Fast food jobs are hard enough, but these people's bosses make it just so much worse. No one would wish these bosses on their worst enemies, that's how mean, lazy, and immoral these bosses are. These are the stories about how bosses make their lives absolutely awful. Content has been edited for clarity.
They Assumed I Was Gone
“I worked at my local McDonald’s for 4 weeks last year. I broke my foot and sprained my ankle right before Thanksgiving. I told the store manager right after I left the ER, and she told me to come back after I saw my orthopedist. I did, but she was gone and a different manager told me to get a note from my doctor so I can come back to work because they needed people desperately.
I got one and a different manager took it from me, said she wasn’t sure on what to do because she wasn’t sure if I could work, and said she’d call me the next day. I haven’t heard anything since, and it’s been about a month and a half since I talked to anyone and no one has called me back. I’m sure that with all of the miscommunication, they just assumed I walked out and quit. I have a better job now.”
Corporate Hosed Her
“Worked a Burger King a while back that stayed open til 2 am. One manager was actually a reasonable person, and was an older lady that clearly paid her dues to the company. At my store we only had 2 closers, so from about 10 pm to 3 am it was just me and a manager.
The night I put my two weeks in, she is just grumpy and teary eyed looking at her phone, and she’s not usually the manager who does that. Her oldest was going into a complicated pre-mature labor and nobody could help her.
No area manager wanted to come out that late. Corporate didn’t care because that was ‘part of the job.’ She was crying all night until we closed. Busted out of there 10 minutes after closing time we broke so many rules.
Eff corporate people who think you have to take your time away from your children for terrible burgers.”
It Was The Perfect Storm
“I worked at a Canes Chicken around graduation season. He had massive catering orders, like 600 chicken fingers, 500 pieces of toast, and 250 coleslaws. We had multiple orders like this on the same day while also being our busiest day of the week. We were going nuts, even the owner was there to help.
Of course, this is the day corporate decides to make a surprise visit.
The owner got reamed (even though we were consistently scoring as one of the top locations on a regular day), so he reamed the manager, who then reamed us. So we’re already stressed out and tired and now we’re being shouted at by irate customers, the owner, and our manager. I’m surprised we didn’t all quit that day.”
I Ghosted Them
“My manager was a genuine pain in the butt. Long story short, I was constantly being given the short end of the stick every time I worked with her, despite me being the only reliable employee she had over three years of employment.
Over that time, I had seen a good 20+ people quit or get fired because of my manager’s terrible attitude. Never once did someone hand in a two week notice. I wouldn’t have put up with the job for as long as I did, if it wasn’t for the fact I was only part-time due to college. One day, she called me into the back office with the store manager and accused me of not doing my job properly, and patronized me, saying, ‘We can’t just stand around and babysit you kids all day.’
That was the last straw for me – I put in my application elsewhere and handed in my two weeks notice my next shift. She took one look at it, threw it on the counter beside her and said, ‘Thanks, thanks a lot,’ and proceeded to give me the cold shoulder the rest of the day. I then heard from other co-workers that she was going around the store, telling others, ‘There’s no way he has another job, who’s going to hire him for part time work?’ I decided to retract my two week notice then, and no call, no showed every remaining shift I was scheduled.
It was the most satisfying moment of that job. My god, she really was a high school bully. In fact, she acted as though she never left high school – the only reason she became a manager was because the previous manager had a thing for her before he retired.
My relationship with her was such a muddied mess – there were days she would praise me, and days she would consider me a worthless employee. Every time I worked with her, I was left unsure of who I was coming in to see: the nice boss, or the mean one. I don’t regret that decision one bit.”
We Should Have Done Something
“I was working at Popeyes. My best friend was working with me and we had the same shifts because we carpooled since we were both 17 years old, and broke all of the time. The day in question happened to be a day when my regional and general manager were at our store.
As we closed up for the evening, I realized my wallet was missing. There was only 5 dollars in it, but that 5 spot was dedicated to the empty gas tank we had to fill to make it the 15 miles back home. My friend and I searched everywhere to no avail.
Both my regional and general manager were outside waiting for us to close and just talking at one of their cars. When we finished up, we went over to both of them and asked if we could borrow a couple dollars to get home. We had both been working there over a year and were exemplary employees, so we decided it wouldn’t be a big deal.
My regional manager said sure, reached into his pocket and threw a handful of change at me. Seconds later, my general manager did the same thing at my friend. He and I bent over and started picking up the change as they watched and laughed.
