rSlash - r/Maliciouscompliance My Boss Ordered Me to Serve Moldy Food 🤮

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

r/Maliciouscompliance In today's episode, OP is a server at a restaurant that has horrible managers. The most toxic manager brings OP onto the bakery team, where OP discovers that their strawberries have gone rotten. Instead of throwing the strawberries away, the boss orders OP to serve the mold-covered strawberries, so OP complies. Pretty soon, the entire restaurant is angry and upset at the managers for serving mold-covered food, which leads to the manager getting fired! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to our slash malicious compliance where OP shuts down an entire restaurant. Our next reddit post is from Dita Von Teets. A few years ago I started working for a buff based out restaurant that's pretty well known, at least in the Midwest area. The job itself was horrible as most food industry jobs are. But I was grateful for the work and for my friend who had gotten me the job there as a hostess, so I tried to put in actual effort. A few months into the job, I found out that basically all the managers were doing shady

things, like they were doing drugs during their shifts and nodding off at their desks. They were sleeping with teenage waitresses and giving them more hours in the rest of the staff. They would also cut people's hours down to 5 hours a week if they ever complained about anything. It was basically all the horrible things you hear about happening in management. I just went in, put on a smile, and did my job as best I could. The restaurant itself was going through some hard times.

So one day, the big guy in charge. I think a district manager or something came in for a staff meeting to basically rip all of us a new one. And he put all the blame of the bad reviews and the low sales on the wait staff and me, the hostess. I was told that I had to present myself more confidently by wearing makeup and taking more care of my appearance. Which sent me off because first and foremost, I'm a feminist and that was sexist as hell.

But also, I was confident in myself and my appearance. But it's hard to keep a smile when I'm constantly dealing with people who are angry over outrageous meal prices that were advertised as being much lower, or people who are angry over their disgusting food. I also pointed out to him that I've worked in restaurants my entire life, and I'd applied to be a cook, not a hostess, and I felt that I was way more qualified to be back in the kitchen, but I was placed as a hostess because they needed to fill the spot quickly after their last one quits. So he told me that on my next shift, I could clock into the bakery section and

work there instead. I was pretty excited for this, because I loved a cook and bake, and I would have the entire kitchen to myself in that section, and I would be getting a small pay raise. Seems like a pretty sweet deal all around, right? So a few days past my next shift approaches, and I go in early just to get a better feel for the kitchen and the recipes I had to make. It was all super basic stuff. Banana pudding, bread pudding, carrot cakes, nothing too hard or fancy. I find out that I'm gonna be trained that night by one of the assistant managers whom I'd previously gotten to a little argument with because he shamed me. In front of a line of customers for not wearing an Oxford cotton shirt to work, which I didn't even know was a

rule and no one had ever told me otherwise and I'd been there for a month at that point. I pulled him aside after my shift that night to tell him that I did not appreciate him doing that in front of customers. And besides, the type of shirt they expected me to buy was expensive and they wanted me to have at least three of them, which would have been at least half my paycheck, to be honest. And since they weren't willing to pay me the wage I'd requested when I took the job, I wasn't able to afford to buy special shirts like that for work. It was bad enough that they also forced everyone to order sucky non-slip work shoes through a company of their choosing, and that it came out of our first paycheck.

Between the shoes and the shirts, we were basically expected to fork over around 400 bucks on gear just to work there for minimum wage. Ridiculous. So needless to say, him and I already didn't like each other very much. So I knew that him training me was going to be a really bad time, but I thought that it was worth it for the position change. Anyways, I clock in and I'm told immediately that it's a very special night because they're having a huge promotion where kids eat free.

And it was expected to be extremely busy. I panic a little, because the kids always go nuts for the bakery area, but I figure it'll be fine since I'm not alone on my first night. The night goes pretty smoothly at first, but then it happened. We ran out of strawberries for the chocolate fountain and I needed to run to the cooler to refill the pan. Only when I got the box of strawberries out of the fridge, I noticed that every single one of them, all three boxes were covered in spots of white, fuzzy mold.

So I started taking all three boxes out to the dumpster, and that's when the assistant manager stopped me, completely pissed off and screamed, what are you doing? Stunned, I explained the strawberries are all moldy, so I'm throwing them out real quick. He gets even more pissed, takes the boxes from my hands and just tells me to follow him. We go back into the kitchen, to the way back part away from the dining area so no one can see us. And he starts showing me how they just use the spray nozzle on the sink to power wash the mold off the strawberries.

