A customer buys a box of a dozen donuts from us. I put them in the box and am about to take payment when the customer comments disapprovingly.

Customer: “Oh, there’s only twelve.”

Me: “Yes, this is our dozen-donut box.”

Customer: “I thought since you’re a bakery you’d give me a baker’s dozen.”

Me: “Ah, well we don’t have a deal for that, but I could—“

The customer immediately calls over our manager, who seems to know them.

Customer: “[Manager’s Name], your employee is shorting me by one donut.”

Manager: “[My Name], is this true?”

Me: “They asked for our dozen-donut deal, which is for a dozen donuts. They were expecting—“

Customer: *Interrupting.* “I was expecting a baker’s dozen! Or do you not consider yourself a bakery anymore?”

Manager: “[My Name], how could you be so rude to a customer? Give them what they want right now, and give them a half-price discount.”

Steaming, I give the customer what they want while they look smug and flounce out the door. As soon as they’re gone I turn to the manager.

Me: “So we’re just giving thirteen donuts out for the price of six now?”

Manager: “Thirteen? They asked for a dozen.”

Me: “Yes they did, but they were expecting a baker’s dozen!”

Manager: “What’s that?”

Me: “Thirteen! That’s what I was trying to tell you.”

Manager: “Whatever. That a**hole is my cousin and if I didn’t give him what he wanted, he would have complained to his mom, who would have complained to my mom, and it would have been a whole thing.”

Me: “And your family drama is my problem?”

Manager: “It is now! Have a donut. And next time just give them what they want, trust me it’s not worth it.”

A few weeks later, the district manager is in the store, and this customer comes back.

Customer: “I’m here to pick up a birthday cake. I preordered it, should say “Happy Birthday, Mom.”

Me: “I see it, sir. That will be $45.99.”

Customer: “I want it half price.”

Me: “Okay, sir, that will be $23.00.”

The district manager, who I might have known was right there, jumps in real quick.

District Manager: “[My Name], what reason is there a discount on this order?”

Me: *Matter-Of-Factly.* “Oh, this customer is [Manager]’s cousin, and when he doesn’t get his way in the store he whines to his mommy, who whines to [Manager]’s mommy, who then whines at [Manager].”

The district manager looks at me, then at the customer.

Customer: “Well… that’s taken out of context, y’see—“

District Manager: “[Manager], can you step out here for a moment, please.”

My manager steps out, sees who is at the counter, and his shoulders visibly sag.

District Manager: “Your cousin is here to buy a full-priced cake for your aunt. Isn’t that lovely? Ring him up will you, and then see me in the office after.”

They both sheepishly finish the transaction, before he steps into the office. He comes out a few minutes later and resumes his work. The district manager comes over to me.

District Manager: “[Manager] won’t be pulling that again. And while Corporate doesn’t have a policy of banning customers, if his cousin comes back you have my permission to charge him double. I’ll even put it in writing for you.”

It was made an actual policy that THAT particular customer is to be charged double! I can’t wait until he comes back for another baker’s dozen!

Our office has a new manager. They are firm yet pleasant, and I appreciate them taking a stronger stance against some of the lazier members of the office.

One coworker is one of those aforementioned lazier members of the office and has coasted so far under the neglect of previous managers.

My coworker is moaning to me at lunch.

Coworker: “That d*** [Manager’s Name] told me that I won’t get a bonus this year if my score doesn’t improve!”

Me: “What’s your score?”

Coworker: “Four, but I was always a five until they showed up!”

In our office, our schedules and process-based tasks are scored based on accuracy, and timeliness, and as long as you do a reasonable job it’s very easy to score an eight or nine out of ten.

Our small-but-appreciated end-of-year bonus goes a percentage point or two higher the higher the score. Five is the lowest score that grants a bonus, so four and below get you nothing.

Me: “Maybe if you didn’t browse the Internet between tasks—“

Coworker: “I knew [Manager] was out to get me as soon as they started talking about efficiency this and productivity that!”

Me: “And maybe if you weren’t always so late—“

Coworker: “And I needed that bonus! I already put down a deposit for a PlayStation!”

Me: “It’s not the best idea to spend money you haven’t got.”

They continued to rant, not really wanting to hear what I had to say and I finished up and got back to work.

