About ten years ago my buddy and I went to a restaurant that had a huge arcade, bowling alley and bar. Like Dave & Buster's but it wasn't D&B. It was a weekend night and the place is packed, including the bowling alley which was why we were there. The bowling alley has maybe 10 lanes.
As we're waiting in line I notice only one employee behind the counter doing everything. He seemed to be around 18. We eventually get to the register where he rings us up, gets our bowling shoes and assigns a lane.
My friend and I get just a few frames into our first game before the pin setter starts acting up. So we notified the guy and he ran behind the lanes and fix it. It seemed like every couple minutes someone else's pin setters would malfunction, necessitating him to leave the counter yet again.
So after he fixed our pin setter for like fourth or fifth time, we decided we'd had the shits of this and went to him to ask for a refund for all the games we paid for. I felt really bad for him because in our relatively short time there he had done everything with zero support. Running the register, giving out shoes, directing food orders, unfucking the pin setters and all manner of customer service you'd expect in such a place on a busy weekend night. This guy was working his ass off with likely no recognition from the manager as to his plight.
Anyways back to the refund request. I tell him we'd like our money back. He understands and processes it. As soon as he's done with that he says “Fuck this place!”, grabs his coat and heads upstairs toward the door. I was in awe and proud of him and I didn't even know him. The last time I cheered someone on like that was when my then-wife was birthing our daughter. We hung back for a minute to gather our stuff then headed upstairs the same way as the guy. As we're headed toward the door I see the guy having a frank discussion with what I assume are either two managers or owners. The guy is clearly upset and on the verge of tears. The two manager/owners have a look of concern on their faces. Then I do something that my introverted self wouldn't ordinarily do. I interject myself in the middle of the conversation. I didn't even wait for the owner/manager to stop talking. I just started talking over them. I was so pissed on the guy's behalf. While I don't remember exactly what I said (it's been a decade now), I do know I told them how this guy had been giving his absolute best to the customers. How he was singlehandedly keeping a shitty bowling alley operating on what seemed like their busiest night of the week. And how he wasn't supported in the least. I told them they deserved to lose him and if he somehow changed his mind to stay on, he deserved a massive raise. I then turned to the guy and told him he made the right choice, then headed to the parking lot.
As we're getting settled into the car, i see him walkijg out the door to his car. Every time I drive past that place I think of that night.