Sometimes it only takes one bad manager to ruin a perfectly good team.

When a college dishwasher’s power-hungry manager started barking orders like he owned the place, it didn’t take long for patience to finally run out.

By the end of the night, the toxic manager was the one scrubbing trays himself.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

Lazy boss demands I do as he says or quit….

So, back circa 2000, I was a freshman in college.

I didn’t have a wealthy family but got good scholarships from grades, yet I still had to work 20 hours a week to make ends meet.

So he found a job that was pretty good for the most part.

I ended up working in the school cafeteria as a dishwasher. This position paid extra compared to other student jobs, and I got a free meal each shift.

There were a couple of full-time staff supplemented by us students. They, of course, got the clean side of the conveyor belt washer.

(These guys were all great—very nice to us students.)

The other three spots—the first spot on the conveyor to pull silverware, cups, and garbage; the second conveyor spot rinsing and stacking dishes; and the person loading the washer—were typically students.

Things weren’t perfect, but with some teamwork, they made it work.

First quarter goes well. We’re a bit short-handed, but the group I usually worked with got along great, and we all learned which spots we were fastest at.

So when it got busy, we’d all go where we were quickest to keep from getting overwhelmed.

When it was slower, we’d rotate to break up the monotony.

Second quarter rolls around, and someone in management decided we needed a “dish room supervisor.”

Here’s where things started to go downhill.

Enter new hire “Kevin.” Kevin is a lazy jerk.

He would spend one to two hours eating and would only come in to yell at us before disappearing again. We all hated him.

Well, one night it happened.

As is typical with toxic bosses, Kevin got a bit too power hungry.

Kevin decided he was going to order which spot we worked at.

Of course, he did this on a shift when we were shorter than usual and somehow managed to put all three of us in our slowest spots.

I tried to explain why we had been in different spots and should stay there.

Kevin was having none of it.

He told me to shut up and do as he said—or quit.

So this college student called his bluff big time.

So I did.

I said I was done and walked out.

His expression was priceless.

The student decided to really rub in his defiance.

Even better, when I changed and came back for dinner, he was having to work in the first conveyor spot (right by the tray drop-off).

So I made sure to smile at him.

I apologized to my friends for dipping out on them, but they understood.

They didn’t last too much longer either—but apparently, Kevin treated them a lot nicer afterward.

Sounds like this college student started a workplace revolution!

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

Nothing bonds you faster with your coworkers than toxic management.

When toxic managers give you a clear path out, maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.

There’s nothing quite as cathartic as quitting a terrible job.

Employees often have much more leverage against their bosses than they realize.

Nothing scrubs arrogance faster than doing the dirty work yourself.

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.