Toxic bosses usually try to prey on their most naive employee, but this grocery store worker was anything but.

When a grocery store employee was told mid-shift by her lazy new boss that she needed to switch stations  (conveniently to the one with the most closing cleanup), she poked holes in his logic until he was finally forced to relent.

Keep reading for the full story

My new boss learned he cannot mess with me

I work in the kitchen of a fancy grocery store. We’ve got quite a few stations — I mostly work in the back doing cooking and production, and there’s a couple of stations up front with the customers called the Service Counter.

When new leadership came in, that’s when things first started to change.

We just got a new Assistant Manager in our department.

Last night he was clearly scheduled to close the Service Counter — scoop the chicken salad for the people. I was clearly scheduled to close Production — make the chicken salad from scratch in the back.

We’ve had some COVID outages this week, so the schedule has been rearranged.

At first, everything seemed in order with the schedules.

On Friday I saw that they had printed off new schedules — I knew they were new because the colors were super bright — but everything was the exact same for me, so I didn’t think much of it.

I always take a picture of the schedule because of an incident where they changed my days off without informing me and then called me in on my day off because I was “on the schedule.”

I was able to prove I didn’t no-call-no-show because I had the picture.

Then the new boss throws a curveball.

Last night, three and a half hours into my shift, the new manager comes up and says:

“Hey, I see that the schedule says you’re on Production, but that’s actually a mistake. In Kronos — the scheduling software — you’re actually closing the Service Counter tonight.”

But the employee isn’t buying it.

“Excuse me? How is the printed schedule different than what’s in Kronos?”

“There must have been some mistake.”

“How?”

“Well, there’s all sorts of people in there editing things, and things get mixed up.”

The employee continues to fight back.

“But on Friday the schedules were printed brand-new. Wouldn’t that have been fixed on Friday?”

“Well, I did print them on Friday, but I guess it wasn’t.”

“So the schedule had me on Production on Friday when you printed it, and someone went in between Friday and today and changed it? But nobody who has access to Kronos was working yesterday. Did one of you do it from home?”

He stumbles for words.

The employee continues to flex his knowledge.

“I also know the schedule has to get approval from the Store Manager every time it’s made or changed. Did someone change it from home yesterday, and then the Store Manager approved it from home as well?”

“Well, we don’t have a closer for the Service Counter, so somebody has to do it.”

At this point I walk off and go over to the schedule and confirm that, yes, his name is scheduled to close the Service Counter.

I go up to him again.

“Hey, I see on there it’s very clear that you are scheduled to close the Service Counter.”

“But I’m actually needed on hot bar.”

Once again, it appeared the boss didn’t really know what he was talking about.

“We’ve got two people scheduled on hot bar, which is one more than normal — and I know you’ve already trained on hot bar, but you haven’t trained on the Service Counter yet. Do you think the Department Manager made the schedule that way so you could train on the Service Counter?”

He fumbles for words again.

“There hasn’t been anyone working Production in three days on a holiday weekend, and I’m already in the middle of things — I’ve got chicken in the oven and have already diced veggies and completed half my production list.” I gesture to the messy table full of production. “I’m not sure if it’s the right thing to do to have me stop all of that and stand at the Service Counter — unless you know how to complete these recipes?”

I wave them in his face.

He doesn’t.

Eventually, the boss starts to relent.

Finally, he says that it’s okay and he’ll close the Service Counter.

“Let me know if you need any help with the closing duties,” I say. “You probably saw the email — I was just promoted to Training Supervisor, so I’m here to answer your questions.”

HA!

It was clear to this employee what was actually going on.

He definitely only wanted me working the Service Counter so he could goof off in the back or on the computer, and so he wouldn’t have to do the cleaning at the end of the night — the Service Counter has a lot of cleaning.

He also thought that since I am young and a woman, he could probably just tell me to do something and I’d do it.

The boss isn’t likely to underestimate her again.

Well, he just learned that I didn’t get promoted because I’m a corporate pushover — but because I am a vicious, malicious complier and I want things done the way they need to be done, and I am not afraid to speak my mind.

Later in the evening he came back and was trying to talk to me, be all buddy-buddy, and seem cool. I was professional.

I doubt he messes with me like that again. But if he does — I am ready.

Sounds like this boss is going to have to find a new target.

What did Reddit think?

This part of the story was an absolute slam dunk.

Sometimes you have to manage up.

Every workplace has its tradeoffs.

Sometimes you don’t think of the perfect retort until it’s way too late.

Bosses are supposed to lead by example, not avoid hard work like the plague.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.