When I was 17 and still at school I had a part time job in retail. The boss was dreadful but the rest of the staff were cool. There were four of us (boss/assistant manager, ft sales assistant and me part time.)
The job however was really dull. It was a chain of camping and outdoors equipment shops I had had no interest in tents. We were rarely busy but the week before Christmas was typically 10x as busy as normal weeks (I didn’t know sleeping bags were a big Christmas gift)
So it was clear for month that the boss didn’t like me. I was a cheeky/funny teenager who worked hard but had an attitude that could easily be seen as disrespectful (but not around customers)
The last year Christmas Day fell on a Wednesday. The Saturday would be crazy busy but the Monday/Tuesday would be a rush as well. Although I normally only worked Saturday as it was school holidays I was scheduled to work every day they were open.
So, this Saturday we were busy but even with all the customers the boss decided that she needed to do paperwork (sit up stairs and drink coffee) for most of the morning. We each got a 10 minute break mid morning(one at a time) and I drew the short straw and had to go and ask the boss to go downstairs and cover me.
I walked into the office in response to the request I was looked at as if I was something she’d stepped in. I’m not sure if she’d been planning this or if she just decided on the spot but she decided it would be a good time to review my performance.
In front of her she had the printed sales stats for the year so far. Each of us had a till number which we had to register all our sales under. It was very low tech.
She said “look, you are consistently the worst performer in the branch. It’s not good enough. “
“I’m not surprised. I’m only only here 1 day a week while everyone else works 5 or 6.”
“Even then it’s still not good enough.”
I asked to see the figures and she point to the line with my sales.
“That’s not my number”
“Yes it is, number 4”
“I know that I’m number 4 but you are pointing to the figures for number 3, which is you. I’m selling more in one day than you sell in 5!”
This made her very angry but I didn’t care.
“OP, I don’t like you. You’re lazy and I’m planning to fire you after the Christmas rush. “
I’d had enough.
“Why wait. I’ll just leave now,” and I turned and walked out the office.
She was shocked but shouted “you’ll have to bring your shirt back!”
“Don’t worry, you can have it how.”
So I took off my shirt, threw it on her desk and walked back downstairs carrying my coat.
I walked onto the shop floor shirtless to the surprise of the customers and the other staff and headed towards the exit.
“Where you going?” The AM called.
“I just quit so I’m going home”
“You b*stard, I was going to quit first. Wait there.”
The AM runs up stairs, tells the boss where to stick her job and throws another shirt on her desk.
A minute later he reappears and the two of us exit the shop shirtless.
I think the boss ended up getting her mum to help out so there weren’t only 2 of them the busiest week of the year.