My uncle used to be a general manager at a fast food chain in a large metropolitan area, and he has many stories from decades of working with them.

This particular story takes place around 2006, shortly after [Uncle]’s assistant manager leaves the company to be with her son in England.

[Uncle] is ready to promote one of the shift managers from within when the district manager tells him that another manager is transferring to his store and that he does not need to promote anybody.

The new manager arrives a couple of days later and proves to be a headache for [Uncle] almost immediately. She is extremely toxic and almost never speaks without yelling. Constant complaints come in from the other workers about [New Manager]’s toxicity, and numerous write-ups appear on several employees’ files, the majority of which [Uncle] decides to throw out due to them having bogus or false reasons.

On [New Manager]’s fourth day, [Uncle] comes in and notices that the shift manager he originally intended to promote prior to her arrival is not there.

Uncle: “Where’s [Shift Manager]?”

New Manager: “Oh, her? I fired her.”

Uncle: *Taken aback* “You what?!“

New Manager: “I fired her.”

Uncle: “What do you mean, you fired her?”

New Manager: “I. Fired. Her.”

Uncle: *Sigh* “We need to talk. Right now.”

[Uncle] drags [New Manager] to the office. She has a smug grin on her face the whole time, to [Uncle]’s irritation.

Uncle: “[New Manager], what the f*** is going on?”

New Manager: “I told you already, I fired [Shift Manager]!”

Uncle: “I understand that you fired her. Why did you fire her?”

New Manager: “Because I felt like firing her.”

Uncle: “Very funny. Tell me why you actually fired her.”

New Manager: *Smugly* “Because I felt like firing her — that’s why!”

Uncle: *Facepalming* “Jesus Christ, [New Manager]. You cannot just fire my employees at the—”

New Manager: “It’s called at-will employment. I can fire anyone here at any time I like for any reason or no reason. I could fire [Shift Manager #2] for being a [Local NFL Team] fan if I wanted to! I could even—”

Uncle: “Enough. I know what at-will employment is, but it only works if you follow—”

New Manager: “Nope. I can fire every employee in this store just for the h*** of it if I want to. The law says I can. And there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

She crosses her arms and smirks triumphantly at [Uncle], who rolls his eyes.

Uncle: “You know what? There is actually one thing I can do. You’re fired.”

New Manager: “Wait, what? You can’t fire me!”

Uncle: “Actually, yes, I can. Like you said, [New Manager], at-will employment — I can fire you for any reason at any time. And I do have a very valid reason in this case. I have three, in fact: toxicity, insubordination, and willful violation of the company’s termination policy. Now, as I was going to tell you before you interrupted me twice, you cannot just fire people at the drop of a hat here at [Restaurant]. You have to follow the company’s established protocols. And no, at-will employment does not override a business’ termination protocols. You of all people should know this, [New Manager], because you were sent here in the first place for wrongfully firing someone at [Other Location], and now that you’ve done it again, it’s cost you your job.”

New Manager: “But—”

Uncle: “And before you argue that I’m wrongfully firing you, consider the fact that not only were you fired for three very valid reasons, but you were already on your last chance when you arrived not even half a week ago. That was a chance you were extremely lucky to have gotten at all considering that violating termination policy is normally fireable on its own. Go clean out your locker. You can drop off your uniform tomorrow when you pick up your final paycheck.”

[New Manager] stormed out in a huff. [Uncle] called [Shift Manager] and told her she was not fired and could come back the following day.

He got a call from the district manager later that day asking how [New Manager] was doing and told her what happened. The district manager laughed and said that she wasn’t at all surprised that [New Manager] wasted her last chance as quickly as she did and that she wouldn’t be trying that experiment again anytime soon.

[Uncle] formally promoted [Shift Manager] the day after that, and then he handed the reins to her when he retired twelve years later. [Shift Manager] is still there to this day, as friendly as ever, and always greets my uncle when he stops by for lunch.

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It is nearing 8:30, half an hour past closing time. (We close early on Sundays.) I’m manning the only register that’s still open, just in case there are any customers who have “mysteriously” not heard our closing announcements or seen the main lights turn out.

One of the managers is chatting with a supervisor as they approach the registers.

Manager: “[My Name], when do you get out? Nine or nine-thirty?”

Me: “Eight.”

Manager: *With a panicked and guilty expression* “Oh, s***! Gogogo!”

It took some effort not to laugh as I headed to my locker. In his defense, I hadn’t been kept there on purpose; he was just the first person with the authority to LET me off the register that had actually been there TO let me off.

My boyfriend was hired as a manager for a local burger restaurant that had just opened. There were a lot of problems with how it was run that the owners would not allow him to fix.

The main issue was that the majority of the employees were the minor children and friends of the owners. They refused to do their jobs, and if [Boyfriend] tried to teach or instruct, they would complain and he would end up in trouble.

On top of that, they would often call out just because something better came up. The owners expected [Boyfriend] to pick up all shifts for no-show employees. He was contracted to work forty-five hours a week but ended up closer to seventy-five.

He opened one day and got this call an hour after his shift ended.

Owner: “I need you to come back in tonight to close. [Only Adult Employee] called in sick, and we need someone over eighteen there.”

