Unfiltered Story #111455

Many years ago I worked at a very famous sandwich shop. I’d worked for the company about a year at a previous store prior to this story. I had just left my first store and started as a floater for another chain of stores under a different District Manager. I worked a last second shift at one store and the manager who I just call Boss most of the time, loved my work ethic and said that he wanted me to stay at his store permanently. We all had a lot of fun joking around. There were many times I had to tell customers that the yelling they were hearing from the back was just them joking around with each other. It was a lot of fun and I was made night shift lead within 2 weeks because of previous experience.
Then there was a this one guy, 16 or 17 year old kid, who I’ll just call Kid. He wasn’t a bad worker really, but he would never do the dishes. He’d do anything else I asked, but not the dishes. He’d always do something else and leave them for me. That made us get out later because as shift lead I had to count the drawer and stock every night. So I would usually ask the other worker to do the last bit of dishes after closing while I did counts and we’d be out of there. This kid wouldn’t do the stupid dishes. When I asked him why his was response was “It’s woman’s work. I don’t do woman’s work.” I thought it was a joke he was stringing along for far too long. I thought this because Boss was from the Middle East and was always joking about himself and his religion, and part of that was about “woman’s work”…most of us were females.. working in a kitchen making sandwiches…you can see why it was an on going joke. Don’t worry we were all well humored and no one got offended.
Anyway, after a while Boss was getting on me about getting out so late and I kept telling him why. He just told me to be more demanding about it. I was just too nice, which was probably true. I rarely demanded anything from anyone. I always asked what people liked doing most and had them do that since it made them more productive. We’d always divide up the duties and they would we figure out what duties they’d do while I did counts. I didn’t always have the other person do dishes. I just really hate doing dishes. So if the other person hated it just as much we’d kinda figure things out between us for the night, and when we worked together we’d alternate dishes. Occasionally, after my longer shifts, I’d just have them do all the dishes and I’d take on everything else..and I usually finished faster and helped with dishes anyway. I’m fast with them, but I hate them.
You also have to understand that I am a lesbian and very open about it and everyone at work knew. It’s not hard to guess my sexuality as I’m quite…butch, I guess…and commonly mistaken for a guy. One day Boss is there when I come in and the kid is already there. They were chit chatting about the day with another employee. It had been really busy and that’s why Boss was still there. When I walk in, I see a stack of dishes and think that it’s my chance to get Boss to this kid in action. So I quickly clean the front so that I can get back there to “assess what needs to be done”. Essentially I wanted to get back there and asked the kid to take care of dishes in front of Boss. And here’s the short conversation that followed:

Me: Kid, can you get started on the dishes so I can do (some other menial task that wasn’t dishes)

Kid: (smirks) That’s woman’s work. I don’t do woman’s work.

Me: I’m serious. You need to start on dishes. I don’t care if that’s the only thing you do tonight. Everyone else does dishes sometimes, even Boss. You are doing the dishes tonight.

Kid: No! I’m not doing the dishes. That’s woman’s work. I don’t do that s***. (still while laughing, but obviously a little annoyed)

Boss: Well, Kid, if it’s woman’s work then you’d better get started, My Name is more of man you are. And if you don’t do the dishes you can just go home.

The words “go home” meant he’ll think about letting you come back, either way you’re suspended in a manner of speaking. Kid, mumbled and grumbled and started on dishes. He did that most of the night, and I thanked him for doing what I asked him to. We talked about a bit and started alternating on dishes and never had another issue about it. We actually started to enjoy working together once he realized I’m not hard to get along with, you just gotta do dishes once in a while. Sadly he was fired later on, but that’s a story for another time.