Anyone got their stories on these type of managers/owners? Here's mine.
I worked in an open cafeteria type kitchen where we had a front kitchen visible to customers and a back kitchen where most of the prep was done.
Customers would order food and get a “ticket” then go look around the tourist part of the building while their food cooked. They would bring the ticket back and get their food but no cutlery. Cutlery was at the checkout at the end of the cafeteria when they paid. Stupid system that had rampant food waste and theft.
Anyways someone always had to be standing out front. This person worked the grill, cold table, ex. In slow times it was just 1 person. Even if the cafeteria was empty someone had to be there on the off chance a customer walked in.
Now I have been a cook for a while. I'm not a messy person and I work quite efficiently. My cold tables are always stocked and my work space is clean, swept, and sanitized. In slow hours I'd get maybe 3 customers.
So in slow hours I do a lot of standing around trying not to die from boredom. Because I'm not allowed to go to the back kitchen I have to stay out front. I had this manager who had a huge issue with that. Every time they saw me not working they would kick up a fuss about me just standing there… even though that's my job.
He would holler about “cleaning not leaning” despite my emaculate work station, because trust me the job was so boring I'd rather clean to pass the time. I would have done my job just fine if he left me the hell alone.
Instead I had to look “busy”. So every time he showed his face out of his office I would magically have a “ticket”. I'd cook cheap foods like grilled cheese or western omlettes just so I'd have something to do in his vision. If he asked about the customer I'd tell him they went to explore the attractions.
After the food was prepared and the imaginary customer never showed up to collect it would just be written off as typical food waste. Happened all the time, exspecially when people had to catch tour busses.
So yes I made and threw out probably dozens of sandwiches and omlettes because this manager just would not stop breathing down my neck. And no food was not given to workers if customers did not collect. We had to throw it out otherwise people would be doing exactly what I was doing to get free food. Except I was just doing it to be left alone by my manager.
Long story short obsessive managers just cost the company money and make the job harder then it has to be.