In the fast food world, you depend on your coworkers to get things done quickly and efficiently. Everyone needs to put aside their differences and work as a team. Some people aren't good with that though. There are those people who basically just go to work to get a paycheck and that's it. They frustrate their fellow coworkers with their lack of skill and intelligence. The following people share their stories of the idiots they had to work with and the grief they left in their wake.
(Content has been edited for clarity)
Getting On Her Last Nerve
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“Several years ago, there was a hostess at the restaurant I worked for. She lasted about six weeks. She was the single worst coworker I have ever had.
Thanks to my winning personality and perfect white teeth, I gained many regular customers, particularly old folk. The restaurant policy was that any guest could request a certain server. This happened all the time with me. This hostess would actually tell them they couldn’t sit with me because I was just sat and she was supposed to rotate through all the other servers’ sections. Most of them were too nice to complain and only mentioned it the next time they came in.
This girl was also vindictive. She asked me to cover her and greet and seat incoming guests while she went outside and had a break. I said I was busy taking care of the two dozen customers spread across five different tables that I currently had. She didn’t like that. The next time we worked together, she took special care not to sit my section unless small parties of one or two came in. I asked her what the deal was. Why was my section (which had tables that sat 6+) getting only one and two tops while larger parties are being stuffed into small booths with a chair on the end? She said, ‘Look at the rotation chart. You’re equal to everyone else.’ At the end of the shift, I compared my sales with other servers’ sales. Theirs were $400-$700. Mine was $220. This means she cost me easily $50. This continued when she found out I tipped her out the bare minimum each day but gave other hosts a couple extra bucks (they helped me, she didn’t).
She invented rules. Everyone was supposed to run food when coming out of the kitchen. She didn’t have to because she wasn’t a server. Everyone separates dishes they bring back to the dish area. She didn’t because she had to get back to the front door quickly. No one is allowed to use their cell phone in the front of the house. She thought she was an exception because her kid’s babysitter might need to reach her and calling the restaurant and asking to speak with her would take too long. So she would ‘check’ her phone every ten minutes just in case.
The worst incident was when she hit ‘send’ on a computer before I had finished ringing in food. I had a large party (about 15 I think). I meticulously was typing in their rather complicated order. I got about halfway done but had to go back to the table to clarify one order. When I get back to the computer, that hostess was diddling away at buttons. ‘You didn’t just send that, did you?’ I ask.
‘I needed to clock out,’ she responded nonchalantly. There were four other computers within thirty feet that she could have used but, instead, she sent half my order to get to that computer. It took another ten minutes to ring in the rest of the table’s food. Later, half the food came out then the other half came out ten minutes later. They weren’t thrilled. They ended up tipping below the 18% auto gratuity (they don’t have to pay it, its just a suggestion, but everyone does) I think I got about 8%.
Anyway, she eventually stopped showing up for work. Worst coworker ever.”
Truck Stops Are Usually Known For Their Cleanliness
“I work as a dishwasher in a small restaurant; basically a truck stop off the Ohio Turnpike. Several months ago, J, a new guy, joined and started working the line. The first couple nights, he seemed like an okay guy to me. I don’t interact a ton with the other employees, so a lot of the stuff that goes down between coworkers completely flies past my radar.
A few days into J working there, it was a Friday night and we were completely slammed. I was barely keeping up on washing dishes, let alone putting them away. Once it calmed down, J came over to give me a hand catching up. He said he’d wash dishes and I could put them away. Considering this was the worst night I’d had in weeks and this was my first job, I said, ‘Okay, thanks.’ The rest of the night went perfectly fine.
Then he seemed to decide that, based on that one horrible night, I was a terrible worker who couldn’t handle my job. He was constantly abandoning the other cooks to come over and PHYSICALLY PUSH ME AWAY from the sink, even on nights when we were really slow. He’d yell across the kitchen that they needed a certain size plate/pan/whatever RIGHT NOW, and then when I’d get over with some, they’d still have a decent-sized stack to be used. He’d complain if I had to come to their side of the line to put something away, and go off if I waited to bring them over until they weren’t busy. He would stay later than everyone else to come over and scrub the walls in the dish area, because I wasn’t doing a good enough job for his standards. He insisted on completely emptying and washing the tubs from the steam table every night; something that’s normally done about once a week; because the containers that the food sits in touches them. He’d give me attitude and say I needed to learn to respect my elders, even though I was perfectly civil at the start of each shift until he decided to start with me. Multiple times, he’d ask if I wanted to learn to cook something on the line and then get really angry when I said no. He’d take 20-30 minute breaks in his truck and come back in, having obviously taken something.
He eventually got fired because he was picked up by the cops for failing to appear in court. That same week, we had another guy with the same name start work, thus why we always refer to him as Crazy J.
