Food industry workers are the backbone of our society. However, between crazy customers and maniacal managers, food service careers aren’t all they are cracked up to be! These employees reveal the ridiculous reasons why they were fired from their food industry job within the first week. Maybe it was for the best, right?
Content has been edited for clarity.
Baked Goods And Baffling Crimes
“I was fired because I refused to lie to the FBI.
In my younger days, I ended up working at a Russian bakery. The job was a strictly under-the-table gig, and I mostly completed whatever needed to be done and required a functioning brain stem to accomplish.
I had a running theory about how the bakery was a front for organized crime, as everything they sold was marked at exorbitant prices. Plus, the cashier register sometimes went weeks without being opened. Occasionally, an older couple or grandmother would come in and buy bread, but they wouldn’t look at any of the prices. What they paid for the products was far below the prices they were marked. The person who worked the register and took money from folks also did most of the cash flow out of their own pockets.
Rough-looking men would show up to the bakery at odd hours, and a lot of them had a selection of classic prison tattoos. They never spoke to me except to ask where the building owner was.
At least part of the business was legitimate because food would get baked and sent out. As far as I knew, the baked goods were sent to restaurants. There was invented work, though. I showed up one afternoon and was asked to move a pallet of flour, one bag at a time, to the other side of the storeroom. The next day, I was asked to move it all back. It was bizarre.
However, the owner paid cash, paid well, and didn’t bother me. As long as I didn’t wander out of the area I had been assigned to work in, they were cool. I figured after the end of my second day working something was seriously off, but I needed the money. I figured I would just make sure I didn’t see anything I wasn’t supposed to.
At the end of my fifth day working, I went home thinking all was normal. However, about twenty minutes later, I heard someone knock on my door. When I answered, two guys in suits from the FBI wanted to ask me some questions about the bakery.
The FBI agents were vague about what they were looking for, but they alluded to their questions having to do with taxes.
I asked the agents, ‘If it has to do with taxes, why isn’t the IRS handling the issue?’
The agents had no response.
They prodded me to say something, but I didn’t see snitching going very well for me. After all, I didn’t know much about the bakery, anyway. I hadn’t worked there for more than a week, and I just needed a job.
I told the agents, ‘All I do is dump flour and clean baking trays. I don’t speak Russian, so I can’t listen to the owner’s conversations while I work. I don’t know anyone beyond my few days of working at the bakery. I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can help you.’
I told the owner about it the next day, and he took me aside and told me what I needed to say the next time the agents came to my house. He didn’t overly threaten me, but it was very much ‘This is what you will say when they come.’
I shrugged and hesitantly replied to the owner, ‘I don’t want to lie to the FBI. Whatever sketchy business is going on here, I don’t want to be a part of it. There is always a lot of flour dust in the air here, so my eyes are always dry. It makes it hard to see detail. I don’t think this job is right for me.’
The owner understood what I meant by my untruthful resignation. In a tone I will never forget, he replied, ‘I think this is a good choice. A very, very, good choice.’
Then, the owner handed me my pay for the day out of his pocket, and I booked it out of the bakery.
I never saw anybody from the FBI again. The bakery disappeared a few years later. I was sad to leave the job because it paid fairly well for relatively easy work. However, I decided it was better to leave than stay and potentially get mixed up in something, or worse, arrested.”
“I Was In Total Shock”
“One time, I was fired after the first hour of being hired.
At the time, I was desperately looking for a job. I went into a local chain restaurant, met the manager, shook his hand, and asked for a job. We had great chemistry, and after a brief chat session, the manager informed me I was hired.
The manager smiled and said, ‘Come back to the restaurant in a week. We will have you set up to start working.’
After a week, I came back to the restaurant. I was in a great mood and ready to start working. Especially because I was broke after going yet another week without work.
I met my trainer, and she brought me out new-hire paperwork and a restaurant-branded work shirt. While filling out the paperwork, I looked up. Behind the kitchen line, I noticed a guy from high school working who was a major bully towards me. The guy, ‘Kyle,’ punched me more than once, would call me out in the middle of the hallways to fight, and generally antagonize me.
