Many employers say they support education… until it becomes slightly inconvenient for them.

So when one college student working a part-time restaurant job asked for a small schedule adjustment during finals week, his manager told him to choose between his education and his paycheck.

What the boss thought was a clever power move turned out to be the last shift he’d ever get from that employee.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

My job or my education? Which one will get me better options…

When I was going to college, for Criminal Justice, for those curious, I had taken up a part-time job working at Awful House (Waffle House) as a part-time prep cook, under the delusion/promise that they would work with my schedule.

Everything was fine for the first half of the semester.

Although his schedule was tight, he found ways to make it work.

I was finishing classes at 3 p.m., getting dressed for work, and clocking into my job at 5 p.m. sharp, to work 5–9 p.m., five days a week.

Then came finals, which, at my college, ran on a different schedule than my actual classes for some reason.

My Monday and Tuesday finals were okay, as they finished by 2:30 p.m.

Wednesday’s final finished at 4:30 p.m., and Thursday and Friday’s finals started at 2 p.m. and finished at 5 p.m.

Soon, he tried to iron out a few wrinkles in his schedule.

Since college and my job were across town, and I was either walking, taking the bus, or riding a bike, I knew I wasn’t making it on time to clock in at my scheduled time for Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

So, as I handed my finals schedule to my manager, I asked for later work times those three days, or to let me work that weekend to make up for the time I would be missing.

But instead of being understanding, this manager issued an unfair ultimatum.

“You need to choose, your work, or your education!” the manager replied.

“You college kids give me nothing but trouble!”

“But sir, you said you would work with my college schedule, and this finals schedule is important!” I tried to say back.

This boss just refused to budge.

“No! I said I would work with your college schedule. As this finals schedule doesn’t exactly align with your college classes, I’m not obligated to work with it. If you don’t like that, you can just quit!”

So the employee made one of the easiest decisions of his life.

“No problem,” I replied, taking off my apron, visor, and name tag.

I was about to take the shirt off when the manager squeaked out, “What are you doing?!”

“I’m quitting, effective immediately. You won’t comply with my finals, you’re not ‘obligated’ to”—I used air quotes on that—“so, in order to assure a passing grade in my classes, I have to attend the finals.”

The boss could hardly believe his eyes as a previously dependable employee walked right out the door.

I took my shirt off and piled everything on his desk.

I grabbed the other shirt that I had worn in that day, put it back on, and walked out.

I never worked another food job again.

Sounds like this horrible boss had it comin’.

What did redditors make of all this?

If there’s one thing many fast food managers have, it’s the audacity.

This boss must have thought he issued a much more difficult ultimatum than he actually did.

Don’t these bosses realize how much more valuable an education is than working at a job that disrespects you?

It’s hard to care about a job that pays you barely enough to get by.

Looks like this manager could use a few lessons in effective leadership.

The only thing getting served that day was a resignation!

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