As paying customers, there can be a sense of entitlement when it comes to dining out. It is reasonable to expect good food, good service, and a friendly atmosphere wherever you decide to eat. The staff of those establishments also have their own expectations of themselves and their patrons. These stories exemplify what can go wrong when customers and staff are pushed to their boundaries.
He Could Only Say Ruh Roh!
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“This guy in a restaurant kitchen got in a fist fight with a younger guy, punched him in the face, backed up, started shaking his face and doing the Scooby-Doo voice.
He was nuts. I broke it up and took the other guy out of the kitchen to separate them and came back ten minutes later and the crazy guy had perfectly cleaned his area – like freaking spotless – and clocked out early and never returned. Never saw or heard from him again. He never even picked up his last paycheck.
Weirdest stuff I’ve ever seen.”
It’s Seriously A Wonder That No One Got Fired
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“There were two delivery drivers at my old pizza job. Fat Annoying and Skinny Annoying. SA was about to leave on a delivery as FA got back. FA (jokingly) blocked SA’s car from leaving. SA revved his engine at FA and FA fake-punched SA’s car hood. He made contact, but it was just a tap. I was done with my break, so I came back inside and not five seconds later, FA comes barreling in the back door, screaming his stupid redneck head off, his face COVERED in orange dye from the 3 in 1 mace that SA had in his car. Dude maced FA and just drove off to his next delivery.
Nobody got punished at all because the boss was laughing so hard, he was crying.”
Not The Greatest Judge Of Judgment Ever
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“I used to work in a kitchen in an old folks home. I had a manager named Edward who was a know it all. I had a co-worker named ‘J’ who had a very serious medical condition and required a certain medication at certain points of the day.
Edward didn’t like J or the fact that she needed to keep her medication on her person. One day, J forgot her medication and begged to run home and retrieve it. Edward smugly denied her and told her to finish work. So she tried and ended up briefly collapsing. She was okay but very weak and disoriented.
Edward grabbed her by her arm, escorted her to her car, handed her the keys and told her to leave. Then he left her there, alone, so he could go tell anyone that would listen that J was on ‘bad’ medication, maybe even possibly an addict, and he smelled some sort of drink on her. J, meanwhile, was in the parking lot and called her mom to take her to the hospital. J was only 20 and very scared.
J was discharged that night after some fluids were administered and came back the next day upon hearing what Edward told everyone about her. She stormed into HR screaming for them to ‘bring Edward into the office, IMMEDIATELY.’ As soon as he was called in she whipped her nametag at him. I obviously lingered close by like a nosey person. She was screaming at the top of her lungs that ‘Edward refused to let her go home to get her medication, which was on file and HR was very aware of, and how DARE he accuse her of being an addict.’ And if he really believed she was under the influence of something, how stupid was he to put her in a car on the company’s property leaving them liable for her damages? At this point, much noise could be heard as all three of them are screaming full force at one another.
She threatened legal action and stormed out. Well, she did take legal action. For a ton of stuff, too, including putting a clearly ill person behind the wheel. Not too long after this, I also quit. And a few months later Edward was no longer employed by the kitchen but rather was working as a deli boy in the local grocery store.
I don’t know what happened with J’s lawsuit but I hope that place and Edward got everything they deserved.
Also, honorable mention to ‘R,’ the maintenance man that threatened to shoot my old boss in the face for ‘being such a little weasel.'”
Teen Angst Personified Into Your Grocery Store Bagger
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“In high school, I worked at a grocery store and this kid was all upset at another bagger and swearing in front of the customers. He said he was hoping he’d get fired. I told him he should quit before he gets fired so that it would look better on his resume in the future.
A few minutes later, I realized he was missing. Then, suddenly, he came around the corner from the manager’s office, no longer in uniform (he’d thrown his uniform in the trash in front of the manager). He looked at me and said loudly ‘I took your advice!’ Then he proceeded to walk across the front end, pointed to each associate and flipped the bird to each of them individually and walked out. Everyone was staring at me after and I said: ‘I did not tell him to do THAT!'”
A Perfect Example Of Having Too Many Cooks
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“Just about a month ago now, two of the kitchen guys at the restaurant that I bartend at got in an incredibly heated argument over the best way to ‘orally pleasure a woman.’ One was very for tongue punching the old fart box and the other was very, very against it.
