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Workplace systems usually run best when experienced employees can use the roles they know they handle well.
One college restaurant worker gets reassigned to his slowest station, but when the new supervisor says to obey or quit, would you argue or comply?
One ultimatum leaves the short-handed dish room with one fewer worker and a supervisor suddenly much closer to the conveyor belt.
Let’s see how this unintentional shift worked out for this boss.
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, but I still had to work 20 hours a week to make ends meet.
I ended up working in the school cafeteria as a dishwasher, this position paid extra compared to other student positions and I got a free meal each shift.
There were a couple 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 3 spots (first spot on conveyor to pull silverware/cups/garbage, second conveyor spot rinsing/stacking dishes and the person loading washer) were typically students.
It was great at first.
First quarter goes good, we’re a bit short handed but the group I usually worked with got on well and we all learned which spots we were fastest at – so when busy we’d all go where fastest to keep from getting overwhelmed.
When slower we’d rotate to break up monotony.
Second quarter rolls around and someone in management decided we needed a “dish room supervisor”, enter new hire “Kevin”.
Nobody liked Kevin.
Kevin is a lazy jerk, he would spend 1-2 hours eating and would only come in to yell at us before disappearing.
We all hated him.
Well one night it happened, Kevin decided he was going to order which spot we worked at.
Of course he did this on a shift we were shorter than usual and somehow managed to put all 3 of us in our slowest spots.
Kevin gave them an ultimatum.
I of course tried to explain why we had been in different spots and should stay there.
Kevin was having none of it, told me to shut up and do as he said or quit.
So I did, I said I was done and walked out.
His expression was priceless.
It gets even better.
Even better when I changed and came back for dinner he was having to work himself in the first conveyor spot (close by 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 Kevin apparently treated them nicer afterwards.
That’s a great quitting story!
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.
This person also worked while in college.
This person has done the same thing.
Doing something similar really backfired for this person’s boss!
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who makes his boss regret firing him for failing to take the blame for someone else’s error.
This person applauds anyone who works while in college.
The student tried explaining why the usual setup worked better, but Kevin shut him down and offered one simple alternative: quit.
He took that option immediately, then returned for dinner to find Kevin filling the exact unpleasant station he had helped create.
Afterward, Kevin reportedly treated the remaining students better, suggesting that one abrupt resignation delivered the management lesson nobody else could.
He told one worker to hit the road, then discovered the road led straight back to the dish pit.