My heart literally sank to my stomach. I asked him if this was something they do a lot, and he said yes because they're still good to eat and to not worry about it. I told him that I wasn't comfortable knowingly serving moldy strawberries to kids, and I wasn't going to do it. So, he snapped at me and told me to just go back to the host's station and start seating people. I'm pretty pissed, but it's already pretty chaotic in the dining area, so I did as I was told. The whole time planning the phone call

that I was going to make to the health department later, and what I was going to write in my two weeks notice. Not even 10 minutes later, a customer came up to me with a bowl full of strawberries, complaining that she'd found mold on them and her child almost ate it. Obviously, I feel horrible and start apologizing to her while waving the assistant manager over to talk to her because she asked to speak with one. He comes over, sees the strawberries, and I just say, she found mold on her son's strawberries and she would

like a refund. Right away, he's all smiles and sincerity, apologizing to her, and walking her over to my cash register to give her her money back. That's when I hear him say, Our bakery cook is still in training, so I'll make sure that I bring this to her attention and correct it. And that's when I snapped. I walked up to them and said what the most confused look that I could manage. I thought you told me to just wash the mold off and they would be fine. I'm just doing what you told me to do. Words can't even begin to describe the look of sheer bewilderment on both their

faces. She yells, are you kidding me? I knew that I was getting fired already at that point, so I started gathering my things from under the counter and clocking out while listening to him diffuse a situation. He was apologizing and saying that I misunderstood him. Meanwhile my heartbeat is ringing in my ears and I'm about to have a full blown panic attack because I've never walked out of a job before. So I wasn't able to pay much attention to what all he was telling her, but it was obvious he was just trying to keep her quiet so the rest of the dining room didn't hear what was happening.

While that was happening, I went to the back to grab my coat from the staff closet, and I snuck into the cooler to take pics of the moldy strawberry so I could send it to the health department. I filed that report anonymously because I didn't want my friend who had gotten me the job to possibly face repercussions, and I figured maybe they would assume that it was the customer who reported them. I got my stuff, snuck out the back door so people wouldn't see me in tears, having a panic attack, and went home. Later, my friend called to tell me that they shut down

the entire chocolate fountain for the rest of the night, and they ended up having to refund a ton of meals because the lady warned everyone around her not to let the kids eat the strawberries. And, of course, many already had. Apparently, it was a disaster. And I'm kinda sad that I miss watching him have to hand out all those refunds on such an important night. A week later, I go in one morning to pick up my final paycheck.

And guess who's the only manager on site? Of course, he was a huge jerk about going to get my paycheck. And he didn't think that it was funny when I asked how he still had a job at all. He made me wait at the front counter for over an hour because he was having trouble getting into the safe to get my check. And that worked out perfectly for me, because while I was waiting, I walked the district manager, and I'm like, okay, I'm just going to tell him what happened.

So I walk up to him and say hello, and he asked me how I was enjoying the bakery. I was like, funny you should ask, and I told him the entire story. The new hostess, who was also a waitress who worked that night, was also at the front counter, backing up everything I said. And the district manager just couldn't believe it. I almost showed him the photos of the strawberries, but honestly, I didn't want to lawsuit or anything, so I was glad my former co-worker was there to back me up. I apologized to him for walking out, and he offered me my job back, but honestly,

that was just way too much drama for not enough pay, and I had already found something better anyways, so I declined. I said that I just won my last paycheck, that I'd been waiting on for over an hour at this point. He went and got my paycheck for me, apologized again, and assured me that he was going to talk with the assistant manager. I didn't think anything would come of it, but apparently he actually did get fired after their talk, because someone from the HR department reached out to me to discuss everything. She told me that the assistant manager tried to pin the entire thing on me, but another cook

came forward and admitted that he was forced to serve moldy food as well. So they were bringing in a complete change in management. I think she basically just wanted to make sure that there wasn't any bad blood or that I wasn't going to try to sue them or something. I told her that I just wanted to be done with it and that was that. They closed down a month or two later, but I can't imagine why. Down in the comments, Red Big says exactly what I was thinking. That's a golden story. I was glad you were able to corral the big guy and tell him what happened. Our next reddit postage from Tater. My dad is a patient guy who lives to keep my mom happy. The old happy wife, happy life.