Every time I went back to grab food, they were both getting angrier and angrier. It got to the point of them screaming at each other and pans being thrown before finally they seemed to calm down. About 20 minutes later, I went to check on the food and only the dishwasher was in the kitchen and no food was even being cooked and a stream of orders was still coming out of the printer.
Apparently, the argument started back up and to solve it once and for all, they went to the parking lot and beat the living snot out of each other. They came back in, bruised and quite bloodied, and tried to go back to cooking food like nothing happened. Five minutes later the owner stormed in with two guys that weren’t supposed to be working that night to cover the rest of the shift and fired both of them as they tried to defend their arguments to the owner while the entire staff tried to stifle our laughter.”
When The Dishwasher Is Finally Taken Out To The Trash
“It was my first job working as a host at a local restaurant. Our short and stocky chef was being pestered by our 15-year-old dishwasher boy. Now, this dishwasher boy was annoying on any given day; non-stop talking, tons of gossiping, whining and bragging pretty much from the start to the end of his shifts.
I was standing at the host station at the tail end of the evening rush when, out of nowhere, I heard our chef yell (through the walls of the kitchen, mind you), ‘THAT’S IT, YOU LITTLE WORM!’ That was followed by the high pitched wail of the dishwasher boy. I only had time to jerk my head towards the racket when the dishwasher boy came sprinting out of the kitchen (still screaming), ran past me, past customers, and out the door of the restaurant. Seriously, him shrieking as he ran by was the only time I’ve had the chance to experience the Doppler Effect without a vehicle passing by. Seconds later, the chef burst out of the kitchen and followed him out of the restaurant, hot on his heels.
What incited the altercation was that the dishwasher boy was being his usual aggravating self and Chef, having enough of him, told him to knock it off. Dishwasher boy then decided the appropriate thing to do would be to overhand throw a spoiled spoon at chef while he was working at his station. The spoon caught him square in the face and that was that.
So now every customer in the restaurant and I were staring in awe into the parking lot as chef closes the distance on dishwasher boy. Dishwasher boy appeared to turn and say something to the chef in frantic defense for himself. Whatever he was trying to say was cut short as chef grabbed his torso with both hands, literally hoisted him up above his head, took two large steps towards the open steel dumpster, and hurled the dishwasher boy right into it.
Chef walked back in and got back to work without saying a word. Dishwasher boy climbed out and came back in, crying, and got back to work. Customers kept asking me, ‘What just happened?!’
We received a lot of customer complaints that night.”
I’m Irish, Enough Said
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“This Irish bloke I used to work with, Sean, worked at a Chinese buffet place and had been drinking. Someone made a slight crack at him, not even sure what it was, but Sean claimed it had to do with him being Irish, some sort of personal insult.
He let it be for about five minutes but then just suddenly interrupted the other guy while he was talking to someone else and said, ‘You dirty, lying snake.’ The guy looked bemused and Sean just repeated, ‘You’re a dirty, lying idiot, aren’t you?’ He was becoming more and more consumed with rage and pointing violently at the other guy’s chest.
The guy was basically like, ‘What…’
Then, all of a sudden, Sean threw the wildest haymaker, knocking the guy right into a table full of Chinese food, which collapsed, making a pretty impressive noise and mess.
The guy was on the floor, absolutely covered in shiny sauce, and Sean picks up a pint glass and just tipped it all over him. He finally seemed to calm down and then just shrugged as if to say, ‘What can you do?’ and said, Well… he is a dirty, lying snake, that fella.’ Then he strolled out, as casual as you please.”
You Should Never Go Full “Caniac”
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“I was at Canes (a popular chicken restaurant in the midwest, for those of you that don’t know) and this little chubby Mexican boy ordered a Caniac, which is the biggest combo you can get (it comes with fries, two pieces of toast, and six chicken fingers). So he ate this pretty quickly, then went up to get another one and proceeded to eat that one quickly, too. His mom got concerned and hesitant upon him asking for a THIRD Caniac. Keep in mind, this would be 18 chicken fingers in addition to all the bread and fries. The mom ended up saying no to him getting a third order of the Caniac, and the kid lost it. Like, I’m not kidding when I say that he was throwing an all-out temper tantrum over chicken fingers. The mom ended up having to drag him out while he was still crying.