It was one of the worst moments of my life. To this day, I’ve never felt that kind of shame and embarrassment.
My friend and I VOWED vengeance. Revenge of the nature that made sure nobody would EVER mess with us again.
We never did anything.”
The Power Got To His Head
“At McDonald’s of course. I was a first assistant manager. We had a kid who was just promoted to shift manager. He was a very good employee and he knew his stuff. We had high hopes for him.
His very first shift, 5 minutes into the shift, he does a walk through of the dining room. He asks a girl who was 7 months pregnant to change a trash bag and she tells him no, that she can’t do it. He walks to the back of the store, gets the trash masher (basically a mop handle with steel plates on the end to compact the trash) walks to the garbage bag and mashes the trash.
He then takes the trash masher and knocks the girl out with it screaming, ‘I’m the boss and everyone better do whatever I tell them,’ and continued to yell at everyone about how she needs to be fired for insubordination and no one else better ever test him. He was arrested in the store and was trying to argue with the police officers that he was in the right.
The girl had a major concussion but she and the baby were OK.”
This Is Not My Place In Life
“I used to work for a franchised Subway. It was a really bad fit for me–I’m not good at interacting with people. My store was slowly losing customers after the owner fed a guy a moldy sandwich (I swear that was the turning point…) so I would often be the only person on staff after the lunch rush, which was even more stressful for me than the job already was.
One night I was crying while making the sandwiches and the customer complained. Boss pulled me aside the next day and wanted an explanation–I told him how miserable I was.
He said to me, ‘You need to learn to accept your place in life.’
Accept my place. Making $9 an hour with no sick leave, vacation, or insurance. Definite no to that. I got angrier and angrier through my shift, and come 3 pm, I was the only person running the store again. I called my fiancé and told him to come pick me up. Then I locked up the store and texted the boss that I quit and that there was no one running his store.
He called me back before I even left the parking lot and begged me to reconsider. I told him to eff off.”
Can I Have A Little Help?
“I worked the night shift at a Krispy Kreme. It was always just me and the manager. She never helped. She’d just go in the office to do ‘paperwork,’ and leave me alone for 8 hours to make everything. Because I knew she’d leave me alone, I’d take the trash out multiple times a night for a smoke break.
Well, one night I come back in from my smoke break, and notice the conveyor for the original glazed is starting to rattle pretty badly. There’s several things you needed to turn off prior to stopping the conveyor (glaze fountain, heating elements, dough ejector thing). So I turn all of those off, but for some reason the conveyor is in a weird ‘dieseling’ state, where it continues to run, but is disconnected from power.
I start to panic, the conveyor keeps going, and continues to get more and more loud. I start pounding on the manager’s office door, but she won’t answer. Things are starting to fall apart, and I can’t handle this. I finally shoulder charge her office door down, screaming, ‘HEY?! I NEED HELP!’ but she isn’t in there. I look on her security screens, and her car isn’t even in the parking lot.
Once I realized that she was gone, the conveyor finally went. The motor took out one end of the conveyor line, and gallons of 100% pork lard fryer oil covered the floor of the entire kitchen.
I called the off duty manager, told him what just happened, said, ‘To heck with this, I’m done,’ and just left.
I bumped into her about four years later. She was working the register at a QT, and she definitely realized who I was, but no words were exchanged.”
She Was My Nemesis
“I worked at a brand new Dairy Queen back in 2013. I did the interview at a hotel in April because it hadn’t been built yet. I was pumped, but later found out the manager was the same nasty lady who previously managed a McDonald’s I used to go to a lot, but I thought my impressions of her were wrong.
Well, they started training us in May and the building was ready for us to use in June. I had just started learning how to make the DQ blizzards that day, and this lady kept walking by me, just watching me. Turns out she hated me from the start because I was not one of her besties and was actually there to earn money and not mess around.
Anyway, it came my turn to practice with the blizzard machine again. Anyone who has used this equipment can tell you it’s a bit sensitive. Well, I could see her standing there eye-balling me the whole time. The cup I was holding accidentally ripped, so the ice cream sprayed on the floor.
Next thing I know, she is less than an inch from my face, screaming so loud she’s spitting on me and threatening to send me home. She was so full of rage, I honestly was terrified. My coworkers were stunned, and I was shaking.
Awhile after opening, I started doing night shifts. A woman who supervised our section (the “chill” area of a DQ Grill and Chill) gave us new aprons. Now, don’t get me wrong, THIS supervisor was a very nice lady. She was a sweetheart. Problem is, I guess she didn’t tell my dumb boss that I was one of the ones getting a new apron.