Because I had not seen Kyle in almost five years, I didn’t care anymore. I waved at him and smiled, thinking we were about to begin working together. Honestly, I was even a little excited to start working with Kyle. At least I would have someone to talk to at work who I had met before.
In response to my friendly wave, Kyle scowled at me and walked away out of sight. I didn’t think much of it, and I continued to work on my new-hire paperwork.
Not even a minute or two later, my trainer walked up to me and stated, ‘Actually, we changed our mind. We aren’t looking for new people to work with right now. I’m sorry.’
My mouth was agape, and I was in total shock.
I replied, ‘But, I have been waiting for this job for a week already. This isn’t right.’
The trainer shrugged and insincerely replied, ‘Sorry. Oh, I will need the work shirt back, too.’
At this point, I was furious. I looked up, and Kyle, the bully from high school, reappeared from behind the line. He began smirking with his arms folded. I couldn’t help but think this was all of his doing.
I began gathering my belongings and told the trainer, ‘No, I’m not giving the shirt back. I am taking it since all of you dirtbags made me wait a week for it!’
‘Dude, no. You can’t keep the shirt,’ the trainer aggressively growled.
I was fed up.
I shouted as loud as possible, ‘Well, try and take it from me witch!’ and walked out of the restaurant, accidentally knocking over my chair in the process.
I ended up deciding to move away from town about a week later, so it was probably for the best. Oh, and I still have the shirt.”
“You Are The Most Insane Person I Have Ever Met”
“In my teens, I worked at an Arby’s restaurant. All of the staff kept telling me the day manager was super controlling and oftentimes harassed young girls into quitting. However, I was also told that if I kept my head down, everything would be fine. Lies.
In the kitchen, there were two massive ovens with doors that opened like normal ones.
The manager told me, ‘Go put this pan of bacon in the oven and set the timer. Afterward, I need you to help me come make iced tea.’
At the time, I wasn’t even five feet tall. The manager wanted me to pick up tea barrels almost the same height as me while they were full of scalding hot water. It was downright dangerous. However, I was young and desperate for a job, so I eventually put the barrels on rolling chairs and wheeled them across the kitchen. Then, the oven timer went off.
The manager screamed, ‘Are you going to get the bacon out of the oven?’
I sighed and hurriedly walked over to the oven. I pulled out the pan of bacon and sat it on the table behind me before closing the oven doors. The manager immediately lost her mind.
‘You need to close the oven door right after you open it!’ the manager hissed. ‘Hurry up and pick up the pan off of the table before someone gets hurt!’
I grabbed the bacon and awkwardly tried to close the oven door with my elbow since I needed two hands to hold the pan. It didn’t work, and I ended up getting a severe burn on my arm.
The other staff began arriving, so things went smoothly for the next few hours. A man I used to babysit for stopped in the restaurant and ordered food.
He waved at me and told the cashier, ‘Tell her I am proud of her for getting a job!’
The cashier ran back to the manager and snitched on me because the man wanted to talk during my shift. The manager then screamed at me for being distracted on the job and allowing the whole situation to happen. Afterward, I was put on dish duty for the remainder of the week. It was my first day and I didn’t know anything.
When I went outside on my break, I called my mom to tell her all about my day.
My mom pleaded, ‘You need to quit. I don’t think it’s a safe work environment for you.’
I didn’t want to quit, and I felt like I could tough out the rest of my shift. So, I went back inside.
As soon as I stepped back into the kitchen, the manager screamed at me to take out the trash. When I walked over to the trash can, I noticed my hoodie and car keys were inside.
I pulled out my belongings and asked, ‘Who threw my stuff in the garbage?’
The manager simply walked over with a smug grin on her face and replied, ‘Your stuff should have been locked up. I thought I would teach you a lesson.’
I looked the manager directly in the eyes and screamed, ‘Who do you think you are? You are the most insane and evil person I have ever met!’
The manager yelled, ‘Do you think I care? You’re fired!’
Our argument was so loud, customers began walking to the front to ask if everything was okay. I wish I would have pulled one of those, ‘No, I quit!’ lines, but I laughed in the manager’s face and knocked over the trash instead.
My mom was right. I should have quit before it was too late.”
