Only Signing Is Signing Off

In high school, a few friends and I worked at a local chain restaurant. We were fully able to run the day shift, but had never really broken down the equipment and closed up for the evening.

One particular night, a few of the night shift had called in sick, so we were asked to pull a double and close the restaurant, which we did. We essentially worked from 10 AM until after midnight. My three friends and I, and a manager. We were really tired but felt that we had done the right thing and helped out the company.

The next day, the four of us came into work on another day shift. The day manager pulls us into her office, one by one, and informs us that she would need to write us up because we hadn’t properly cleaned and filtered the fry grease. Regardless of our leaning in for a double, having never closed or been trained on closing procedures, and having been given permission by the night manager to leave (meaning all closing work had been completed).

After a quick chat with my friends, it was agreed that I was going to push back on the write-up, and if the day manager insisted on writing us up, we would quit.

I informed the manager that we were collectively not going to sign the write-up slips. Her alternative threat was that we would be fired, to which I informed her that if she insisted on writing us up for helping out, pulling a double, not being trained, and having been released by the night manager, then we would quit. Collectively. Immediately.

She responded with “If you don’t sign the write-up, then you will be fired.”

A staring contest follows, and I eventually break in with an “Okay, I guess we are fired then.”

We turned in our hats, quit symbolically, and left. It was really, really amazing. My friend quit mid-burger prep, and my other friend simply walked off the cash register in the middle of taking an order. We clocked out and walked out the back, leaving only the day manager in the restaurant, with customers in line and at the drive-thru.

Later that same day, we decided to return to our place of prior employment… to have dinner.

The night shift must have still been sick, as the entire restaurant was staffed with managers from nearby restaurants (same chain), including our day manager, who was now pulling her own double, and the night manager who had released us the prior evening. There was nothing better than eating our burgers and watching the management staff fail at every station and knowing that their pride, lack of rational flexibility, and threats had resulted in one of the most righteous meals we ever ate together.

We were all employed at the next chain restaurant down the street in a matter of days. It’s been nearly thirty years, and I remember that stand-off, her ultimatum, and our walk out like it was last week.