I showed up for work the next morning. Opened everything up and was talking to a customer while making his drink (there was an open space between the chill section and seating area) and another coworker from the previous night shows up for her shift.
She starts tearing things apart looking for something. Then I see her go across the restaurant to her bestie, the dumb manager, and start whispering. So, while other customers are showing up and I’m giving the first one his drink and starting to operate the drive thru, dear manager lady screams at me from across the restaurant, accusing me of stealing the other woman’s new apron.
This was embarrassing, and I kept my cool and just kept working and said I didn’t steal anything. She’s like, ‘Are you sure? You got it on right now.’ I told her I was only wearing the apron I was given by sweetheart supervisor. Well, she couldn’t believe I got one.
Then, coworker storms back to our section. I asked if I could help her find her apron. She said no, and told me how she had left it folded up on the counter after closing. I said, ‘Number one, stop leaving your stuff here. Take it home like everyone else so no one “steals” it. Number two, I left at 7, so you and I both know there’s no way I could have taken it because you were here a lot later than I was.’
Coworker stopped accusing me after she realized her story stunk worse than dog poop and made less sense than common core math. But my manager didn’t, and probably would still be accusing me of it if she could.
For the longest time, it took me forever to accept that it wasn’t my fault. I thought maybe I’d done something wrong. But then on my day off, I later found out my dad went there and heard her yelling at another worker. He had a few choice words for her. From that point on when he was there, she hid in the back. She had no chill.”
He Was Playing Under The Table And Dreaming
“I worked at Sheetz in high school, it was right outside of a large stadium. It’s the night of a Dave Matthews Band concert and it’s letting out.
The store assistant manager (in charge that night) locked himself in the office for about an hour as lines are quite literally around the building. We’re all banging on the door and trying to figure out what the heck we’re doing. He finally opens up as we’re still running around trying to fan the flames of this nightmare, and goes, ‘I need to leave.’ He walks out, jumps in his car and leaves. And no, wasn’t like family emergency type of leave, he comes back an hour later when things have died down and was all cheery and said, ‘Hi guys!’ He was always a weird dude, well dressed middle aged guy, but just… jittery. None of us ever figured out where he went, but we always pretty much figured he was going to smoke crack. When the actual manager heard what happened, he was gone about 2 weeks later.”
I Did Not Have It My Way
“I worked at Burger King.
This one manager, who kept reminding everyone he was super cool because he had a diploma in business, was the absolute worst for multiple reasons:
- An older employee (late 40’s?) slipped and badly hurt her back. She was crying in the lunch room in pain. The manager kept yelling at her to get up and back to work because we were busy. In the end, I told her to go home and I did her shift – he went off at me because he didn’t authorize it, and therefore wasn’t going to pay me.
- He gave me shifts during school hours (I was 16 and in high school), or try to have me work till midnight during the week because he’s ‘trying to run a business and I should be grateful for a job.’ He went crazy when I told him school would always take priority over my job, and it’s how his predecessor sold me the role. After he tried rostering me on for school hours, he then gave me zero hours. I complained to the regional manager who just happened to be in at the time and he fixed it up for me.
- He would roster teenage girls to close the restaurant, alone. This is midnight (sometimes later) when we were usually hit with rowdy people after a night out.
8 people quit in two weeks (including me); the restaurant fell to pieces and they moved this guy to another restaurant. I was offered a pay raise and a promotion when I quit, but alas, it was too late and I went to work in a toy store (best job ever!).”
She Was Very Physical
“One of our managers started choking a coworker in the drive thru window, in full view of customers. Said coworker was supposed to be my relief but she was 20 minutes late and apparently the two of them exchanged words immediately before the incident.
That manager had a history of aggressive behavior (she tried to tackle me, literally, on my first day. I’m pretty sure only being short and stocky and thus a low center of gravity saved me from going into the fryer), and was immediately fired. They didn’t press charges, though, I’m not sure why, and the fired manager called everyone who worked there to cry about how it was all our fault for not supporting her and getting her fired.
She was hired to manage Burger King like two weeks later.”
It Was A Terrible Place
“I worked at BK for two years and it was a trip. I was called stupid on a daily basis, I got shoved off a ladder by a coworker while trying to fill those god awful freestyle machines with ice. Had a coworker slam a door into me so hard I blacked out.
One time we were getting an inspection and of course all of our produce was expired, so my GM told the janitor to move it all behind the dumpster until the audit was over. He threw it all IN the dumpster. Yup, we fished it out and served it. Once we were out of dish detergent powder. Someone filled the sink with bleach. My hands got burned, but I couldn’t go home.
