When I was fourteen, my twin brother and I got jobs at a local frozen custard/grill joint. This was a popular place for teenagers to get their summer jobs, as it was only open April-September-ish.
The strange thing wasn’t the kids working there, it was the adults. This story is about one such, a thirty-two-year-old we’ll just refer to as [Coworker].
As [Brother] and I were getting trained, basically the overall rule was “don’t argue with [Coworker], but don’t listen to a word she says”.
So, this (again, grown woman) proceeds to do everything wrong that she possibly can. She always makes mediums a large “because they paid so much for it, I might as well!”, takes “breaks” during busy times to vape, and purposefully doesn’t wash the dishes in the hot soapy water, opting instead to wash everything in bleach.
About a month into working there, [Brother] got stuck working the night shift with her and one other employee.
While my poor brother was running both the counter and the drive-through, [Coworker] was sitting at our boss’s desk doing who knows what. My brother, who is very shy and quiet, asked her to help him out because she wasn’t doing anything, and he couldn’t take three customers at once.
She got angry and just… left.
The next day, I’m on morning shift with the boss, and he tells me that [Coworker] had to walk out last night because my brother was making a scene, grabbing her, and yelling at her in front of the customers.
Everyone who knew my brother knew this wasn’t true. I was pretty livid. After scaring the crap out of my manager, who had been talking smack about the situation with her friend, I was ready to lay into this woman.
In hindsight, obviously what I did wasn’t the best idea, but in my defence, I was an angry fourteen-year-old, so I picked a fight with [Coworker]:
Coworker: “I can’t believe how slow it is, and [Boss] still has me cleaning up front.”
Me: “Why, disappointed you couldn’t sit in his chair doing p***-all while my brother runs the counter and drive-through for you?”
Coworker: “How dare you! Your brother was the one shouting at me. I was just trying to do my job.”
Me: “My brother hasn’t raised his voice since he started working here, and everyone knows he’d never lay a hand on you.”
Coworker: “Listen, little girl. I work my a** off up here every day—”
Me: “Because that’s your job.”
Coworker: “Right… I work so hard, I think—”
Me: “Because that’s your job.”
At this point, my manager came in to break us up and sent me to do dishes, away from [Coworker].
Two weeks later, my brother and I quit. We didn’t want to deal with all this bull. About a month or so later, [Coworker] got fired for complaining about another employee “not doing her job”… while the employee was running the store by herself.
The boss came and apologized to us, and asked us if we wanted our jobs back.
I came back to work there for the next three years. It sucked really badly, and I have a lot of stories from the place (like how my boss was underpaying the girls, complained I didn’t work enough shifts when I worked almost forty hours a week at this part-time job), but I think this one is the worst.