I work in a restaurant. We have this family that always comes in late — I’m talking six people seven minutes before closing — and they take their sweet time, sipping water, not opening the menu, etc. Whatever. I have to serve them, so I do. It’s part of the job, albeit one of the worse parts.

It’s a small restaurant, so come the end of the day, there are NO side tasks. I’m literally sitting on my phone waiting for them to finish.

I collect dishes often and frequently. The second I hear a fork hit a plate, I’m getting it. I don’t offer refills. If a glass is empty, I take it. I even shout the orders as they give them because my line cook has creeped out of his hole so he can get the orders faster because he wants to leave, as well. It’s pretty funny.

One lady can’t decide, so I tell her I’ll get the drinks — three different drinks per person! — while she decides because I have to get the ready orders in.

You come in late, you get service, but I’m not fawning over you. I’m not enabling that.

After they finally leave, my boss comes up and says:

Boss: “Oh, thank God they’re finally gone.”

Me: “Yeah. They always come so late…”

Then, he pops off. Apparently, he’s allowed to be grateful they’re gone, but I’m not. He’s allowed to be inconvenienced, but I’m not.

Boss: “You know what? If you ever went into her store after hours, she’d serve you! Happily! Because she has a good work ethic!”

Me: “I guess the difference between her and me is that I’d never be that a**hole customer who puts a business owner in a position to stay late because of me. If that’s a poor work ethic, I’m okay with that.”

He didn’t know what to say to that.

I work at a popular and busy fast food restaurant. At this point in my work week, I’m overworked and exhausted. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in weeks and my autopilot is kicking in. I’ve been in the drive-thru for basically all my shifts, so being a robot is easy.

This shift, I’m ringing in orders on the counter during the lunch rush.

Me: “Is there anything else I can get you today, sir?”

Customer: “No, that will be all.”

Me: “All right, your total will be [price]. Please pull forward to the first window.”

Customer: “Long shift?”

Me: “Yeah. I’ve been here since 10:00 last night.”

Customer: “When are you supposed to get off?”

Me: “Four hours ago, so your guess is as good as mine.”

I started having my parents pick me up from work after that so I could get off on time and actually get sleep.

A group of us are sent to a remote site for some niche industrial work. We were supposed to be on a rotation where we didn’t work more than three weeks at a time, but the “other” shift never arrived. We were spurred on by promises of bonuses and overtime, but after working over ninety days straight of thirteen-hour shifts and living in a crappy motel a forty-five-minute drive from the worksite, something was going to snap.

Another employee lost focus at the wrong time when he was supposed to wait for a hand signal and didn’t. I fractured my orbital socket in the accident that followed.

It was a close call and could have been a lot worse. I’m glad I “saw it coming” and had time to at least try and get out of the way.

I got sent away after a night in the ER while the rest of that crew continued to work.

After spending two days at home the boss calls.

Boss: “I need you in Alaska.”

Me: “What?”

Boss: “Is it a bad line? I said I need you in Alaska.”

Me: “You’re not going to ask me how I am feeling? Or even apologize?”

Boss: “You’re fine, I read the report. Why would I apologize? I wasn’t even there?”

Me: “Seriously?”

Boss: “Okay so you’re going to Alaska in two days. Your flight is already booked.”

Me: “The h*** I am!”

I quit right on the spot and went straight back to sleep. Best sleep I had in years. I had a new job lined up as soon as I recovered.

I work in a tax office. It is the “first peak” when people start getting their W2s. We get about half of all of our clients during the first peak and about a third of all of our clients during the second peak in April — the last week of filing season.

We’re being swarmed by clients, but corporate refuses to authorize overtime. But clients keep walking through the door, and tax pros who are on their way out the door keep sticking around to prep their taxes. By Wednesday, most of our office, and all of our most experienced tax professionals, have hit or exceeded forty hours.

The district general manager comes down on me. He demands that I fix the schedule so that no one is getting more than forty hours.

Me: “That would leave us with no tax professionals capable of doing the American Opportunity Credit, Retirement Income, or Investment Income on Thursday and Friday. We would not be able to service our clients.”

[Manager] doesn’t care; convert them into drop-offs! Have the tax pros work on them at home.

Me: “You are, uh, aware that working from home is supposed to be on the clock, right?”

[Manager] doesn’t care; have them work from home DURING SOME WEEK THAT’S LESS BUSY!

Me: “That’s not happening until late February, and a lot of people are going to be very angry about us not getting to them by then. We’re going to lose a lot of clients.”

[Manager] doesn’t care; make it work somehow. He doesn’t care how.

Me: “Well… can I have that in writing?”

[Manager] is magnanimously willing to put it in writing.

So, I take all of our experienced tax pros off of the schedule for Thursday and Friday. Some of them are put off by it, but most are accepting — it’s good to have a two-day vacation mid-peak — and I’m attempting to set up [Manager] to take the fall.

Thursday and Friday are rough. It’s just me (I don’t get overtime; I’m salaried) and a handful of tax pros who are either very new or experienced but very responsibility-shy. (They don’t want to take on complicated clients and refuse to take the exams that would permit them to do so.)

But I do two things. One, I direct every complaint from a customer to [Manager]’s email. And two, I record exactly how much less money we made Thursday and Friday compared to the rest of the week. I also email the market manager with details of what happened and a comparison of how much we’re making before and after this policy.

The market manager calls [Manager], and [Manager] authorizes overtime for all tax preparers once more… and complains to me about “betraying” him by getting the market manager involved.

Me: “You told me to solve the problem any way I could. The only way I could solve the problem was by getting the market manager involved.”

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.