“It Was The Greatest Job I Ever Had”
“Years ago, I worked at a Hibachi restaurant that had just opened in my town. The job was under the table, as I was only a freshman in high school. Some of my friends worked at the restaurant as waiters and waitresses, but I was assigned to the kitchen.
I was the only white person who worked in the kitchen. All of the other kitchen workers were either from Japan or Indonesia. On my first day, I was immediately taught some basic Japanese and Indonesian language and food preparation skills, and then fully expected to act as a go-between among the two groups.
In the morning, I chopped vegetables with kitchen tools I had never seen or held before. In the evening, the chefs who were typically stoic grew sentimental and allowed me to cook with them. I would leave work well past midnight having not spoken English for hours, sweaty, and smelling strongly of soy sauce.
On my last day of work, day seven, some of the kitchen staff gave me a bracelet made of seashells from their country to wear. The chefs tied a bandana around my head to wear, just like them. They brought a black and white samurai movie to watch while we worked.
Suddenly, I was called to the boss’s room, who I had never met or seen before. When I went back to his office, I was commanded to sit. To my horror, I noticed three of my coworkers from school were there, too.
The boss informed us we were all fired, effective immediately. As it turned out, one of the kids from my high school was stealing drinks from the restaurant and selling them in the parking lot. When the boss found out, he thought it reflected poorly on all of us.
The chefs looked at me sternly when I walked back to get my belongings but gave me firm handshakes. The food prep employees were teary-eyed and gave me quick hugs.
I returned to school a few days later and to my boring existence. It was the greatest job I ever had.”
“I Resented The Owner For A Long Time”
“A couple of years ago, I had been hired at a restaurant as a shift manager. The owner needed help implementing a delivery service for his fast-casual burrito start-up. I had a business degree and delivered pizzas throughout college, so I was a perfect fit for the job.
On my first night, there was way more work to complete than there was time to get everything done. I was expected to learn everything required of my position as well as cover for an employee who had called in sick.
The person who trained me my first night technically worked under me. However, the owner assured me the employee would show me the ropes. So, I did whatever the trainer told me to do.
The trainer explained, ‘Counting the register at the end of the night can be tricky. Here, I’ll show you the right way to do it.’
The trainer counted the register, put the money in the zipper bag, and I locked the register and put the bag in the owner’s office.
My mistake was that I watched the money rather than what the trainer wrote down on the form. Little did I know, the trainer took almost two hundred bucks for himself.
When the owner saw the deposit, form, and cash discrepancy, he called the trainer first. The trainer told the owner he didn’t have anything to do with the missing money. Great.
Then, the owner asked me what happened. I was shocked about the missing cash and told the owner exactly what had happened. Unfortunately, the owner believed the trainer over me.
I was bitter and resented the owner for a long time afterward. Now, thinking back on it, the owner got what he deserved. He made a dumb call and kept on an employee who stole from him over a guy who could have helped him build his business.
The owner gave the trainer my job and they tried building out the delivery side, but it failed. All three of the restaurant locations closed within 18 months.”
Break Time Blues
“A while back, I worked at a Taco Bell restaurant on campus for two weeks. At the interview, the manager hired me on the spot and instructed me to come back the next day.
When I arrived for my first day of work, I clocked in. The manager then gave me a brief 30-minute tutorial on how the kitchen equipment and food preparation area worked. Then, the manager told me to clock out for 15 minutes until their labor caught up with sales.
I clocked out, sat around for 15 minutes, then re-entered the kitchen. The manager put me to work on the food preparation line during a rush. It was my first day, so I was a little slow.
The manager got angry because I couldn’t keep up with the rush and asserted, ‘Go do some dishes instead.’
After about five minutes of doing dishes, the manager made me clock out again for another 15 minutes. Afterward, I came back, did more dishes, and ran the deep fryer for the remainder of the night. Every 20 or 30 minutes, the manager had me clock out and take another break.
On my first day, I was supposed to be scheduled for a six-hour shift. However, I felt like I was on breaks for more than half of my shift. It was a common theme over the two weeks I worked at the restaurant. I only worked when the restaurant was busy and going through a rush. Eventually, at the end of the two weeks, the manager let me go.
