I wanted to share the story about how I quit my job the other day, as I find you guys would enjoy it. I (17M) worked part time at a corporate restaurant. On Friday I was working the to-go service they offered while also running around helping servers out with what they needed. I was running food, getting ice, getting drinks for people’s tables, etc; While I was doing this, I also had my job to do plus had to make sure the expo line was stocked for all of us. I did this with no stop, no bathroom break and no complaining. The only times I was able to stop, I was studying the menu in order to learn it better, all while only making 8$/hr. I couldn’t even imagine how the servers felt making even less than me and doing even more. At about 7, after I had been doing this for 2 hours straight, I looked at my order and the servers orders, all of which were still being prepared. I decided this was a good time to go take a 30 second mental reset to stretch my legs and check the time, then I would stock my station with more to-go lids and get back on the grind. I sat down in an open booth, checked the time on my phone and went to respond to a text from my mother. My general manager walked passed me and decided this was the perfect time to take his anger out on someone. He told me, and I quote, “What the hell are you doing? I’m over here busting my ass off and you’re just sitting down on your phone? Y’know what? You’re cut. Go home. Get out.” My other manager saw this and was completely shocked. I shut down completely. My ears were ringing, my vision blurred and I had begun to cry. This really hurt me as I had felt me and my GM had made progress in our workplace relationship after the first incident a few months ago (which I’ll also talk about in a moment). He had truly made me feel like he did not want me there. I was enraged and upset and just tired of his moody bullshit. He couldn’t treat me well when we weren’t busy just to go and be a jackass when we were because I was the highschool kid and he didn’t want to upset the servers that had been there for 3+ years. He constantly seemed to change how he felt about me. I did my closing stuff just to help out the bartender that now had to do her job AND mine until 9 when the to-go service closed and then did my checkout. I gave the checkout to our expo person (his girlfriend btw) and said, “You can also tell [his name] I quit.” I didn’t even wait to hear her response before handing her my badge and leaving. As far as I was concerned, if he didn’t want me there, I wasn’t coming back.
The incident that I referred to earlier happened a few months ago. I was training on a slow night and it was my trainees final day, so she was supposed to be doing this relatively on her own with me there to help. I was hosting that night. I walked around the restaurant and collected menus, I stocked the host stand, and I checked in with her. We held some friendly conversation before I walked off to get my drink. As I was doing this, my friend walked in. We sat there and talked for a moment with a couple other servers while I was watching the front door to make sure no one walked in. I was over there for maybe 15 minutes and not a single person entered the restaurant except a Doordasher that I immediately walked over to when I saw him entering the restaurant through the windows. My trainee was on her phone, my GM was conducting an interview and a new hire was doing training videos so everything seemed to be going well. My GM approached our group and pulled only me and my friend into his office. He reamed our asses about not getting to work and just talking. Keep in mind, there were two other servers talking to us as well, my friend wasn’t on until 5, and I had been there for 30 minutes since I started at 4. He told my friend that if he could be there early then he could work early and told me that he didn’t even see me go over to the host stand. Fast forward to the end of the night, I get my time slip and it’s marked at 4:30 instead of 4 for my start time. I asked him why that was and he told me that’s when he felt I began working. I’ll spare you the expense of the whole situation, but we did get a lawyer involved and I got my money. Still a shitty situation to put a person in, especially a highschool student.
After those two incidents, I figured that it’s best I just quit. I was consistently doing something wrong in his eyes and never seemed to do anything to make him happy. Since I’m able to quit on a whim because I’m still dependent on my parents, I figured it was better to do it now instead of getting myself stuck in that shithole. I’m still on the schedule for tomorrow (technically today since it’s 2 am but oh well) so I’ll update you guys if they call me when I don’t show. I hope y’all enjoy my story 🙂
TL;DR: Shitty boss kicked me out after taking a 30 break to sit and check my phone. He also took time off my time card because I was talking to coworkers (he did give it back eventually). After those two incidents, I quit because I wasn’t going to be treated like shit when I didn’t have to.