Food Industry Workers Who Quit Their Job Share How They Left In A Blaze Of Glory

The most unbelievably dramatic ways to tell your boss you are done with your terrible food service job!

A Kid Helps Out A Down On His Luck Dad

“I worked at Boston Market in high school and I had not been getting the best hours to work. So the new schedule came out and I saw I had 6 hours for the whole week and I was angry. The last order I had a guy came in and just wanted some kids meals for his two kids. I asked him if he wanted anything for himself but I could tell that he was in a bind with money. Dude paid in all change and barely had enough. Anyway, I went to the back and got him a party platter that we use for catering and I gave him at least 15 peoples worth of food and almost a whole rack of fresh cornbread. I mean, I absolutely hooked this guy up! He had more food than he could carry. I put my apron on the counter and helped him carry it to his car, dude started crying and all and after he had it all packed up I just walked home. I think it was a good way to go out.”

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Vindictive Employee Gets Everyone Fired

“I was working at Friendly’s in Massachusetts. I was scheduled to close on a Friday night. There should have been 3 of us – the manager, me and a waiter. The manager was a terrible person. The manager and the waiter were dating. They asked me to close alone so they could go out. They also asked me to clock them out at 1 instead of 11:30 when they wanted to leave. I asked for $100 cash. They gave it to me from their tips. They left at 11:30. I clocked them and myself out at 11:45 and walked out the front door – lights on, door unlocked, dirty dishes still sitting on some tables.
Saturday morning I called the board of health and told them how filthy the place was.
They were shut down by noon. The manager, the waiter and the regional manager were all fired.”

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A Crazy Owner Chases Away His Only Server

“I was a server in a really crappy restaurant. It was owned by a husband and wife. The wife was truly in charge and responsible for actually getting most things done. The husband was a hot-headed jerk who showed up from time to time to kick the cook out of the kitchen and play chef himself. He was terrible at cooking. His wife did her best to just keep him out of the restaurant altogether, but he was a hot-headed jerk and did as he pleased. Luckily he was also lazy and restaurant-ing is work so he wasn’t there very often.
Anyway, one day on a slow morning when I was the only server, he came in to cook breakfast and was just ruining everything. He was smoking in the kitchen, using way too much grease and burning things. Customers would order scrambled eggs and bacon (how hard is that???) and he would give me blackened mystery substances dripping with grease to bring to the table. I refused. He screamed at me (within earshot of customers) and told me he was the restauranteur, not me, so I had better do as I was told. So I took the gross food to the tables, they complained and asked me to replace it while looking at me like they couldn’t believe I would have brought it to the table in the first place. I brought it back to the kitchen and hot-head can’t believe they didn’t want it. He doesn’t believe me and yells at me some more. I am not about to bring the same food out to the table so I refuse and tell him to do it himself. As you can imagine he did not like that very much and he let me know loudly, but he did take it out. They gave him the same response they gave me and he shouted at them! He shouted a whole rant at them about how they had no idea what food was and he grew up in Greece where food was an art and he went to school and owned a restaurant and what credentials did they have? Who were they to question his food? He told them his restaurant was only for people who truly appreciated food and they could just go eat somewhere else.
They did leave, in silence. I think they were too shocked at what had happened to come up with a rebuttal.
When he came back from his incident with them he told me I was on thin ice and he didn’t care for the backtalk I had given him. He said if I don’t like the way he runs things I could just leave.
I was the only server in the place. I was so upset I couldn’t see straight and he had just told me to leave if I didn’t like how he operated. I didn’t like how he operated, so I left. He must not have realized that there were no other servers because I immediately got a voicemail about how it was all a misunderstanding and I should come back because they were busy (how they were busy I don’t know) and everything would be alright.
Luckily I was working two jobs at that time, so I had the option of just picking up more hours at the other place. I didn’t answer his calls until hours later when the voicemails started sounding really desperate. All I said was I can’t talk because I’m working my other job but I’m not coming back, so stop calling.
I heard from ex-coworkers that his wife came in shortly thereafter, cried uncontrollably, and closed the place for the rest of the day.
That did make me feel bad because she was a nice lady who worked hard and I can only imagine how hard it was to try and run a restaurant with a husband like that.”

