During a busy day at work, I decide that I don’t feel like cooking tonight, so I decide to try ordering a pizza online from a new pizza joint in town. Like most restaurants, the website gives you the choice of when you want your order to be ready for pickup, so I enter my usual dinner time. It’s about five hours into the future, because I still have four hours to work for my own shift.

After work, I run some other errands to kill time and then pick up my pizza and head home to eat. With the first bite, I realize that something is off; this is definitely not a fresh, hot pizza at all. I call the pizza joint to complain and ask for a fresh pizza.

Employee: “Hello, [Pizza Joint]. How can I help you?”

Me: “Hi, I ordered a pizza online earlier today. When I picked it up and tried to eat it, it was almost stale. I would like to return it for a fresh pizza.”

Employee: “Okay, can I please get your name?”

Me: “[My Name].”

Employee: “Okay. You ordered a [specialty pizza], correct?”

Me: “Yes.”

Employee: “And what was wrong with the pizza?”

Me: “It’s barely lukewarm, and the crust tastes like it’s gone stale.”

Employee: “I see. Our records show that you were almost five hours late picking up your pizza, so unless there’s something actually wrong with it, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Me: “How could I be five hours late when the pizza wasn’t supposed to be ready until 6:00 pm?”

Employee: “Our records show that you placed your order online at 1:00 pm; is that correct?”

Me: “Yeah, but I chose to have it ready at 6:00.”

Employee: “Um… sir, that’s not possible. We don’t have that option on our website.”

Me: “Yeah, you do. I’m literally looking at the receipt for my order right now. It says 6:00 pm pick-up.”

Employee: “Well, the order came in at 1:00 pm, so we made your order at 1:00 pm. If you wanted a later pickup time, you should have ordered later.”

Me: “Is there a manager I could speak to, please?”

Employee: “Sir, the only person above me here is the owner. I guarantee you he will only tell you the same thing. You were late picking up your pizza. If there was nothing wrong with it, we can’t replace it. Goodbye!”

The employee actually hangs up on me. Frustrated, I drive to the restaurant, pizza in tow, to speak to the owner, who turns out to be the employee’s father. He sides with his son/employee in claiming that I was just too late picking up my order, even after I show him the email receipt that very clearly shows I wanted my order at 6:00 pm. I decide to just get my money back, and after ten minutes of arguing, the owner finally gives me my money back.

But wait… there’s more! When I get home, I leave an extremely negative review on the restaurant’s Facebook page — nothing nasty, just a thoroughly detailed account of what happened — and end up reading similar negative reviews from other customers. About an hour after I leave my review, the owner chimes in on the post, in true Not Always Working fashion, to try and refute my order. Of note here: I am a black man while the owner is white.

Owner: “[My Name], for the last time, we do not have that option on our website. Never have, never will. Maybe if you used regular time instead of [racial slur] time, you would get fresh pizza.”

I chose not to respond any further, but I did report the owner’s response to the local Chamber of Commerce. I live in a very politically liberal area where racism is absolutely not tolerated by local authorities. The pizza joint’s business license for our county was revoked, and they were forced to shut down.

I used to work in an engineering lab that was near an alarmed emergency exit. Because it looked like you could go out that door, cut across the field, and enter the next building — even though the door on the other side was also an emergency exit and couldn’t be opened from the outside — way too many people ignored the red “Emergency Exit, Alarm Will Sound” sticker on the door.

The alarm was so loud that it was nearly impossible to work in the lab while it was going off. It also took security a long time to reset the door because it was far enough away from them that they weren’t bothered by it so it wasn’t a priority for them. It was going off at least once a week, management was doing nothing, and we’d had enough.

Someone in the lab created a large sign and posted it on the door.

Sign: “Atten-shun: This here door be for emergencies only. It will make an infernal racket if you be tryin’ to open it. Then there be engineers waving them rubber mallets at you!”

For six weeks, there was blessed silence. People were observed coming up to the door, bursting out in laughter, and turning around.

Unfortunately, someone in management decided that the sign was too unprofessional, even though the whole building was employees-only behind badge-locked doors, and down it came. The alarms started right back up again.

Eventually, after about a quarter of us had transferred out and another quarter had put requests in the system, they decided that the best solution was just to disable the alarm, even though that created a security hole. Gotta love management.

