Imagine working in food service. You’re short-staffed, but the boss refuses to let you work overtime. What would you do if it was time for you to clock out, but there were people ordering food?

In this story, one employee is in this exact situation. She decides to comply with her boss’s demands.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

Boss won’t approve OT so I work EXACTLY 40 hrs/week until I tried to quit

When I was in my 20’s, I worked at a tiny coffee/wine bar establishment. It sold coffee in the mornings and had a wine/beer license for the evening crowd.

Its selling point was that it had food pairings for all of its drinks, both coffee and alcohol.

It was a fairly new business, only a year old.

It had a bare bones staff and the owner herself tended bar in the evenings, usually solo because the tips were better and she could keep them all for herself.

It was obvious the owner didn’t know much about cooking.

I was one of two baker/chef/line cooks, making all the food to be paired with the drinks.

We always worked opposite each other and split the day and night shifts so we each had some evenings free.

Owner was a 40-something single lady with no food service background or experience. She very proudly stated that she invented every recipe on the menu, but her inexperience was obvious.

For example, her cupcake icing was 50% Crisco, stuff like that.

The owner sounds like a pretty miserable person.

She came from the corporate world and had turned her hobby into a business as a middle finger to her old bosses.

She was always complaining: about being single, about money troubles, about how hard the work was, about her life in general, it was just so much negativity.

My boyfriend at the time would sometimes come in towards the end of my evening shifts, buy an over-priced beer at the bar, and we’d leave together.

I could see the jealousy on her face every damn time.

OP was used to working overtime.

Owner hated paying overtime, and got on my case any week I had any OT, even if it was 15 minutes.

I had been in kitchens since I was 15, so by now I was a seasoned chef who could easily do 12 hours without even looking at the clock.

This was the first place I had worked at where I had such an inexperienced boss and wasn’t expected to do 60+ hrs/week.

She came up with a plan.

I finally had enough of her nitpicking and here’s where the MC kicks in.

I started noting the exact time I clocked in and, on a big piece of masking tape, I would write the exact time 8 hours later that I would clock out . I would put that piece of tape right in front of my station where everyone could see and so would she.

If I clocked in at 12:58 pm, you bet your buns I was clocking out at 8:58 pm, evening rush be damned.

If someone ordered food after I left, she either had to make it herself or tell them the kitchen was closed, which defeated the purpose of having food pairings in the first place.

It was really a mess of the boss’s own making.

She was the one who made the schedules, so it’s not like I made things more difficult for her on purpose.

Her lack of experience led to her being severely understaffed at crucial times and, by that point, I didn’t care enough to enlighten her.

She wouldn’t pay us OT but she also wouldn’t hire more people, so stuff just didn’t get done.

She decided to move on.

After a few months of this, I was just done working there and quickly found a new job. I told them I could start in two weeks, so I could give notice to my old job, as a professional courtesy.

I typed up a generic resignation letter that had my end date two weeks later. I gave it to Owner when she came in near the end of my shift.

When I clocked out, she said not to bother coming in the next day, I was fired.

I shrugged and left.

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Here’s how it worked out for OP and her former boss.

I decided to take the two weeks as a stay-cation of sorts.

At a friend’s suggestion, I applied for Unemployment since I was technically fired, and actually got benefits for one week before starting my new job, so it was like a paid vacation, which is unheard of in the food world.

Last I heard, the place closed after 10 years because she wasn’t making money and she went back to the corporate world.

She did get married, so yay for that. I wish her nothing but the best. She wasn’t a bad person, just bad at being a boss.

Some people aren’t cut out to be business owners.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks the restaurant actually did pretty well.

Another person shares how it works where they live.

This person can’t help but think of reality TV.

Was this pun intentional?

It’s too bad the owner didn’t understand how to run a successful business. Her business concept sounded good, but not allowing overtime was part of her downfall.