After A Supervisor Told Employees To Remain Clocked Out If They Kept Chatting, The Night Shift Followed Instructions And The Situation Ended In Mass Firings
Shutterstock
A manager should be careful when giving workers an order that can stop an entire shift.
One night crew was told not to clock back in if they planned to keep talking.
Rather than argue, the employees stayed off the clock and waited for higher management to arrive.
Check out what happened.
Crew did as they were told and were fired by shortsighted manager.
This goes back at least 25 years. So, late 90s?
I worked for a now defunct deep discount chain in Florida. I got a position on 3rd shift doing night stock.
The crew was small, only about 5-6 of us. We had a good time. We’d talk to each other across aisles, crack jokes to a video that played constantly in a corner, and make the best of it.
But there was one problem.
Our supervisor was a complete power tripper.
I hadn’t worked there very long, but even in the short time I was there I could see the crew leader wasn’t a reasonable dude.
During one shift, we were all clocking out for out lunch break. As we went in to punch the clock, we were told, “Don’t punch back in if you’re going to continue talking”.
OK. We didn’t. We did just sit around the front of the store talking until the manager came in for the day.
This is a rollercoaster ride!
Store manager got there (I can’t remember if an assistant arrived first). We gave him the quick lowdown. We were told not to punch in if we were going to talk so we didn’t.
He simply fired everybody on the spot.
Being new, I asked for my job back and got it.
The crew leader stayed, and maybe one other. I think new people were brought in.
It worked out well!
It wasn’t until some time later that the lead was demoted and replaced by me.
He quit soon after that.
It was clear that as a crew we all worked better when he wasn’t there.
I’m still wrapping my mind around the fact that the manager fired everyone but immediately rehired OP.
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.
Whistle while you work!
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Same!
Another person compares the situation to school.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a group of employees who go over their manager’s head when he insists a new process is better than the old one.
Maybe they deserved to get fired.
This night crew followed its supervisor’s order exactly, only for the store manager to fire nearly everyone when they remained off the clock.
The newer worker regained his job, later replaced the unreasonable supervisor, and proved the crew performed better without him.
Management cleared the wrong shelf that morning.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