I witnessed all of this while enjoying the Three Finger Combo.”
Could Have Been Easily Solved If He Was Able To Use His Coupon
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“I worked at McDonald’s and had the early shift. So I was there really early and one of my co-workers wasn’t coming in until 9 am. But the last I checked, he had gone to sleep around 6 am. I knew it was going to be a rough day for him and he was probably still hungover. He came in, clocked in, started working and then wanted a coffee or smoothie. He had a coupon and asked the manager if he could use it to buy his drink. The manager said to wait for his break, which wasn’t coming for another four hours. He was pleading and begging and getting hysterical about it. The manager wouldn’t budge. He finally lost it and told the manager to off himself and threw his shirt on the floor, yelling, ‘I quit,’ then lined up on the other side of the counter to buy his drink.
I was laughing hysterically, the manager was stunned. I rang him up for his drink, but he still yelled some more before finally leaving.”
Why You Shouldn’t Work At A Restaurant Hungry
Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley/Shutterstock
“I was at Publix getting a sub when I heard this:
Manager: ‘What the heck are you doing?! You know I have to fire you for doing this again.’
Worker: ‘What is the problem? I didn’t do anything wrong.’
Manager: ‘You are allowed to get something to eat on your break, not eat while you’re packing food.’
Worker: ‘So I had a couple of chicken wings, it’s not that big of a deal.’
Manager: ‘THERE ARE 50 WING BONES IN THE BOTTOM OF THAT TRASH CAN!’
Nothing else was said and the manager escorted the wing eater out. The guy was making baskets of wings and was basically going ‘one for the basket, one for me’ and eating his way through the batch of wings. The best part was when the two people making subs just started laughing and one went, ‘If the manager knew how much that guy has eaten in the two weeks he has worked here, he would crap a brick. The other day, he just sat there eating a whole container of potato salad while he was working the fryer!'”
And While You’re At It
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“I was working as a cook at Applebees. Well, a microwave technician.
Anyway, we were slammed busy. Friday night, a full window of tickets and everyone’s moving at top speed. I was competent and fast, being young and all. The other line cooks liked having me around because I would get my food done and not hold them up, plus I liked to make jokes and we made the night go by quickly.
A new manager was making a big fuss over an order of chicken wings. I told him they’re ‘down’ and would need a few minutes. That means they are in the fryer being cooked. He proceeded to berate me and tell me they’d better be done faster or something else about not moving fast enough, I don’t remember. I repeated that they’re down and I don’t control how fast they cook. My favorite line to use in such cases was, ‘I can’t change the laws of thermodynamics for you.’
Anyway, he kept being rude and screaming through the window at me. The other cooks were looking, as well as the servers, and even the dishwasher came over to see the commotion.
I looked around the room and saw everyone staring at me, wondering what was going to happen…I just took off my apron, threw it through the window at him and said (while flipping two birds) ‘Eff you, Carl, you make them,’ and walked out the back.
As I was walking out the back door, I heard Kenny, a fellow cook, yell, ‘FOR CHRIST SAKE CARL!’
I went out back and sat in the grass behind the restaurant and just chilled for a bit. The other cooks came out slowly one by one and just kinda said, ‘I’m with you man, that guy’s so dumb, but we need you to keep us from sinking in there, please come back in.’ Now, this isn’t because I was so great (I was decent) but mainly because you can’t work all the stations without people on each one. There’s just too much to do. I told them to get Carl to cook, I’m done. Carl did work the station for the rest of the night. He was not very good and was disrespectful to boot.
And so that was the night Carl got fired. I resumed my normal schedule the following night.”
Communication Would Have Really Helped This Café
“We’ll call her M. M already had a habit of being lazy and complaining, and during lunch once said something to me along the lines of, ‘I wish they’d just fire me so I could collect unemployment.’
We worked at a cafe and though it was my first job, I thought the company policies and the general atmosphere was good. M complained that this was the worst job she’d ever had.
Here comes 2 o’clock on that most fateful of days. M was off the clock at 2 and then had to go pick up her son from her mother’s. At maybe 1:57, the manager asked M to restock the line. This would take maybe five or ten minutes and we got paid for every minute we were on the clock. It’s not remotely unusual to stay five or ten minutes past your shift. M started arguing with the manager. The manager rolled her eyes, said, ‘Do it or don’t do it,’ and walked back to the office.