Boyfriend: “I’m sorry, I can’t tonight. It’s Tuesday. I told you when you hired me that I’m only available to open Tuesdays since it’s date night, and I have canceled on [My Name] for the last three weeks. 

Owner: “[My Name] will understand. You need to come in.”

Boyfriend: “No, I have not had a day off in over a month. [My Name] has been waiting forever to see a movie, and it’s being taken out of the theaters next week. I will not cancel on her again. I have come in early or worked late every day for the last three weeks. I will not be in tonight. You or [Owner’s Husband] will need to fill in.”

Owner: “Well, fine. Be that way.”

[Boyfriend] thought that was the end of things, and we went out and had a lovely evening.

The next day when [Boyfriend] went in, [Adult Employee] and [Owner] were there.

Boyfriend: “[Adult Employee], how are you feeling? I know you called in sick yesterday.”

Adult Employee: “Oh, I’m fine. I just forgot I was working and was too stoned to come in.”

Boyfriend: “Okay. I didn’t know you were scheduled today. Did someone call off?”

Adult Employee: “I don’t know. [Owner] just called this morning and said she was redoing the schedule and asked if I could pick up a few shifts.”

Hearing this, [Boyfriend] headed to the back where [Owner] was and glanced at the schedule. He had been removed from all except the closing shifts on Friday and Saturday for an entire month.

Boyfriend: “What the f***? Why am I taken off the schedule? I have a family to support.”

Owner: “You didn’t f****** care about that last night. If you don’t want to work when I call you, you don’t have to work at all.”

Boyfriend: “So, since I didn’t want to come in on a night that I was not available to cover a shift for someone that just admitted that he just got stoned and forgot he was working, I’m taken off the schedule, and he is given a majority of my hours.”

Owner: “Well, this should teach you how to prioritize your life. You’re the manager. It’s your job to be available, and from now on, you’ll think about this when I call you to come in.”

Boyfriend: “You’re right. I do need to reprioritize. F*** you; I quit. Have fun covering every Friday and Saturday because none of the lazy brats you have hired are going to do it.”

The next week, [Boyfriend] got a new job as a bartender making more money in half the number of hours. The icing on the cake was what we found out later: when customers at the restaurant asked where [Boyfriend] was, the owners insinuated that they had fired him for stealing… only for the manager they replaced him with to rob them blind, including their car, four months later. It forced them to close.

I used to work in a restaurant, and our manager was awful. She was rude, intentionally picked out favorites and gave them presents in front of everyone (even when they didn’t like her and tried to avoid it), messed up schedules on purpose for people she didn’t like, etc. She was the worst manager ever.

There was a huge storm coming in, and people were really worried about it. The news was telling people to stay home, other businesses were closing, etc., so it was up to [Manager] to either keep our store open or close it. Of course, she kept it open.

Because schools closed, only half of our scheduled employees showed up. The rest called in, and [Manager] called her favorites and told them they didn’t have to come in. As the five or so of us who showed up were standing there, watching out the front windows — there were zero customers — [Manager] started yelling at us, threatening to write us all up, and so on. We tried telling her that no one was there, all the work was done, and we were watching the wind bend trees over and worrying about whether we were safe and would be able to get home.

Right about this time, we heard a super loud crashing noise: KACHUNK! KACHUNK! KACHUNK! KACHUNK! WHAM!

The industrial air conditioner on top of the building got blown off! It rolled along the roof and then went flying into the parking lot… and right onto [Manager]’s car.

It was so perfect it was surreal; it landed dead center and smashed her car flat. If [Manager] had been in it, she would have died. And it only happened because she parked right up by the building where we had specifically been told not to park. All our cars were out in the farthest corner of the lot.

We later found out that [Manager]’s car wasn’t paid off, it was some stupidly expensive BMW or something, and her insurance didn’t cover the damage because it was an “act of God”.

In my job, I have to deal with invoices and the like. I like my work, and I really like the fact we can work from home. While I’m not supposed to, I sneakily do household stuff during work.

One day, I am called into a one-on-one Zoom call with my manager.

Manager: “About you working from home… your coworkers shared concern: you always look so tired. Is everything well? We saw that you process a lot of invoices in a day — way more than other people. How about you slow down? Take a break once in a while? Mind your health!”

Me: “Eh, sure, thanks.”

Life goes on, and I do my best to slow down. I also take more coffee breaks than I want or need. My “watch later” playlist is shrinking fast.

During my annual review:

Manager: “We noticed that you are slowing down, but you still are at the top of the list — all the time. Didn’t I tell you to slow down? You’ll hurt yourself if you keep on working like this! Slow down!”

It’s great that my manager has my back, but I don’t know how I can be even slower. So, not only do I take extra coffee breaks, but once in a while, I take a power nap. I do groceries during work time. (I live above a grocery store.) I prepare dinner during work time. I do write down how much I actually work, just so I can see if I work less.

Manager: “I see you finally slowed down. Well done! Take good care of yourself! You’re still doing more than everyone else, so if you want to take an extra coffee, feel free to do so.”

I have no idea how to become even slower. And if I am still doing more than most of my coworkers, then how slow are they?!