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One day, [Shift Leader #1] informs me that [Assistant Manager] wants us to close down the grill at 9:00 pm — no more food orders after 9:00. I am mildly puzzled since we are open for another hour, but I don’t question orders.

Several months later, a couple of regulars want to order something grilled, and it is 9:30. I apologize and tell them that I am sorry, but we closed the grill at nine. They demand to speak to [Shift Leader #2], who comes out and gets in my face.

Shift Leader #2: “WHY DID YOU TELL THEM THE GRILL IS CLOSED?! IT NEVER CLOSES! ARE YOU STUPID?! WHY THE H*** WOULD YOU TELL THEM IT CLOSES?!”

I’m near tears from being yelled at.

Me: “[Shift Leader #1] said [Assistant Manager] told us to!”

Shift Leader #2: “YOU ARE A G**D*** LIAR! She would never tell you that! I’m writing your a** up, and you’re getting suspended for this!”

I nearly hyperventilate right then. I keep insisting that I was told to do it and was just following orders, but she won’t have it. I finish the night out, break down crying, and run to my car and leave. I seriously consider quitting.

[Shift Leader #2] and I both have the next day off. [Shift Leader #1] goes in and sees the write-up I was given and the notice that I am to be suspended for “insubordination” because of my “lying” to [Shift Leader #2].

The following day, I go to work and I’m not looking forward to it. To my shock, [Shift Leader #1] runs in — she usually doesn’t run, so wow! — and takes me into the office with her and the manager. She asks me what the h*** happened.

I break down all over again, telling her how [Shift Leader #2] yelled in my face. She storms out and practically drags [Shift Leader #2] in by the ear.

I am asked to wait outside for a second, but [Shift Leader #1] is so peeved that I can hear the chewing out through the closed door.

Shift Leader #1: “[Shift Leader #2], your behavior is inexcusable. First of all, you never get into an employee’s face like that or yell at them. Second of all, I did tell [My Name] to close the grill at nine. You wrote [My Name] up for following orders.”

Shift Leader #2: “How was I to know that?!”

Shift Leader #1: “It would have taken you less than a minute to call me to confirm what I had said. Even if I didn’t pick up, you could have asked me at a later date.”

Manager: *Equally loudly* “Furthermore, [My Name] would be fully in her rights to bring down the thunder on your head! You need to take one huge step backward on your attitude and behavior, because if this is how you’re going to treat employees, you’re a liability to the company.”

The chewing out does a lot to put a soothing balm on my heart, even though the conversation quickly quiets down and I can’t hear them anymore.

When I come back into the room, [Shift Leader #2] is very quiet and won’t look me in the eye.

Manager: “[My Name], I am very sorry that you were treated this way by [Shift Leader #2]…”

He issues a number of platitudes about [Shift Leader #2]’s behavior not being in line with company policy, etc., but at least his apology seems sincere.

Shift Lead #1: “Now, I admit that I am at fault in that I misunderstood [Assistant Manager]; we’re supposed to close the hotbox at 9:00 pm, not the grill. So going forward, please keep that in mind. But I promise you that you did not do anything wrong and the misunderstanding is on me.”

The manager rips the write-up to pieces in front of me and then runs it through his shredder.

Manager: “If you would like to take the day off and just breathe, I’ll make sure you’re paid for the whole shift.”

I decided to take him up on the offer, and though that job had its usual retail headaches, from then on, [Shift Leader #2] avoided me unless it was directly work-related.

I am working at the front desk at a furniture store. I often end up doing whatever the h*** managers don’t want to do; this is a family-owned operation. When I started with this job, I was an idiot and made the mistake of saying yes whenever my manager asked me to work extra hours because I had bills to pay after having been jobless for about a month and a half. Of course, my manager(s) took that to mean that they could make me work whenever they didn’t want to come in.

Fast forward about a year, and my manager is going to be out of town. By this point, I’m in a mini-argument with her every week about being able to take my REGULAR days off; she keeps trying to come up with reasons she needs me to open the store or come in during the middle of the day, etc. It’s a whole bunch of bulls*** and I should have reported them. Anyway, she’s going to be out of town and she pulls me into the back to have this conversation.

Manager: “Okay, while I’m gone, I need you in every day.”

Me: “No.”