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A Cook Calls In Dead

“25 years ago, I was a freshly minted line cook in a mid-scale American restaurant. We have a prep cook by the name of Joe. Joe was a big guy, kinda of slow, was always talking about how he was in the Culinary Union in NYC working in the big hotels and all the great chefs he worked for. Looking back now, I would say he was probably somewhere on the autism spectrum, but high functioning. The Kitchen Manager rode him relentlessly to get his work done (this is a key point to working in kitchens, we don’t care where you worked or how awesome your other jobs were, shut up and get your work done), which in turn gave everyone else permission to do the same.

So, I come in for my shift one day and I search out my manager to see what I needed to get started on and he tells me how Joe didn’t show for work and his roommate had called an hour before, saying that he had a heart attack the night before and was dead. Now, we all felt terrible because we were so mean to him. The GM wants to send flowers and get memorial service information and asks the sous chef to find out (she knew where he lived). The sous chef takes a flower arrangement over to Joe’s parent’s house, knocks on the door, the roommate answers the door and the sous chef can see Joe sitting in the LazyBoy in his underwear playing Nintendo. Joe is shocked to see someone and admits that he didn’t think anyone would care, he just wanted to quit.”

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A Man Has A Simple Message

“I worked at Tim Hortons when I was in high school. Had a coworker who got the job for the entire purpose of giving him an excuse for where his money came from – he sold illegal stuff. So he really didn’t care at all. He did ridiculous things on shift and finally, quit by walking out of the store mid-shift. He dropped his pants on the way out because earlier in the week he’d gotten a tattoo on his behind.
So during the Sunday AM post-church rush, this guy walks out of the store, butt hanging out of his pants, with ‘KISS THIS’ across both cheeks.”

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A Dramatic Moment That Clears The Place Out

“I was a bartender for six years in a little dive bar. When I started the only business they had was from pool and dart leagues three nights a week. The other nights were a few regulars. I brought in a bunch of my friends. This attracted more and more and in six months we were packed. I started a karaoke night and themed parties. The owner lived with his family close by. He loved me, I made him more money than he had made in a very long time. He gave me full control of the place, which would have been great if not for his wife. This woman wanted to control everything. I put up with her nonsense for six years, until one night when she went too far.

She attempted to kick out some of our most loyal and highest spending customers just because they were being a little loud and her daughter’s friends (who was underage and whom I refused to serve, so she served them) complained that she had a headache. I argued with her and she called me a nasty jerk. I quit right there. Made an announcement over the DJ’s mic and left. EVERYONE left with me. The only customers left were her daughter’s three friends. The owner begged me for months to come back, but I knew she would still keep her nonsense up. They went out of business less than a year later.”

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A Man Loses It On A Mean Customer

“Was working at a restaurant and hadn’t been there for very long at all, like a week. I’m the opening server that day and start making coffee and getting everything prepped for the day. Old guy comes in, sits down, and orders a cup of coffee. I literally tell him ‘I just started a fresh brew right now so I will be back in one moment.’ I go back to the back and bring said coffee to the guy and he takes one sip and spits it out, telling me that I’m lying to him because the coffee is ice cold and proceeds to throw a cup of steaming hot coffee on me. I freak out, naturally, since my skin is burning and run to get it off of me. Come back to find my manager talking to him telling HIM that he’s sorry and that he will get him another cup. We walk back to the back together and I demand that the guy be asked to leave and my manager tells me that he’s an old regular and he is ‘just like that.’ I needed this job really bad, so I actually swallowed my pride and went out to check on the other tables. Get stopped by the old jerk and he asks me if I’ve learned how to make a decent cup of coffee yet.
I lost it. Like power level over 9000 lost it. I had tried my best to just roll with the punches but I was officially at “I don’t deserve to be treated like this and my manager is a jerk for doing nothing.’
I take my apron off and throw it in the guy’s face. I lean over the table and look into his eyes while he pulls the apron off and I tell him ‘My numbers to clock in are (random string of numbers I can’t remember), if you think you can do my job so much better than me go get your own stupid coffee you old sack of dung. I should sue the heck out of you for throwing that coffee on me. Better yet, I should beat the snot out of you. But instead, I will walk out that door with the sweet satisfaction of knowing you are going to die soon, alone and angry at the world. I pity you.’
I then promptly told my manager to have a horrible day and walked out.”

