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…

Not only have you not properly rested in 5 years, but even with your 75% tips on the iPad, you can barely make rent this month… again. So far, being a server has only trapped you in a lifestyle of fatigue and chasing your own bills with irregular cash flow, swollen ankles, and a ferocious Karen biting at your heels all the time.

If you read the original poster's title as ‘Hitachi Fun’ instead of ‘Hibachi Fun,’ like me, you were expecting a very different thread.

One of the (few) benefits of not operating your own business, and instead working for someone else's, is that you take on none of the risks of the business — isn't that the sole reason why businesses and executive management justify keeping so much of the profits?

If you're going to be this confidently incorrect about something and then be rude when the person who knows what they're talking about tries to correct your mistake—you deserve whatever is coming to you. In this case, what's coming to you is a horrifically inconsumable sugary drink of the likes your tastebuds have never encountered before. When working in customer service, you end up dealing with these people quite often. Over time, instead of bending over backward to correct their mistakes (ge…

The leave approval process exists for one reason and one reason only: To ensure that workers have a proper guarantee and assurance that they will be able to be absent on the submitted dates before spending money and making social commitments. It's a rather simple process, black and white, really; can the employee take leave or not? Yes or no? Well, this manager decided to introduce a whopping massive grey area into the middle of “Yes” or “No” by first saying yes, forgetting they had approved th…

It can be incredibly frustrating when you repeatedly ask someone to do something, only for it to remain still undone or incorrectly finished… (or so my girlfriend tells me, at least.) Most of us will also agree that an incorrect or ruined food or drink order can ruin the one thing that was going to be great about your day. Now, most of us will probably be too diffident to do or say anything about our spoiled beverage, instead be resigned to our cup of overheated milk that has just the slightest…