I had multiple breakdowns while I worked there. A coworker threatened to follow me home and murder me after I ratted them out for stealing food (they were threatening to take the losses in food cost from our checks, and I was a kid and didn’t know they couldn’t do that).
We would constantly re-fry things to keep them ‘fresh’ (rings, fries, chicken). And the broilers were really finicky. You’d load them from the front, and the cooked patties would fall out of a chute into a PHU pan. We were supposed to never use the same one twice without washing, but we never changed it. Sometimes the broiler would malfunction and shoot out chunks of raw beef instead. We’d salvage anything we could to send through a second time, dump the PHU pan into a bucket and put it right back. Raw beef and cooked beef living in perfect, e-coli breeding harmony.
We also constantly found weird things in the fryer trap. Dart butts, earrings, melted hunks of plastic from tongs falling into the fryer. Even the melted chip to a handset phone, once.
Spare yourselves, eat somewhere else.”
When Trevor Left, I Was Done
“I used to work evenings at a deli during my senior year of high school. We had four REALLY big catering orders for that night so in addition to the 400+ sandwiches we make in a normal night, we had almost 1,200 extra among these four orders.
The sandwiches people ordered at the store had priority, then we would continue making catering sandwiches. These catering orders all came in at the same time, so nobody’d had a single spare moment to clean anything in hours. We had the music cranked up. It was hard work but we were getting it done.
Anyway, we had just finished up the first catering order and started on the second when corporate dropped by for a surprise inspection. We immediately started getting yelled at for being lazy and not cleaning. Everyone on the sandwich line was drenched in sweat from working so hard at this point. The yelling continued and got worse and worse.
Finally Trevor, one of the guys who had been working there for a few years, put down his knife, took off his apron, and said, ‘Eff you. I’ve been working my butt off all night and you come in here and tell me I’m lazy and worthless? I don’t work here any more. Good luck with the catering.’
After he left, all eyes were on me. The corporate guys told me I needed to work harder because my coworker had abandoned me. I quit on the spot. The three people at the end of the sandwich line quit. The guy on the front register quit when he saw us all walking out.
The only person left on that shift was the manager who was working drive-through. I have no idea what happened to those catering orders. After the dust settled, the deli refused to issue our final checks. Trevor managed to track us all down and helped us through the process of filing a lost wage complaint. I don’t know what everyone else received, but I got 3 times my final check after the process was complete.”
I Absolutely Worked Hard Enough
“I would work extremely long hours as a manager. On Mondays, I would work 11 am to 7 pm at one store, then come back in at 10 pm and work until 6 am at another store, then on that day, I’d go to another store and work 9 am to 5 pm. I would do that the next day. Then the day after that, I’d work a 9 am to 5 pm, have one day off, and then repeat. Usually I would hit 60-80 hours a week because I would often times stay late to get my work done. I would usually only sleep for one night every two days.
I was denied a promotion to become a regional supervisor because I ‘didn’t work hard enough.’ I gained fifteen pounds in the three months I did that. I decided to go to college instead. I was so happy to quit, you have no idea.
I have many other stories, but those don’t matter anywhere near as much as being insulted by them saying I didn’t work hard enough.”
That Was Not Part Of The Job Description
“I worked at a McDonald’s when I was 15. One of the managers there was a 25-30 year old guy who seemed to thrive on flexing his managerial power over the young men who worked there, and also hitting on all the underaged female employees. This McDonald’s was situated between two busy roads and had a long access road from the further one up to the back of the building.
One day, middle of the summer, 95 degrees and humid out, he decided that I should have to go out and walk along this road picking up the trash that people had thrown out on the road. About halfway through my half mile journey, he drove by waving and smiling at me with one of the girls in his car. Next day, I called him a bad word and quit.
Best part was I found out he was terminated a week after that. Something about inappropriate relations with the staff.”
My Boss Flipped Like A Pancake
“Worked on a pancake stand at a concert. We had two kinds of fillings and sometimes people would ask for both at the same time. I usually just spread one on one half and the other on the other half and rolled it up so that they’d get same amount of each with each bite.
Two days in, my boss sees this and absolutely flips his lid in front of some guy who at that point has been my regular customer. Apparently I was supposed to spread one kind on whole pancake and then just do little dabs with the other one. The customer said he liked pancakes the way I made them but from that point forward, I was not allowed to make them the same way.”