Just… Tell… Them… To… LEAVE!

I worked at a fast-food burger place named for the founder’s daughter. At that time, we didn’t have trash cans for the customers. Instead, we bused the tables and wiped them down after the customer left.

Every Wednesday night, one particular church group came by late in the evening and usually stayed about half an hour after our closing at 11:00 PM. The first time I worked, when they came in, I was assigned dining room duty. When 11:00 PM hit, they were still in the dining room, chatting. I went back to get a vacuum, but my manager stopped me and said I had to wait until they were done. I couldn’t even put away the salad bar because some of the church group ordered all-you-can-eat salads. But I did have to keep it stocked as they kept going back for seconds (and thirds, and fourths…). I also had the task of refilling the salt and pepper shakers, but of course, not the ones on their tables.

This night, they were exceptionally chatty and were still at it at midnight. We were usually all finished with closing by midnight; however, I was still way behind because of the group.

My manager came out to scold me for not being cleaned up, but I pointed out that she told me not to do most of my closing duties until they left. So, she and the other closers came out to the dining room and just watched them. They didn’t get the hint and stayed until 12:20 AM.

When they finally left, my manager told the other closers to help me finish. I went right to their table to bus it and saw a $20 bill folded sticking out from under a tray. “Yay!” I thought, at least this’ll make it somewhat worthwhile. However, when I picked it up, I felt it wasn’t a real bill. Instead, when unfolded, it reveals some proselytizing literature. I showed it to my manager, who just sighed, grabbed it, and threw it in the trash.

We didn’t get out of there until 2:00 AM. And management couldn’t do a darn thing to keep the church group from doing this on subsequent visits.