A few weeks later as we got our end-of-year scores and bonus announcements, I see my coworkers storm into my manager’s office. Less than a minute later my coworker storms back out.

Later that day, our manager sends out an office-wide email.

Manager: “Just to let you all know I’ve become aware of a super-hard-to-find Playstation 5 that has just become available, and for cheaper than the recommended retail price at that! PM me for details!”

My bonus allowed me to play some great games over the end-of-year holiday season! I wonder where the manager got such a hard-to-find item from?

My manager was a monster. He belittled people, made work a hostile environment, and denied anything that would make his employees happy while giving himself every comfort.

I had taken my bereavement leave after my mother’s death (he couldn’t deny that as it was a corporate mandate, even though he wanted to) but he found a way to get his revenge.

Me: “I need to take a half-day to go to my mother’s funeral.”

Manager: “Would it be a big deal if you couldn’t go?”

Me: “Uh… yes! It’s my mother’s funeral!”

Manager: “Well I can’t spare you. You shouldn’t have taken vacation time a few weeks ago, so now we’re too backed up.”

Me: “That wasn’t a vacation, that was bereavement leave! And I haven’t even told you what day I need yet.”

Manager: “Doesn’t matter. Request denied.”

I decided I would go anyway, and was able to find cover thanks to a supportive coworker. This did not go down well with my manager, however, and he wrote me up for it. I took this write-up to Corporate, and along with other complaints, they realized the entire office was about to revolt.

Corporate stepped in, and while he wasn’t fired like we wanted, he was demoted, which was satisfying.

In comes the new manager. He’s a very well-regarded, twenty-year Air Force veteran, a humble guy who knows how to handle people. We have our first awkward team meeting, with the old manager bitterly in attendance.

As the new manager is giving his “nice to meet you” speech, he sees the douchebag glaring around the table trying to intimidate people. He stops talking, pauses for a few seconds, and then says:

New Manager: “You know, when I was in the Air Force, I learned that if you take care of your people, they’ll take care of you.”

He then stared directly at the old manager:

New Manager: “And if you don’t take care of your people, they’ll take care of you.”

The new manager was awesome.

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I worked in the food industry, and I was the night shift manager. Our boss made us work six days a week and compensate for our day off with a double shift when the morning shift had theirs. I know, it was hellish.

On one double shift, the power went off in the entire neighborhood. And because of municipal regulations, gas goes out in food establishments with the power, for protection, really.

I called my boss and let him know that, due to the power being out, we couldn’t work (we sold pasta).

Boss: “Don’t go anywhere. I’m on the way with a gas worker to bypass the security valve.”

As soon as I got that message, I told the team we were walking out. I closed the shop and left for home.

My boss called me completely enraged.

Me: “Under no circumstances am I going to endanger my coworkers like that. You can manage the shop without a security valve if you want to, but we won’t come back if it’s bypassed tomorrow.”

I quit not too long after that. He was cheating us out of 75% of our salary, and he wasn’t paying the corresponding taxes for having employees, which meant we had no insurance, no health care, and no retirement payments.

I used to work at a now-defunct big box store. We had a new store manager come in that had been promoted from a store in another state. Our store was located in a lower income area with a large minority population. [New Manager] was of the same ethnicity and often bragged about how he preferred to hire young minority employees to give them an opportunity to work.

Within a few months, we noticed a huge increase in thefts by cashiers — their drawers were coming up $100 to $200 short — and it was always [New Manager]’s special hires. [New Manager] would make a big deal about firing them, often with them leaving in tears insisting they were innocent. He would express his disappointment, hire more young minority cashiers, and the same thing would happen.

It took way too long for someone to notice that their drawers only came up short on nights that [New Manager] closed the store. A hidden camera in the cash office ended up revealing him stealing money out of their cash bags. Corporate put the loss upwards of $25,000.

[New Manager] was fired, and less than a year later, they announced that the store would be closing due in part to “financial losses.”

But to me, the worst part was all of those poor cashiers — many of who were just teenagers — who were wrongly blamed for thefts of which they were completely innocent and the fact that everyone was so quick to believe it just because they were lower income and minorities.

I gotta say, even though we all lost our jobs, I really wasn’t sad to see that place close.