The other line cooks said they were pretty sure he had an unmedicated bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or something. One of the cooks says she even got a restraining order against him after he was fired because he wouldn’t leave her alone.
If he’d stayed on through the summer, I honestly don’t think I’d have been able to keep working there.”
Freakin’ Maggie
“I worked at a Starbucks. After 1.5 years of solid barista work, I got promoted to shift supervisor, so I had to move to a different store. I arrived on my first day there (just orientation to introduce me to everyone and take a couple online training), I reached out my hand to meet Maggie. The manager informed me that Maggie was their best barista and ‘owned the morning rush.’ Maggie grunted at me and didn’t shake my hand. Okay, maybe she had a rough day.
A couple days later, she refused to make eye contact with me. This job requires good and constant communication, but Maggie refused to talk to me, causing several orders to get messed up or unfilled. After her shift was over, I took her aside and apologized. She screamed, ‘AUGHH!’ then stormed out the door raging.
I asked a coworker what Maggie’s deal was. I learned the back story that the manager thinks of her as a daughter, has strong favoritism towards Maggie, assumes Maggie is the only person who can handle any task but had refused to promote her to shift supervisor. She had been gunning for the vacant position, then I got it, so she resented me.
I had some empathy for Maggie at this point. After a year of working with her, the empathy vanished. Sure, Maggie got a lot thrown at her, but she refused to perform her tasks well. She didn’t show up for shifts if the weather was bad. Oh, also this ‘owning the morning shift’ thing – she constantly screamed at customers or was very curt with them, then she would insist that they ‘like being talked to that way. They know I’m kidding.’ On more than one occasion, a customer would come over to me and say how nice it was when Maggie wasn’t there because no one was yelling.
She’d deliberately do things poorly, then turn around and say she was the only person who could do them. It became clear that it was Maggie herself who had demanded all these extra tasks.
This all came to a head one day. As her supervisor, I was explaining that I really value good communication and needed her to vocally confirm drink orders. I have the exact same expectations for all other staff and for myself. She had about five inches and 30 pounds on me. She lunged herself at me, red-faced, screaming that she was going to hurt me if I didn’t stop ‘getting in her face.’
When I told the boss, she said that Maggie was the best barista in the store, she ‘owns the morning shift,’ and I just need to listen to her. I said, ‘So I’m her supervisor, but I am supposed to take orders from her?’ The boss said it’s just easier that way (side note: worst boss I ever had). I consulted with my old boss back before the promotion who said I should objectively document every incident I have with her, keep emotions out of it, and share the journal with my manager and district manager.
So I did that. I explained to my boss that I have journals explaining everything that happened. She said, ‘Okay, we obviously need to discuss this. Come in tomorrow at X time and we will hear you out.’ I show up and Maggie walked out, looking very smug. I went in and started sharing my part with the store and district managers. They stopped me and said that they weren’t interested in hearing it. They’d heard enough and trusted Maggie’s side of the story.
I went home and applied to grad school programs. In a terrifying turn of events, Maggie is now a cop.”
But Look At My Sweet Wheels!
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“When I worked at Wendy’s, we had this one manager who had an illegal substance habit. He would take ‘breaks’ and come back all hyped up, itching himself every other minute. He also liked to show off and brag about his cars that he rented and always said that he doesn’t even need to work because he had so much money.
Anyway, one day I was working the night shift and since our Wendy’s was right next to the local high school’s football game, we were getting ready for an influx of customers. The manager offered to cover my register right after the game ended so I could take a break. Now, we had two registers and we could only have one running at a time. So you’re supposed to take the next register if you’re covering for someone. He proceeded to take my register and said that he couldn’t log into the other one since he forgot his ID card. I thought nothing of it and proceed to take my break.
Once the night was over, I went to have my register counted. Turns out I was $200 short. I know there was no way I missed that much cash, so we checked again, but it was still off. He told me to pay it out of pocket or else he would write me up and get me fired. Knowing that he was just a ‘Shift Supervisor,’ I told him to go off and headed home.
I came in the next day and the general manager (super awesome nice guy) had a sit down with all the employees. The manager from previous night drove up in a brand new blue Audi and bragged about it as the general manager addressed the money we’d lost from last night. Once it’s over, he called me and the guy who was on the drive-thru register that night to ask us how we lost the money. Turns out, the other guy was $200 short as well and we both had our shifts ‘covered,’ along with the other employees that had the register before us.
We put two and two together to figure out that he had stolen about $700 that day to buy his new car. He got fired immediately and the cops came to pick him up since he confessed once we confronted him.
I quit shortly after.”
So Horrible The Whole Store Is Transferring To A New Location
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“I worked at a popular ice cream store a couple of years ago. We had hired this woman who was around 30 years old. This was a little odd, but I thought nothing of it. The following happened:
-She stood around doing nothing most of the time. When she did work, she cut so many corners that we (meaning me) had to go back and redo everything.