I wasn’t sure if I was working legally or not afterward. But I couldn’t complain, I took home my pay in free, custom-made, Taco Bell every night. It was a win,”
“It Wasn’t Worth The Trouble”
“The manager at the restaurant I applied at was looking for staff who could hit the ground running. I told the manager I didn’t have much experience working at an actual restaurant, just serving at smaller events.
The manager replied, ‘As long as you are good at your job, I don’t mind how often you have served before.’
Initially, the manager gave me three shifts. I texted him on Sunday to figure out what shifts I had the following week, and he replied, ‘Oh, I asked somebody to tell you not to come back. But, I’ll tell you what. I will allow you to work two more shifts.’
I thought to myself, ‘Alright, whatever,’ and went to work the following day.
Everything went great during my shift. Most of the normal staff didn’t show up, but I managed to run the restaurant smoothly between the cook and me.
However, after my two shifts, the manager told me not to come back again.
The manager explained, ‘You just aren’t experienced enough. I don’t think you’re a good fit.’
It took two months to track the manager down to pay me for the shifts I worked. He even stopped answering my phone calls, so I had to use a different phone to get him to answer. The manager actively avoided paying me!
Afterward, I vowed never to work at a restaurant again. It wasn’t worth the trouble.”
“I Wasn’t Going To Argue With The Owner”
“Years ago, I worked at an up-and-coming coffee shop for a total of six days.
At the time, I had recently lost my job. However, I worked at Starbucks before, so I figured working at this coffee shop would be the same sort of pace.
I made an effort to be as kind to customers and my coworkers as possible. I took down all of the customer’s orders correctly and made them efficiently and exactly as asked. As far as I knew, I was doing great at my job.
Sometimes, the owner would step in and help during a rush at the coffee shop. However, when it was busy, she would get easily distracted and regularly make the wrong drinks.
On my last day, the owner’s husband pulled me into the office to talk.
He asked, ‘How are you liking the job so far?’
After I replied, he stated, ‘Actually, my wife and I don’t think you are a good fit for the job. You are late almost every shift, and you have trouble remembering customers’ orders.’
I was shocked. I hadn’t been late to a shift once, and I never messed up a customer’s order. However, I wasn’t going to argue with the owner and her husband. I gathered my belongings and left without a fight.
Afterward, I occasionally stopped by and ordered a coffee and relaxed in the awkward tension while I watched the owner continue to hand out incorrect drink orders.
She must have not liked me.”
“I Thought I Was Doing A Good Job”
“The first time I worked as a waitress, a couple came into the restaurant and sat in my section. The man ordered grape leaves for himself and his partner, enjoyed their meal, and left.
The next evening, around the same time, the same man came into the restaurant with a different woman. They sat in the same booth in my section.
The man ordered grape leaves again. I thought I was doing a good job with customer service by remembering the man and his order from the night before.
I mentioned to the man, ‘Oh, hey! I remember you from last night. You got the grape leaves again, they must be tasty!’
I didn’t think anything of my statement. After all, I was just trying to make a friendly conversation. However, the man acted clueless and as if he had no idea what I was talking about it. The woman with him looked confused, too.
Suddenly, realization struck me. The woman he was with must have been the man’s mistress or something along those lines. The woman he was with had no idea the man was at the restaurant the previous evening.
The next thing I knew, the man called the manager over to the table. Within minutes, I was getting fired for something I didn’t even know was an issue. It was insane.”
McDonald’s Madness
“I once walked out during my first week on a job.
I was hired at a McDonald’s in South Florida. If employees didn’t show up fifteen minutes before their scheduled shifts, they were considered late.
One day, I showed up “late” to my shift. I arrived at the restaurant ten minutes before my 7:00 AM shift was supposed to start. At this particular location, the shift managers clocked you in and out. Employees were not allowed to do it themselves.
A few hours passed and I asked the shift manager, ‘Did you clock me in this morning? I don’t recall you ever doing it.’
The manager replied, ‘You were late, I didn’t clock you in. Today, you are working for free.’
I laughed in the manager’s face, walked out, and called the regional manager. The regional manager said he would investigate, but he and the shift manager were friends. I doubt anything ever came of it.
I refused to work in the food industry again afterward.”