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A Manager Drives A Cook To Quit On The Busiest Day Of The Year

“I was working in a wings place just out of college as a cook. I start working there and everything is going ok except for the fact that I’m really underpaid. I was making minimum wage as 1 of 2 cooks in the restaurant. So, I work there for a few months and the manager sits down to talk with me. We discuss a few things and I bring up the fact that I really deserve a raise. I was working 50-60 hours a week and the compensation based on my effort really wasn’t evening out. He basically told me that cooks are a dime a dozen. So I told him I was disappointed with his retort. Times were tough for me at that time so I bit my lip and just went back to work. The next few months were terrible. The manager of the restaurant would openly put me down in front of other employees and constantly berate me for asking for more money. He would put me on back-to-back-to-back opening and closing shifts and send people home on purpose so I would be the only one left to clean the kitchen at the end of the night. I was beginning to lose my chill with this job.

So, finally, Super Bowl Sunday rolls around. For those unaware, this is a very, very busy day for restaurants that make wings. I get to work and everyone is already upset. I ask what’s up and they tell me the other cook didn’t show up and nothing is prepped for the day. I roll up my sleeves and start working. We get everything set and I start making wings for the orders. I’m working my tail off and my manager comes up to me and starts giving me the same nonsense he always does. The phones are ringing like crazy and honestly, there are more orders than the restaurant can handle. It’s total chaos. Then some of the manager’s friends (not employees) come into the kitchen and start messing with all my stuff; moving things, disorganizing stuff, sitting on my prep counters, etc. I tell them to get out and my manager storms in and lays into me. He tells me I’m a worthless piece of trash, that I never do anything right, that I’m not worth more than minimum wage and I never put in any extra effort. That was it. My brain just clicked and I stopped giving a care about anything. I stood up straight and stretched out my arms wide. Slowly took off my kitchen apron and removed my hat. Stared dead in the manager’s eyes and calmly but sternly said, ‘Have an enjoyable Super Bowl Sunday.’ I threw the apron and my hat in the fry oil basins, grabbed my bag and walked passed the rest of the employees whose mouths were hanging open and out the back to the ever fading ring of phones ringing.

I arrived at my home and met up with my roommates. I told them the story and we decided to order 200 wings and watch the game.”

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His Manager Tried To Take Advantage Of Him, So He Struck Back

“A couple of my best friends decided to get married in Scotland (were American). It was quite an expensive trip, so I picked up a part-time job at a crummy sandwich chain for about a year to save so my wife and I could attend. About 2 weeks before the trip, I was offered emergency overtime at my full-time job. I was unsure if I was scheduled to work at the sandwich joint, so I called the owner. He told me I was, which was a bummer because I could’ve stayed at my real job for about $30/hr more for the evening. So I went in to make sandwiches. Another employee told me that I wasn’t scheduled to work, rather someone called in earlier and the owner took advantage of me not knowing my schedule for the week. So I took the spot at the end of the assembly line, bagged up 8 orders and walked out the door with them, along with the little rack of about 20 bottles of hot sauce. I hopped in my car and took off back to my real job to work that overtime shift with a bunch of sandwiches for the other employees.”

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A Man Has Had Enough When His Dog Dies

“My husband worked at the busiest McDonald’s in the state. He was their hardest worker by far. He would clock out but stay and work to help catch up on work, he would take over shifts and he ran the place. He made BARELY over minimum wage. He worked so hard and cared so much for his coworkers that when he was away from work he talked constantly about it. He even talked in his sleep: ‘Thank you for order.’ He was such a great worker that they shipped him around the state. If another store ever had a test to pass they’d send him out to make sure they passed. They always passed when he was there. They also never gave him time off. When he had a day ‘off’ it was a sure thing that he’d be called in. He was constantly stressed.

Then it happened. I made a mistake that led to our dogs getting in a fight. One of the dogs was very very old. Even though I rushed her to the vet, she was too old to pull out of the shock and died. I was beside myself with grief. It just so happened that that day was the biggest inspection my husband’s store had ever had. The owner of the states franchise and the top level managers would be there. They were counting on my husband to make the best impression possible. He was going to work a 16-hour shift that day.

