A Sonic Employee Walked Out On A Chaotic Shift — Then Her Manager Got Fired The Next Day
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It can be really hard not to feel guilty when someone gets fired, even if they brought it on themselves.
Today, we meet a 17-year-old Sonic employee who has been dealing with a terrible manager for months.
Instead of helping during busy shifts, he often sat on his phone while the rest of the crew struggled to keep up.
Then, one night, he showed up late and still refused to pitch in, even as orders fell more than 30 minutes behind.
Things finally came to a head when he got in her face for trying to help in the kitchen, so she walked out.
Read on to see what happened next.
AITA for being part of the reason my manager got fired?
I’m 17F and work as a carhop for a Sonic.
I have a manager who works with me. He’s in his 40s and makes $16 an hour (more than any of the other assistant managers working here). Yet he sucks at his job. Like, honestly. I’ve heard from the other crew members (even other managers!!) that they dislike him too, just because of his work ethic.
Working at a busy fast-food chain, and a very understaffed one, I feel that it’s important for managers to do their part in helping out their team when they need it and being able to understand their team’s limits. Don’t get me wrong, this manager does help out sometimes, but most of the time he’ll sit on his phone or sit at the desk doing nothing.
On this night, the manager showed up late.
It’s very hard and stressful, especially because when I work, there are usually only 2 carhops in the front and 1 cook in the kitchen.
I know it’s not really my place to tell someone when to do something or what to do, especially being 17 and in a lower position than him, but it’s gotten so bad to the point that we are struggling trying to get food out of the store to customers, and he’ll sit there and threaten to write me up for not answering the headset when we’re 20+ minutes behind on orders.
Last night was my last straw.
He showed up an hour late to work. There was a new guy in the kitchen and only 2 people up front. It was a mess.
Even though they were busy, he refused to help.
We had orders going for 30+ minutes, and he was sitting on his phone in a chair. I told him to please get up and help us numerous times, whereas his answer to that was, “I’m a manager. It’s not my job to help; it’s my job to manage.”
Yeah, I know, right. **** manager.
Anyways, I decided to take it upon myself to help out in the kitchen because the new guy was struggling so bad.
We also had a promotion going on for $1 coneys, which just made things 10x worse. I was in the kitchen for about 30 seconds when he walked into the kitchen, got right into my face, and told me to “get out because I don’t belong in here.”
Frustrated, she took her issues to the store manager.
I walked out of the store then and there. My store manager told me that it’s okay; I still had my job. The manager got fired the following day.
I can’t help but feel guilty for complaining to my store manager about his lack of help, which resulted in him being fired. The store manager told me she was planning on firing him in a couple of weeks, but the incident moved it up to now.
Another carhop told me today that my ex-manager told him a couple of days ago that he was, like, 2 months behind on his rent and was really stressed out with life. Made me feel 10x more guilty.
AITA?
Well, you can’t say the manager didn’t deserve it.
Let’s check out if the people over at Reddit think she’s wrong for ratting out her manager.
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Here are thoughts from a former manager.
As this comment explains, the manager brought it on himself.
It’s literally part of the job.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who got back at slacking coworkers with fresh-baked treats.
Yes! It is.
The manager has no one to blame but himself.
He should’ve been leading by example and helping his team when they were struggling.
But no. Instead, he chose to sit at his desk and play on his phone.
Honestly, it sounds like he should’ve already been fired, and she did the company a favor making it happen faster.
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