Managers who don't know how to maneuver workplace issues that pop up can often be as daunting as they are annoying, making employees wish they never would have joined the establishment in the first place. Sometimes this leads to a last straw or two, causing the employees to say 'adios'. In this case, OP took to r/Serverslife to complain about how the management at the restaurant he was working at was dragging their feet to fix literally anything. Among things that weren't working, there were 2…

If you work in retail, customer service, or the service industry, sooner or later, you're going to run into a confoundingly indignant and angry individual who is going to ruin your day—leaving you thinking about this interaction for years to come. It's just a matter of sheer statistics; talk to enough people in a day, and sooner or later, at some point, you're going to have a grown adult having a full tantrum in the center of your store like it's some kind of performative art piece. This Karen…

Toxic organizations breed toxic behavior, begetting toxic people. Unfortunately, those that conform to the organization's less-than-ideal ideals tend to do better and prosper, rising far above their deserved rank and encouraging their unfavorable behavior towards others that would ideally be derided. We've seen stories like this before, where an employee is singled out and collectively gaslit by their coworkers on behalf of getting them to conform to bizarre organizational directives. In this c…

There are many different kinds of nightmares that can happen while working in the service industry. One that is a guarantee you will encounter while working in a restaurant is a family who allows their kids to run wild while they dine. This is a nightmare on so many different levels. For one, if you work in the the restaurant, an unchaperoned child running around like they own the place can be very dangerous. There are servers, busers, and all kinds of employees running around a restaurant and…

One of the worst parts about working in the service industry or retail is “blackout” dates—where no one is able to take days off—these always line up with precisely the days you'd want to take off. Holidays, long weekends, and anytime between Christmas and New Years—pretty much any time you might want to see family or friends (who are all off work.) These have all been deemed as days where all hands are needed on deck due to high volumes of trade. But the worst part about blackout dates?.. Hypo…

Everyone knows that person who treats their tolerance for spice like it's a personality trait. I used to work with a friend who was practically immune to spice and would always throw out taunting requests like this to wait-staff, insinuating that there was no way their chef could placate his lust for the fieriest of infernos. We had a Thai place near the office that we would frequent for lunch, the pair of us would always order the same dish (pad thai), and my friend would submit his usual requ…

Working in a restaurant is, at the very least, a humbling experience.

Remember that one kid from your high school English class who treated everything like it was a complete joke—to the point of cruelty—never taking or accepting responsibility for any of his actions? Yeah, well, that kid could have very likely gone on to become someone's manager or open their own business. Now there's a terrifying thought. It's like George Carlin famously put it: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” Well, this bar owner and…

Sometimes actually following the rules makes you more rebellious. That's right, it's called malicious compliance and it is a tasty form of protest. One person who works in the service industry at a fast-food restaurant played a grade-A malicious compliance tactic that actually had them getting paid more. They had gotten in trouble for starting their closing-shift duties early so they could leave earlier. The place closes at 9 and they didn't want to be there until midnight, so they would start…

Rules either exist for no good reason or were written in blood; there is no in-between. The ones that were dreamt up by a bored middle manager somewhere often are more of a means of maintaining control over the workforce than anything regarding safety or productivity, so at the end of the day, they're not the most necessary. Rinsing rice may not be the highest stake workplace activity, so when you're under the pump thanks to chronic understaffing, this is probably one procedure where it's ok to…

Why are so many mangers like this? Is it the power struggle they have created themselves? Is it some sort of pride thing? Or are they really just that dumb? If you've ever had THAT kind of manager, then you've thought the same questions. This recently happened for one server when her manager tried to trick her into unpaid work.

There are glorious times in customer service when doing what the customer has asked necessitates doing technically nothing. It's a rare occurrence but oh-so-good when it happens to chance upon you. When this worker promised to give an angry Karen a refund, they did so by promising to refund the amount that it would cost them to park on the street: Nothing. This left the Karen happy to go merrily on their way, and with the problem now out of sight and out of mind, she was never the wiser. It's g…

Get ready for the oldest trick in the retail handbook: First, insist workers close and lock the doors precisely at closing—not a moment sooner, so that you don't miss any sales. Next, schedule workers' shifts to end precisely at closing time and make it as hard as possible for the workers to claim the inevitable overtime they accrue while trying to complete basic closing tasks that need to be completed after the doors are locked. If they try to claim five or ten minutes daily, just tell them th…

You'd probably be horrified at how common these types of requirements are within certain industries. The industries where manipulative employers tell you with a smile that you're a "family"… while simultaneously plotting how they can squeeze as much unpaid labor out of you as possible. Working in the service and retail industries is no walk in the park—that should not come as a great surprise to anybody. The frantic and inconsistent demands of these businesses place considerable strain on staff…

Working retail is the biggest soul sucking job known to man. Nobody grows up aspiring to be a cashier working the register, forced to endure customers's stupid jokes ("if it doesn't scan it's free, right?"), listening to mild pop music on loop, and surviving inadequately balanced AC. However maddening the endless onslaught of beeping barcodes, inventory nights, matching aprons, and dealing with incoming merchandise, the worst thing by far about working in retail are the Karens.

It really is a shame that our society has turned into one where helping others is associated with being in a lower class. The number of stories where someone is rudely addressed by another customer and assumed to be a worker just because they went out of their way to help or be pleasant to someone is astounding. In each of these scenarios, even the most basic acknowledgment that the person working is a human being immediately marks them as a recipient of rude demands. This story, shared by Redd…