If you have worked any job for quite awhile, you have probably found processes that make your job as efficient as possible. If you were going about your job as usual but your supervisor thought he had a better way of doing things, would you insist on doing it your way or try it his way?

In this story, one fast food employee is in this situation, and he does what his supervisor tells him to do even though he doesn’t think it’s the best idea.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Supervisor doesn’t want me to do my job how I do it. So I do it his way.

A bit of backstory, I M(20) have been working at this fast food place that is known for serving chicken for a bit over a year at the back of house.

I have gotten pretty good at almost every station. But my specialty is on the fries station. I have been told by both supervisors in the front and back that I’m the best at the station.

The supervisor (let’s call him Jake) that was running the shift just recently moved to the back with 3 months working in the kitchen after working in the front. We started working here around the same time.

It started out as a typical busy lunchtime.

Since it is almost Christmas, it tends to get busy.

Lunch comes around and I was placed on fries which was no problem for me.

Jake come to me and says to not fall behind which I say sure thing.

He is working on the chicken fryer and at around 11 am it starts to get busy.

Ouch!

I always like to keep my fries freezer stocked up so that I don’t run out and when I do need to stock up, I make sure that the fries chute is full (depending if it’s busy or slow) and grab the amount of boxes I need. This takes 30 seconds tops per trip.

I have worked with this method for months now and within those months I never fell behind when restocking.

When I was in the middle of restocking, I smashed my finger against the chicken thawing cabinet and I didn’t know if it was bleeding or not. So I finish restocking what I had and asked a fellow coworker that is buttering and toasting buns for the line if she can take fries for a bit while I checked on my finger (It wasn’t bleeding).

When I came back my coworker was falling behind and I went in to help her. Then I hear my supervisor calling me so I go to him.

His supervisor doesn’t want him leaving his station.

Jake: Why weren’t you at your station?

Me: I was restocking my freezer but I smashed my finger so I asked my coworker to step in for a second while I checked it out.

Jake: we care falling behind on orders right now. I need you to be at your station and if you need fries I’ll get it for you.

Me: I can see that we are really busy and I feel that it is better that I grab my own fries since I have been doing it like this for months and haven’t fallen behind. That way we don’t have to pull someone that’s already at their station to grab me fries.

Jake: I don’t care. Just go to your station and don’t leave or else I’m going to write you up.

He needs more fries.

So I go back to my station and caught up to the current orders.

By the time the second rush came I was low on fries so I yell out to the person on the chicken fryer (Jake) that I needed 6 boxes of fries. So he goes and gets trolley and starts grabbing the fries boxes.

When he got to the walk-in freezer the chicken fryers started to go off and Jake comes back to the fryers and puts the chicken to the line.

I get to my last bag of fries and I yell out “I’m on my last bag” and I turn and see him trying to drop the chicken into the fryer, starting the fryer and power walk to the freezer.

Jake realizes his idea isn’t going to work.

But one of the fryers goes off and needs to be cleaned. He cleans it and rushes to the freezer to get me the boxes that’s already on the trolley.

Jake: How do you feel if you just grab your own fries like you always do.

Me: I was thinking the same thing. You got it Jake.

So we finish the rush. I can move around to help the person next to me when her bun person left for her break. And I can now grab my own fries again when I need it.

At least Jake realized his mistake pretty quickly, and all the orders were completed.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is what makes a good supervisor.

This person makes a good point.

Another person would’ve responded differently.

A former fast food employee shares their experience.

This person thinks OP made one mistake.

Sometimes supervisors have to learn the hard way.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.