When my dog died, he had about half an hour before his shift. He called his boss to let him know that he might be 15 minutes late or so because he didn’t want me to bury the dog alone. His boss FLIPPED. I could hear him shouting over the phone about how family was always second and he’d better be there on time. After that call, my husband’s phone rang every 5 minutes. He was furious. So he grabbed all his uniforms, stuffed them in a bag, and went to the store. The owner and managers were there behind the counter already. They knew something was wrong right away. My husband set the uniforms on the counter and said ‘I quit’ in front of every bigwig in the state. His boss was so shocked he couldn’t say anything. And he left.”

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This Dishwasher Had Enough Of His Racist Boss

“When I was 21, I was a part-time dishwasher at a local, suburban pizza place (some terrible chain) and I learned very quickly how much I was going to hate that job. My manager said, earnestly, while referring to chasing down a black man that had walked on his tab, ‘We won’t tolerate that nonsense here; this is a white establishment.’ Coincidentally, he was bald and had been in prison for aggravated assault. Hmm… Anyway, I pretty much got tired of hearing country music, racist jokes, and petty high school drama with the actual high school kids I worked with. I didn’t really need the money and it wasn’t worth it to smell like bleach all the time and work with mongoloids. So one very busy Saturday, when I was the only dishwasher, I just refilled my cup of soda and left.”

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A Man and His Friend Revel In How They Quit On Their Jerk Of A Boss

“Worked at Subway right out of high school. I became really good friends with one of the girls that worked there (we were the closers) and it was just a mess from day 1. Our terrible manager worked mornings and thought she was the coolest person on Earth for being in her mid-to-late 20’s and managing a Subway.
Things had been bad for a while. We would get blamed for stuff we didn’t do. Essentially anything that went wrong was our fault because nothing the morning crew did could have been wrong as she was there. I don’t know how many times we worked until 1 am without pay (made us clock out a half hour after close, but usually took us numerous hours to catch up and clean/do whatever the morning crew didn’t do).
We constantly talked about how we would quit and we both basically came to the agreement that if one of us quits, the other will too.
The day finally arrives. Actually, two days. The final straw was we got audited by corporate. We got audited in the morning and they did so many things wrong that it was an abysmal failure. Who’s fault was it? Ours of course. So, we both get yelled at and blah blah blah. This nasty manager never took blame for anything. Well, the regional manager decided to send in a secret shopper during our shift to see how things were (we had no idea). The next afternoon when we show up for our shifts the regional manager is on the phone with the store manager. She calls us into her office and puts the phone on speaker. He talked about how he sent in a secret shopper and they just raved about us two. We had great customer service, the store was clean, lots of people in line but we worked fast/efficient and we kept everyone in line engaged so it didn’t feel like a long wait, even with only two employees working (like always). So he congratulated us and loved what he heard.
Well, the manager didn’t like it (of course), so she talked about the audit and blamed us again. That night we talked about quitting, and my coworker said she was doing it the following day.

She did. She shows up in her normal clothes with a bag of her subway ‘uniform.’ The manager comes back from going to the bank or something and see’s her sitting in the dining area. She knows what’s up immediately because my friend has a grin on her face. They go in the back and my friend just UNLOADS on this jerk, screaming and yelling at her and just making her look like a fool by basically knowing more about how to run the store than the manager does and also on laws about getting paid. The manager was screaming that she’d get her check in 2 weeks and my friend did her research and found out that where we live an employer must have wages within two days of an employee quitting or being terminated.
She leaves. I get done with dinner rush and managers calls me in back and says, ‘Can you believe she would do something like that?’ I look at her and I say, ‘Of course I can. You’re an extremely horrible manager. You don’t take blame for anything that you do wrong and you throw it on us. You illegally make us work without pay and you’re just an overall unpleasant person to be around. Get off your high horse, it’s a Subway.’ Handed her my apron and said ‘I’ll be nice and wash my shirt and I’ll bring it back when we come to get our wages.’
I called my friend and hung out at her place. High fives around. We went in and got wages together two days later. Everyone smiled at us like, ‘You guys rock.’
I went to college and have a great job now. I stopped in at a Taco Bell one afternoon for some lunch and who do I see? Old terrible manager. Her seeing me in a suit and all dressy and her being behind a counter being an assistant manager of a Taco Bell made my month. I immediately called my old friend and we had a good laugh.
I’m not a terrible person, this lady was just a mega tool.”