Manager: “But [Salesperson #1] doesn’t have a key so you need to show up to let him in, and [Salesperson #2] won’t open the store.”

They really cater to whatever the salespeople want because they “make the store money.” [Salesperson #2] literally works for like four and a half hours a day, two days a week, and doesn’t do anything except sit when there aren’t customers in the store. [Salesperson #1] is an a**, but at least he’s willing to help rearrange things or clean and dust displays.

Me: “I’m not coming in on my days off.”

Manager: “I need you to open the store.”

Me: “[Delivery Guy #1] can do it; he’s already said he would.”

Manager: “No, you need to come in and help me out.”

Me: “I’m not coming in on my days off.”

Manager: “Please?”

Me: “No. Next week is actually my birthday and I’m not coming in.”

I am lucky enough that my birthday falls on my actual day off this year.

Manager: “Well, can you just come in until like five or six and then go to your party?”

The store is only open until eight. By this point in the job, I am pretty much trying to get fired because I am so tired of everything. And I really don’t want to come in on my birthday, let alone my day off. The only reason I haven’t quit is that I can’t afford to leave without having another job already lined up. Looking back, I’m pretty sure that she wouldn’t have fired me without me literally setting something on fire.

Me: “No. I’m not coming in on my birthday and I really don’t want to come in on my days off.”

Manager: “I need you to open the store while I’m gone.”

Me: “[Warehouse Manager] can do it.”

Manager: “He’s taking care of something else for me while I’m gone.”

The warehouse manager is in the store every day, but he literally stays in the back office and sleeps. He only comes out if something needs to be fixed or I am unable to go to the warehouse to receive deliveries.

Me: “I’m not coming in on my birthday.”

We ended up going back and forth for a while longer and I (stupidly) ended up caving. I did walk out at like twelve, but still. The rest of those two weeks was ridiculous. I ended up clocking something like 100+ hours for that period because I wasn’t ever able to take lunches and she was making me stay all day. Then, to top it off, I only actually got paid for something like eighty-five hours because “accounting will automatically take an hour for lunch no matter what” and [Manager] “didn’t pay overtime.”

I seriously should have reported them; there were so many violations and just plain bad business practices! When I left, I was so glad to get out of there that I ran as fast as I could and never looked back. I will admit to laughing my a** off when I saw that they’d gone out of business about a year later.

When I am sixteen, I get my first job busing tables and washing dishes in a restaurant during summer break. At the beginning of the summer, shortly after I start working, my family plans a week-long vacation later in the summer. I ask my boss if I can have that week off, and he tells me to write my request down on the Requests Calendar. I do so, let him know that I’ve written in the dates, and don’t think anything about it until the next day when my boss tracks me down.

Boss: “Hey, [My Name]. I see you requested [vacation dates] off on the calendar?”

Me: “Yeah, I did. Did I do something wrong?”

Boss: “No, it looks okay. But in the future, you should only use pencil on the calendar; pen ink tends to smear, so it gets hard to read sometimes.”

Me: “Oh, I wasn’t told about that. There wasn’t a pencil or anything by the calendar, so I just grabbed the first thing I could find to write with.”

Boss: “That’s fine. Just make sure you find a pencil next time.”

Fast forward a few weeks. The week before my family vacation, my mom schedules a dentist appointment for me for the week after we get back. Remembering my boss’s instructions, I find a pencil and write in my request for the day of my appointment on the calendar.

My vacation comes and goes, and the day of my dentist appointment arrives. I’m sitting in the dentist chair and my phone starts ringing in my pocket. Obviously, I don’t answer it. Immediately after, it rings again… and then again… and then again. Finally, after the fourth call, it stops ringing.

After my appointment, I check my phone and see that every call was from my boss. I get back to the waiting room, and my mom asks me if I made sure to request the day off work; apparently, my boss had called her, too, trying to find out why I wasn’t at work.

When I get to work the next day, my boss tries to chew me out for skipping work. I insist that I requested the day off and walk over to the calendar to prove it to him. I find the day in question… and see very clear evidence of pencil eraser.

Yep. My boss erased my request. Some of my coworkers later told me he was known for doing that, which was why he insisted that everybody wrote their requests in pencil. Everybody else had learned to take pictures of the calendar as proof, but nobody told me that. Luckily, the new school year started soon after and I was able to leave that job. I found a better job with a much better boss the next summer.