Few things are more frustrating than getting in trouble for doing exactly what someone told you to do.

This new McDonald’s employee had only been on the job for a couple of weeks and was still learning how everything worked during a busy shift.

Like most new employees, he wanted to help.

So when the front counter slowed down, he headed to the back to lend a hand. The only problem was that his manager immediately sent him back out front.

But the employee tried a few minutes later. And this time, the manager made it crystal clear that she wanted him nowhere near the kitchen.

That’s exactly what he did. For the next hour, he stood by the register while orders piled up around him and coworkers wondered why he wasn’t helping.

Read on to see what happened when the general manager finally learned what happened.

“I mean it, stay out of the kitchen” okay if you say so.

I started working at McDonalds. It’s a job. My job is primarily service which means I’m bagging the orders, making drinks/boxing fries when cook staff is busy, handling customers, and cleaning.

I’ve worked here for two weeks now, and I’ve been getting used to the flow of things.

Today, my last hour during lunch rush, my manager told me to focus on customer orders. So when there was no more customers I went to the back to help and got told to get out and focus on customers. I told her there was none and she said she didn’t care. She needs me out there.

Customers needed help, but he was unable to leave the register.

I stand by the register for 5 minutes and go back again and get told the same thing but she’s more forceful this time, “I mean it, you need to stay out there.”

Okay. Fine. So I stood there by the register for a whole hour.

A customer was waiting for their bag that was right there and I knew what she needed. She was getting upset and I told her, “I’m sorry, I would get that for you but I’m not allowed back there right now.”

I ran out of medium cups and asked a coworker to get them for me. She assumes I don’t know where they are and offers to show me so I say again, “No, I know where they are, (manager) doesn’t want me back there right now.”

Finally, the general manager overheard.

Someone else tells me that I need to give customers their drink cups even if they order on the kiosk. Again, I say, “I would love to, but I’m not allowed to go back there and see what they ordered, so I don’t know if they ordered a drink unless they tell me.”

It’s been 30 minutes and I’m basically begging now to help because I’m so bored but told again, I’m needed out here.

So I sit more and just wait for my shift to be over. Eventually a shift lead said I need to help and not “shrink my duty” so I fully explained the situation to her and a general manager over heard. Who said she would talk to the manager that told me that.

My manager pulled me aside and apologized, saying she just felt overwhelmed so that’s why she “kicked me out.”

Wow. It sounds like he could’ve offered a lot of help.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a grocery store employee who is fed up after months of going above and beyond for no monetary return.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit know about this type of situation.

Now, this would be crazy!

For this person, it was all on the manager.

Yeah, because not allowing breaks sounds ridiculous.

It sure is.

This is what happens when managers give orders out of frustration instead of thinking them through.

If you have an employee who’s eager to work and willing to help, that’s usually a good problem to have.

A lot of managers spend their time trying to motivate people who don’t care. Meanwhile, this manager had the opposite problem.

At least she recognized it afterward. Not everyone is willing to admit when they let a stressful day get the better of them.