Unfiltered Story #288440

I’m an autistic woman, and I also get panic attacks easily, so small spaces really bother me. I also work in a restaurant. One day when I go into the refrigerator to get some soup ingredients, the door closes behind me. I try to push it open, and barely manage to, before it closes again. I start panicking, thinking that maybe I have an enemy I didn’t know about and they’re trying to kill me. I curl up in a fetal position and start to cry. Then two of the cooks open the door and laugh.

I get up and push past them, straight into the manager’s office, where I throw down my apron and my name tag. She’s surprised at this, and asks me what happened. I blubber out the whole story, and her face goes pale to red.

She goes out and comes back with the two cooks.

Cook 1: It was just a joke!

Manager: It was not funny! She’s autistic, and gets panic attacks! You could have sent her into the hospital!

Cook 2: We didn’t know!

Manager: Exactly! You didn’t know! You’re both suspended without pay for two weeks! Leave, now, and don’t let me see you again for at least two weeks!

Both cooks apologize profusely, and the manager threatens to call the police if they don’t leave. She sends me home and I get a three-day break to rest before I have to go back.

The cooks have since both apologized and promised never to do anything like that again. Even today, they still can’t look me directly in the eye.