves. If your supervisor told you and your coworkers to stop talking while you were working, would you comply, or would you keep talking?

In this story, one group of workers does both. They keep talking but stop working.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Crew did as they were told and were fired by shortsighted manager.

This goes back at least 25 years. So, late 90s?

I worked for a now defunct deep discount chain in Florida. I got a position on 3rd shift doing night stock.

The crew was small, only about 5-6 of us. We had a good time. We’d talk to each other across aisles, crack jokes to a video that played constantly in a corner, and make the best of it.

But there was one problem.

Our supervisor was a complete power tripper.

I hadn’t worked there very long, but even in the short time I was there I could see the crew leader wasn’t a reasonable dude.

During one shift, we were all clocking out for out lunch break. As we went in to punch the clock, we were told, “Don’t punch back in if you’re going to continue talking”.

OK. We didn’t. We did just sit around the front of the store talking until the manager came in for the day.

This is a rollercoaster ride!

Store manager got there (I can’t remember if an assistant arrived first). We gave him the quick lowdown. We were told not to punch in if we were going to talk so we didn’t.

He simply fired everybody on the spot.

Being new, I asked for my job back and got it.

The crew leader stayed, and maybe one other. I think new people were brought in.

It worked out well!

It wasn’t until some time later that the lead was demoted and replaced by me.

He quit soon after that.

It was clear that as a crew we all worked better when he wasn’t there.

I’m still wrapping my mind around the fact that the manager fired everyone but immediately rehired OP.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Whistle while you work!

Same!

Another person compares the situation to school.

Maybe they deserved to get fired.

They didn’t sound like great employees.

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.