-She always put things in the wrong place and I had to deal with angry customers at the register. One example being she put the gallon milk jugs in the half gallon spot and I was yelled at for a good seven minutes by one man because of it.
-She frequently would disappear and be found talking on her cellphone in the back.
-I later had to put in my two weeks later due to severe drama and I transferred stores. I found out that literally every other person flat out refused to even be on the same shift with her. I thought she was bad, but not that bad.
On my last two weeks, I was written up for $30 missing out of my till and my tills were always immaculate. Since we always floated around due to customer demand, I couldn’t point a finger but I never let anyone on ever again. They knew I didn’t do it but there was nothing they could do because it was under my name.
I left and moved stores and one month later, I ran into an old coworker and found out that same woman was fired for stealing $120 and got caught along with another coworker she talked into her scheme who stole $70.”
Clever Boy
“I was a swing manager at McDonald’s in high school. We had one employee, Johnny, who just didn’t want to do any work. He was in the kitchen so his duties were to cook, prep, clean and restock. His favorite thing to do was prep. Ask the man to make a Big Mac and you’d get the worst sandwich ever. Ask him to slice tomatoes and you’d get perfection.
Anyways, one day we’re really busy and I’m helping out in the basement with an inventory order. Johnny comes downstairs and his hand is sliced, bad. The cut was down to the bone and bleeding everywhere. It looked like he put his hand in the tomato slicer and just smashed it onto his hand. Thing is, he was so calm. Looked pleased with himself. We sent him home thinking that was that. He strolled out, said goodbye to his coworkers and we never saw or heard from him again. That night I’m sorting out all the tills to take the dailies to the safe drop at the bank. We’re missing nearly $5,000 in cash from the manager’s safe. Never happened before. Never happened again. Don’t know how he did it.”
He Was So Sure That HIS Way Was The Best Way, Even When It Wasn’t
“The new guy I was training to cook at KFC was slower than a sloth and whenever I would show him the way we do things, he would just do it his slow way and say it’s easier. You haven’t even tried the way we are SUPPOSED to do it!
One night, he put his jersey on top of the cardboard boxes which were on top of the lockers, I grabbed his jersey off to get a box down and his phone fell out of his pocket and hit the ground, I picked it up and checked if it smashed. It hadn’t so I put it back in his pocket and went on to work.
The next day, he came up to me all angry, saying I have to pay for a new phone because I smashed his, he showed me his phone and there was literally a 2mm crack in the bottom right-hand corner. I just told him maybe he shouldn’t put his stuff on top of things that we needed every day.
This was within three days of him starting. He was a smart guy but an absolute 0 in the social department and general tasks.”
How Dare You Emasculate Me Like This!
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“When I was in college, I worked supervising the university’s bakery. Every fall, for New Student Orientation, we made literally thousands of chocolate chip cookies for incoming freshman. Fortunately, we had a machine called a dough divider that would cut a batch of cookie dough into even portions; all we had to do was roll the evenly cut portions into a cookie shape after it had been pressed through the divider. Well, I was the most experienced, fastest, and most senior worker at the bakery so I thought I’d be in charge of the machine and let my team roll the individual cookies. However, the one guy on the team decided it was an insult to his masculinity to let a girl be in charge of the one piece of machinery involved in making and would not let me touch it. He would pout and sulk and physically try to block my access to the dough divider if I told him to roll cookies instead.”
Too Much Stupid For Such A Small Place
“I worked at Taco Bell for four years, I started when I was 17. I had a strange closing manager who literally was over my head while I was on the line making food the whole night. Once, I forgot a cinnamon twist in one order and so he demanded that I do 20 pushups or I would be fired. Dead serious. This was my first job, so I really wasn’t trying to lose it.
I had another manager a few years later who was the laziest person I ever met. He’d take so many breaks that we called it stargazing. He sat on the window edge in between orders and was so big that he broke it then blamed it on us. The worst thing he did was taking a sour cream handheld machine and squirting it on the head of a girl we worked with. She was wearing a visor, so you can imagine how that went. I would have reported it, but the girl and I had just broken up a week ago, so whatever, I laughed my butt off.”
No Choice, But To Deal With It
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“I work at the food court at my local mall. I started working there about three weeks ago and there was this girl who’d started two full weeks prior. I was really starting to be annoyed by her. She acted like Mother Theresa and she is so full of herself just because she works in another place (temporarily) and here for 20 hours a week. Last week, I was unloading the dishwasher at work and extremely hot water fell on my leg. Thank God I work in trousers or else I would have been badly burned. That girl had ripped an inch of her trousers a few hours before and had been talking about that the entire night. My manager saw me spilling the water on my leg and ran to me, asking if I was okay. The girl ran there too, just to say, ‘Hey, it would have been worse if you had just ripped your pants!’ I stood there, just looking at her. I couldn’t even say anything, that was just plain dumb!
