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Antiwork

Told I couldn’t quit until I found my own replacement

This happened a few years ago, at a college summer job. I was working as an expedite in the kitchen of a German bar in a college town. First off, this was my second job, and easily the worst job I ever had. I was paid 10$ an hour, and only got tipped out a handful of times (and only from the one cool bartender). As expedite I would do everything from prep food, wash dishes, and even serve customers on a regular basis. All the servers walked home with 300-500 a night, without tipping me out. However, the worst part of the job was the management. One specific manager would constantly yell at everyone, push you out of the way, spray me in the face with degreaser, throw ketchup on me, and yell at me for practicing safe food handling procedures like washing my hands. In fact, he would…


This happened a few years ago, at a college summer job. I was working as an expedite in the kitchen of a German bar in a college town.

First off, this was my second job, and easily the worst job I ever had. I was paid 10$ an hour, and only got tipped out a handful of times (and only from the one cool bartender). As expedite I would do everything from prep food, wash dishes, and even serve customers on a regular basis. All the servers walked home with 300-500 a night, without tipping me out.

However, the worst part of the job was the management. One specific manager would constantly yell at everyone, push you out of the way, spray me in the face with degreaser, throw ketchup on me, and yell at me for practicing safe food handling procedures like washing my hands. In fact, he would stick his unwashed hands into buckets of coleslaw and eat it right out of the bucket and cuss me out after I told him I’m not serving that anymore. Overall, it was easily the most toxic work environment I have ever encountered.

Now, since this was just a summer job and a secondary job of mine, I didn’t really care about the toxicity as much as I should have. To be honest, sometimes I looked forwards to seeing just how big of a shitshow it would be.

But along came the end of the summer and there was no chance I was gonna continue working there over my other job. So I put in my two weeks notice.

Next day I get called over to speak with the other manager. She tells me “You’ve been such a great worker, and the best expedite we have. You need to find yourself a replacement before we are able to take you off the schedule.”

I knew management was delusional but I still didn’t expect that. The same people that constantly treat me like shit are now telling me how good I am? They want me to find my own replacement at the worst job I’ve ever worked? Not a chance. I walked out that day and never bothered coming back. In fact I make it a point to tell every person I know NOT to go there.

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