My entire family goes crazy at Christmas. We decorate everything. If you stand still for too long, you'll have tinsel and lights on you. Mom was getting out of Christmas table setting and commented that she didn't have fancy Christmas glasses to match the dishes. Dad usually has TV on while doing other stuff. Writing, reading, just basically background noise. Well a nearby fast food chain was offering a 99-sync Christmas goblet with menu item

purchase, one per visit. So my dad, to keep my mom happy, drove to the restaurant in order to small soda and a goblet. It was about two bucks. He asked if he could buy more because his wife wanted to set. Nope. One per purchase per visit. So, my dad followed their orders. Buy one drink, buy one glass, get back into the drive-through. He did this five times in the drive-through. Order drink, buy a glass, order drink, buy a glass, order drink, buy a glass, repeat, repeat. The next time my dad gets to the order drink, buy a glass, order drink, buy a glass, repeat, repeat. The next time my dad gets to the order window, they just stop and ask him, how many goblets

do you need? And my dad says, 12? So they allowed him to purchase the remaining 7 goblets for 7 bucks, and he didn't have to keep clogging up the drive-through for a soda order. He said, I tried to do that the first time. We've still got that fine set of fast food goblets and they're an official family heirloom now. So I'll share my own story about this. It's not an amazing story but it's kind of funny I guess. I, okay.

So my mom goes absolutely crazy for decorating. Absolutely crazy. It doesn't matter what the holiday is. She has dishes, glasses, silverware that match that holiday. If you go over to her house for Easter, she has Easter themed plates, Easter themed glasses, Easter themed placemats, Easter themed silverware, Easter themed napkin holders. The same is true for Christmas and Halloween and Valentine's day and it's just completely over the top. And growing up my brother and I just got kind of sick of it. Because like, you know, if my mom's going to decorate, that's fine.

The problem is when you've got two sons, the son's always in doing all the physical labor around the house. So my brother and I were always the ones to go up to the attic to get the box of dishes and bring it down and then pack all the stuff back into the box and haul it back up to the attic. And it's just tedious and exhausting and it really left like a bad taste in my mouth and my brother's mouth when it came to decorating on the holidays. And when I got married, whenever Christmas time came around, I just didn't want to decorate. And my wife would always say, well, what about when we have a kid?

When we have a kid, will you still not want to decorate? Do you not want your kid to experience a Christmas tree? And every single time that argument came up, I would say, we could do any tradition we want. We don't have to do a Christmas tree just because everyone else does a Christmas tree. We could make gingerbread houses, or go skiing in the winter,

or make hot chocolate around the fire. Like, a tradition is what you make of it. So we can make our own tradition. We don't have to do the tree. And then we had a baby. And of course, on the baby's first Christmas, my wife absolutely insists that we have to have a Christmas tree because we have to take Christmas photos.

And so for the first time in my adult life, we got a Christmas tree, we decorated it, we put up lights, ornaments, and, oh and I hate to say it, I hate to admit it. I like it, it's nice, it's pleasant, it's kind of like pretty and homey and it gives the room a nice holiday vibe and the pictures that we took were really nice and I hate that I like it, I hate it, but I do and I can't figure out why. Is it because I'm just older and the older you get the more you appreciate this type of thing? Or is it like the second that you become a dad? You're like automatically

obligated to do all the dad stuff like obsessed over the thermostat and like Christmas decorations and like sneeze super super loudly? I don't know maybe that's just my destiny now. Maybe I have to just embrace dad life and start like walking around with socks and sandals. Our next reddit post is from Take It Easy. This happened this morning. Even though I made it complete and full stop at a four-way stop, I got pulled over by a police vehicle, lights flashing, the works.

I turned my dash, came around to face me and the cop goes in front of the driver's side window. I rolled down my window and asked, what seems to be the problem officer? The officer looks at me, and the cop goes in front of the driver's side window. I roll down my window and ask, what seems to be the problem officer? The officer looks at me, the way someone would look at a sticky piece of gum stuck to the bottom of his shoe. You didn't make a complete stop, he says. I adjust one of my hearing aids, and before I could speak, he firmly orders. Sir, take off your earphones when I'm talking to you. I take both of my hearing aids off and look at them.

I can read lips a little, but we're both masked, so I can't understand what he's saying. I communicate in sign language simultaneously while speaking verbally. I'm deaf, and I don't understand what you just said. Can you communicate to me in American Sign Language, please? He points at my hearing aids, which look like Apple AirPods, motioning me to put them on. I respond, yes, officer, without those that can only communicate in sign language. Please instruct me in sign language, and I'll be compliant in every way possible. He looks at my dashcam that's neatly pointed squarely at us in mumbles.

For F's sake, he then motions for me to go, giving me two thumbs up. Needless to say, I rolled up the window and drove away as fast as legally allowed. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face all day, low? Beneath that, we have this story from Joey P. I'm a chief union steward at my job. We have a total A-hole manager who said that a hearing impaired colleague couldn't use his Bluetooth hearing aids while driving. I smiled, and I was filled with immediate joy and excitement.

Can I have that in writing, please? Suddenly, my guy was allowed to wear his hearing aids. That was our Slash Militius Compliance, and if you liked this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put on your Reddit podcast episodes every single day.