A half hour later, she decided she wanted to grab one of our natural juices, then she grabbed the thing you use to separate water from tuna. I asked her why and she told me she saw a maggot in our oranges and she doesn’t want to eat a maggot. That would be okay if I didn’t know that all our fresh produce gets inspected every day. If they are not okay, we don’t sell them. A few minutes after this, she needed something from the top shelf and climbed up the cabinet where her glass was. She broke it and left it for me to clean. I did, but after I called her out about leaving the orangey mess for me to clean. I told her that was not my job (I was swamped with dishes in the kitchen). The next day, I told the supervisor I was not happy about being a maid to my coworkers and this was not my job. My supervisor was so cool and gave her a rough night that day.
Today, I am going to work with her. I am dreading the hour. Every time I work with her, I leave work late, like almost 2 am, and when I don’t work with her, we leave on time. It is like she uses the restaurant as her personal canteen (she is always eating) and leaving all the work for others. I really can’t afford to quit the job, but I am starting to feel nauseous every time it is time for me to come here.”
Not Just Your Average Butt Kisser
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“I have this hosting gig and one of the girls I work with is terrible. She’s a sweet enough girl, but some of the things she does are over the top. She is dating one of the servers and he magically gets the majority of the large groups when she is in charge of seating because there is an automatic gratuity added to them. The servers complain about this all the time, but she kisses butt with the managers so nothing ever gets done about it.
Other hosts have heard her claim to be our manager to guests. I have had her attempt to order me and other hosts around, but no one pays her any mind because she is not our boss even if she believes that she is. She talks in this sickeningly sweet, obviously fake sing-song voice. She thinks Hispanic customers should go back to their respective countries. It’s so hard to be around her some days.”
Just Take The Money, But Please God Don’t Take The Walkie Talkie
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“When I was sixteen, I worked at Wendy’s. One day I went in to find out that I was training a newbie. I was working back window and as I was training the new girl, she started filling me in on her situation. She was a recovering addict who had just been released from jail for theft and was living in a halfway house. She was also 40 years old and kept hitting on me, asking if I had ever had a woman before and telling me constantly how cute I was, etc. I thought I’d have to get a new job, but two days later, addiction won out and she ran out the door with a hundred bucks. The funny thing was that had it just been the money, she would have just been fired. Since she ran out with the work walkie-talkie, she was charged with a felony (those things are stupidly pricey).”
The Kind Of Love Story Novels Are Written About
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“I had to deal with the love triangle while working at Arby’s in college.
One of my managers (female) had just split with her husband, so she got with one of the kitchen guys. When that went sour, she started hooking up with one of the female employees. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem, except the male kitchen guy clearly still harbored feelings, which led to some nasty shouting matches during work hours.
They’d try to pull the other employees into it and get us to take sides. I was all like, ‘I’m just trying to slice roast beef.'”
Hygiene In The Workplace Can Be Hit Or Miss
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“I worked at Wendy’s once and this guy would shoot up in the bathroom, then come out and start taking orders at the register with blood running down his arm.
Another guy there didn’t like the manager so he pooped in a plunger and stuck it to the ceiling. The manager pulled it down and some landed on her face.”
They Threatened To Have Everyone Submit To A Lie Detector Test To Get The Answer They Wanted
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“I worked at a family-owned fast-food Italian place. Nice job, easy work, free food, decent hours, not bad for 17-year-old high schooler.
I checked the schedule for who I’d be working with the next day and it was Manager A and co-worker A. Then, after a switch in shifts (I was across two shifts, after lunch and closing,) with Manager B and Co-worker B. They’re all decent I suppose, though one blatantly did hour fraud (came in at 8:30, but entered time as 8).
The shift went to switch so and the B’s and A’s brief each other on what’s happening. Owner and Manager C (who’s the best one) came in and told them all to pack up and leave. Turns out the As were in a relationship and were stealing money to fuel her pill addiction. The B’s were caught doing it in the office (the manager was married) plus they’d caught onto B’s hour fraud, so they were also fired. This all happened as I was cleaning a table, bewildered.
Thinking his stealing issues were over, the owner left and Manager C called employees to fill in for tomorrow’s vacancies.
Turns out, someone ELSE stole from the register the next day and we’re all told to submit to a lie detector test. Manager C came up to me and said, ‘We’re closing so you don’t have to come in anymore.’
‘But what about the lie detector test?’ I asked.
‘Even if you told me you did it, I wouldn’t believe you. You’re fine.’ That last part was nice. I didn’t steal it by the way.”