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Trusting A 16-Year-Old To Work Alone…

“My buddy worked at Subway, I was in visiting him and around 8 pm he was like ‘Ugh. I hate this job, I quit.’ Low volume Subways have one employee working in the evening and they are usually a 16-year-old kid, so it’s a recipe for disaster. We made 115 footlong subs, basically using all the food in the store. He locked up the store and we drove downtown and handed out the sandwiches to the homeless.”

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A Waiter Bottlenecks Everything On His Way Out

“I used to wait tables in a high-end steakhouse. One year, we were open for New Year’s Eve (through midnight), and our dishwasher quit early that day. The owner begged me to stay on and help wash dishes through the shift, which would end at around 2 am. I was reluctant, but I didn’t have any real plans for the night so I finally agreed.
The night was insanely busy, and dishes were piling up everywhere. I was busting my butt all through the night trying (but failing) to keep up. At one point, I look at my watch and notice it’s 11:57. I hadn’t completely caught up with the dishes, but they had slowed down coming in, so I went out to the front to watch the ball drop with everyone else. I’m there for less than a minute before the owner comes up and says ‘you better get back in the kitchen and finish those dishes!’ Wow…okay. I went back and finished my shift quietly, and began plotting my revenge.
The following Saturday night was as busy as they come. Incredibly hectic, everyone running around, hour-long wait at the door, etc. I waited until the peak part of the shift and simply stopped ringing in food orders for my tables. I took their orders, just never rang them in. I was deliberately slow in bringing drinks or anything else that was requested of me.
I waited until each of my tables had been waiting 45 minutes to an hour for their food, and then I rang in the orders. Only, I didn’t ring in the correct orders. Surprisingly, that night, every single order I had was for the most expensive food on the menu. In fact, some tables I wasn’t even serving ordered insanely expensive food. Del Monacos, 50 oz Porterhouses, and Tomahawk Ribeyes were going all over the restaurant. Over $1,000 worth of food was rung in, but not a single order was correct.
And then, I left.
I left the owner to deal with over a dozen patrons who had been waiting over an hour for their food on an incredibly busy night, only to finally receive the wrong, very expensive food. On top of that, since none of those tables were getting up to leave in the expected amount of time, I’m sure plenty of people waiting for tables didn’t get seated within the hour they were quoted, giving him more fun to deal with.
Don’t mess with me. I’m pretty vindictive.”

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A Dish Washer Takes A Prize With Him On The Way Out

“I worked as a pot wash as a kid. I hated the people I worked with. The head chef was trained by Gordon Ramsey and was a massive jerk. I got abuse every shift. So one shift, having searing hot pans literally thrown in my sink, I decided that was enough so I just restacked the still dirty pots on the side for them to use again. After 10 mins most pots and pans were used up by the chefs. They eventually noticed and weren’t happy and so I just picked up a steak they had just plated up and a cake from the fridge and walked out the back to my car. I drove off and never went back.”

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She Got Punished For Being The Best Wendy’s Employee

“In high school, I worked at a Wendy’s. This store was terrible at scheduling, and I was probably the best cashier in the restaurant. That meant I had to work dinner and close on the busy nights, which meant every Friday and Saturday, I was working.
This one particular week I booked off a Friday so I could go to a party. The schedule came out and I was scheduled to work, so I went to the manager and told her I booked it off, and she basically said ‘too bad.’
So I went to an employee who wasn’t scheduled to work and convinced them to take my shift. I went to inform the manager, and she wouldn’t let me because ‘you are the only employee with enough experience to work a Friday shift.’
I also worked the Thursday that week. During that shift, a customer called my store to tell them what a great job I did. This meant that I was to get a free meal on my next shift.
At this point, I was sick of working every weekend while all my friends were going out and having fun without me. I went in for my shift at 4 pm, went on my break at 7 pm, took my free meal, walked out of the restaurant and never walked in for another shift again.”

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