M kind of huffed and stomped to the back of the house, and I figured she was restocking. A customer came up then and, as the cashier, I began the usual dance.
Then I heard something. Raised voices, I thought. The customer didn’t seem to notice, so I ignored it. A minute went by. We’d finished with the order and were idly chatting while the food was being prepared. I heard raised voices again. The customer noticed this time but I managed to wave it off.
Over the next five minutes, the occasional raised voice became a constant screech in the background, as M yelled her expletive-filled rant at the manager. I was afraid to go to the back of the house and instead just tried to keep the customers distracted. M, at this point, sounded like Gordon Ramsay after huffing helium.
Another five minutes went by, M was still shouting. It was already 2:15. I idly thought to myself that M could have already been out the door if she’d just stocked the line. Finally, blissfully, the shouting stopped. I held my breath for a moment before M burst through the Employees Only door, red-faced and gasping for breath. She looked around wildly before strolling up to me, pushing me aside, and grabbing a drink cup. She shouted, ‘I’M DONE!’ and then stormed out, harshly elbowing a new employee on the way.
I went to go see the manager, who was messing around with the schedule, not looking at all like she’d just been screamed at for a solid 15 minutes. She looked up at me and casually said, ‘She’s fired.’
Afterward, they had to write up an incident report because M actually bruised the new employee’s ribs when she elbowed her. I was eating lunch with the manager and mentioned that comment about M ‘Wishing they’d just fire me so I could get unemployment.’ The manager grinned and asked if I would be willing to sign a document saying I’d heard that.
M was fired. M did not receive unemployment. M was lucky not to get charged with assault.”
That Sweet, Methodical Kind Of Justice
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“It was me.
I had been working at an organic eatery in south Florida and I was one of two employees other than my boss, who was a cocky executive chef. It was a tiny little place that catered to the upper class, one of our regular customers was Dan Marino (ex-Dolphins QB, also a nice guy).
My boss was one of those classic jerk chefs who thought the sun shined on him always, and he was very critical of my work. Typically, I’d be fine with this. I’m a tough guy and I can eat crow… However, he started to get physical with me, shoving me, throwing things at me, grabbing me by the scruff of my shirt and yelling at my face and so on. I didn’t feel intimidated, he was 5’5 and I’m 6’2 and 200lbs, but it was a matter of principle.
One day, he accused me of stealing his recipe book and slapped me. I was furious but I held it in till the lunch rush, when I tore the entire kitchen apart, threw the garbage all over and stormed out without saying a word.
In the end, I’m glad, I didn’t even hit him back because I’m sure he would have called the cops.”
Confidence Is Key When Angry
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“This guy named…well me…was working at a Pizza Place. On this morning, two people called in sick and we got two buses which made things very difficult and stressful, but not too bad without teamwork. So it was only me and the manager (SuperIdiot McNutty) in the whole place other than a dishwasher who was brand new and didn’t know a pizza from a frisbee. And let me say Mr. McNutty wasn’t a teamwork kinda guy. He was that 37-year-old neckbeard who always flirted with the high school chicks and tried to date them. I think it was the only reason he had this job.
So anyway, we’re getting slammed pretty hard and then we get an order for 10 large pizzas. SuperIdiot takes the order wrong so I make what he wrote down (when writing was a thing). When the lady came to pick up her order, we all realized she didn’t get what she’d ordered and now she was going to have to wait another 30 or 40 minutes…
He told her, and I quote, ‘Sorry, my stupid employees can’t show up and the ones that do (as he looked directly at me) can’t seem to get an order right. I mean just look at this place.’
That was it, after doing three people’s jobs for the last two hours, running around like a maniac while he walked around the dining room flirting with a 15-year-old for the last hour, and blames me for his mistake? And the whole time, he kept looking at me, shaking his head like this was all my fault. So, as a 250 lb ‘healthy man,’ I peeled off my work shirt (no undershirt) threw it in the oven and told him to have fun and walked my fat butt out of there shirtless. I went right through the dining room, in front of about 100 people and, of course, was doing the no-look double flip off all the way to my car. I was 22 at the time and it felt great. I went home ate a sandwich and played Dreamcast. What a day.”
