There’s nothing quite like watching the clock crawl toward the end of a long shift, especially when you’ve spent the entire day on your feet dealing with customers.

But imagine finally approaching quitting time, only to discover that the coworkers supposed to relieve you have been sitting around drinking for the past hour.

And they’re expecting you to serve them another round.

That’s the situation two cafe-bar employees recently found themselves in after working a busy shift from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The pair had spent the day handling orders, serving customers and keeping up with the usual closing tasks. Their replacements, meanwhile, arrived an hour before their scheduled shift alongside a group of friends that included one of the business’s owners.

Instead of preparing to take over, they sat down and started ordering drinks.

At first, the employees continued working without making a fuss.

But as the end of their shift approached, it became increasingly clear that their coworkers weren’t in any hurry to relieve them.

And one last drink order was apparently enough to push both employees over the edge.

My coworker and I walked out on our coworkers because they were drinking and didn’t change our shift on time

This incident happened 3 hours ago. For starters, I work as a server and my coworker as a barista-barman, at a cafe-bar from 8 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon. It was a busy day and we were already having plenty of orders.

Suddenly at 4 o’ clock, the 2 coworkers that were going to change our shift, walked in with a group of 8 people, including one of our bosses and his wife, and sat down and wanted to order some drinks.

My cowoker and I went wide eyed.

Whoa.

For those who wonder, those coworkers do hang out outside of work or even during work with each other and with their bosses. They have been working there for as long as the business exists.

Personally I don’t mind, because our bosses are really good people and so far really nice bosses, they had my respects from day one.

My coworker and I started working there 5 months ago, and obviously we don’t have those same relantionships , but maintained good work relantionships.

Thank goodness for that.

To continue from where I left, we treated them as regular customers, took their order of drinks, served them and all that. Then half an hour later, they asked for another round of drinks. At that moment my coworker and I were wondering if they were even going to change us in time.

Again, aside from them, we had other orders, so we never stopped working plus we were trying to do the tasks before our shifts ends. like filling the fridge, cleaning, etc.

As we were planning to get ready to leave, one of the coworkers appeared 5 MINUTES before the end of our shift and told us to serve us ANOTHER round of drinks.

No way.

At that moment I was stunned and I reminded him that in 5 minutes we’re changing shifts. He said: “Yeah I know, just serve them anyway.”

That would take us another 15 minutes bc at the same time we had to serve another big table.

We were exhausted.

No kidding!

The bar-man immediately got mad and abandonded his shift and informed the boss, that was still there drinking, he’s leaving.

They got into an argument as my coworker told our boss: “You tell me to arrive 10 minutes early before I change someone and to him you don’t say ANYTHING and just let it slide and continue drinking?”

My boss answered him that he is in the wrong and after that my coworker said goodbye and left. I also was ready to leave and the guy that put the “another round of drinks” turned to me and demanded me to cooperate.

Oh heck no.

I said “Excuse me? I cooperated enough. I did my part and I’m done with my shift. I’m not gonna deal with this now.”

He said that the program says that you stay till 5 o’ clock.” . I answered “Νο. I reminded you that you start in 5′ and we always come at least 5 minutes early so the tasks can be done and we can leave at 5 o’ clock.

That is a respectful thing to do to the people that were already working and need to leave in time.”

SO TAKE THAT.

I wanted to say more but we were having a lot of customers so the girl, that changed my shift, broke it off and I said goodbye and left. Obviously she is not a saint in this whole situation, because when their order came in, they were laughing and giggling.

Tomorrow morning, I’m working with that coworker and I don’t know if it’s going to be brought up or not.

If anything happens, I’ll update.

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The employees had every reason to be frustrated. They were already dealing with a busy cafe, and the coworkers responsible for relieving them were sitting around socializing with the boss instead of preparing for their own shift.

The double standard is particularly irritating. According to the barista, management normally expects employees to arrive early enough to make the transition smooth. Yet the same expectation apparently wasn’t being enforced when the people arriving late were longtime employees and friends of the owner.

That’s not exactly a great way to maintain morale.

Still, there’s a distinction between refusing an unreasonable last-minute request and abandoning a shift before the scheduled end time. If the employees were expected to work until 5 p.m., they were still responsible for their duties until then. And depending on workplace procedures, ensuring a proper handoff might also be part of their responsibilities.

But that doesn’t mean they should automatically be expected to stay an additional 15 minutes because their replacements wanted another round of drinks.

The more reasonable approach would have been for the incoming staff to stop socializing, take over their stations and handle the remaining orders themselves.

Management also bears responsibility for allowing the situation to develop, particularly when the boss was sitting at the table witnessing everything.

Hopefully, the next conversation focuses less on the employees’ frustration and more on why the shift change was handled so poorly in the first place.

This person likes how OP handled the situation.

This person says this is soooo wrong (obviously) and the job isn’t even worth it at that point.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a lifeguard who saves a child only to be confronted by parents angry about the paperwork.

And this person can’t believe what a bad look this is.

Their coworkers were happy to order another round, but the only thing these two were serving up at 5 p.m. was their departure.