‘She threw me under the bus’: Diner worker gets shamed by manager for coffee order in front of customer, cue coffee-fueled malicious compliance

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  • 01
    Font - Yell at me in front of a customer? Fine. Everyone gets 18oz of free coffee. S OC This was a while ago and I have since quit this job. I used to work at a diner on the weekends. To-go coffees are served in styrofoam cups and only come in one size (12oz).
  • 02
    Font - A trucker came in for breakfast and he asked for a "big coffee" to go. Again, they only come in one size. So I sold him a 12-oz coffee and gave him his cup. Usually we leave space in case people want to add cream, but I filled his up all the way. Then my manager pulls me aside in front of him and reprimands me for not giving him a "big coffee" like he asked for. All while he's nodding and smiling.
  • 03
    Font - When I asked her what she would like me to do because we only have coffee cups in one size, she tells me I should have known that I was supposed to use a soft drink cup instead. Those cups are 30oz. In my entire time working there, we have never done that. There is no option in the register to charge someone for a 30oz coffee. But the customer was upset, so she made up a nonexistent rule on the spot and belittled me to make him happy. She threw me under the bus.
  • 04
    Font - You'd be surprised how many customers ask for "big," "large," "jumbo," "huge," "enough to fill a 10-gallon" coffees everyday. It's usually a joke followed by some comment about them being tired. They aren't really asking about coffee cup size. They're just trying to make conversation and use silly words.
  • 05
    Font - So for the next several months I proceeded to give every single person who made a comment about coffee size a 30oz coffee and charge them for a 12oz. That coffee maker was constantly going. I mean constantly. We were going through bags of coffee like crazy... Almost as if we were selling nearly three times as much without making more profit from it.
  • 06
    Font - 2toxic2comment- 3 hr. ago Can I get a Big Gulp coffee?
  • 07
    Font - ztreHdrahciR. 3 hr. ago It would be fun for many of us on this sub to go to that diner and complain about the (now) cup size. "Pat used to give us the big cup for the same price!"
  • 08
    Font - Highly Irreverent +3. 2 hr. ago Wouldn't the wax melt off the soft drink cup and float on top of the coffee?
  • 09
    Font - pressurecrocker OP. 2 hr. ago The soft drink cups weren't like McDonald's cups where there's a wax coating. They were also styrofoam like the coffee cups. They were just a different size.
  • 10
    Font - Sector17_Underground. 3 hr. ago Nice. Did you ever have anyone order a small coffee in a large cup? I had that a couple of times when I was working the coffee station.
  • 11
    Font - pressurecrocker OP. 3 hr. ago Nah. Sometimes people would ask for as many creams and sugars as they could possibly get. But almost nobody asked for a small, medium, or large coffee because the menu didn't have sizes. We weren't a coffee place that had baristas or anything. We were just a diner.
  • 12
    Font - Zealousideal-Mud6471. 1 hr. ago I need that messed up inventory too Ordering a bunch of 12oz cups because system said you sold them but you really need 30oz cups. Nice!
  • 13
    Font - Commercial-Push-9066 +1 38 min. ago Managers make morale so much worse when they punish you in front of customers (and other coworkers.) I had that happen early in my career. Later I went in the HR and explained what happened. Mgr never did it to me again. I was surprised since it was a family business and mgrs son was the HR head. HR isn't always against employees.
  • 14
    Font - wolfcaroling +2. 2 hr. ago Did the manager ever cotton on? Vote Reply Share pressurecrocker OP. 2 hr. ago Yep! I don't think she caught on to the reason I was doing it, but she did notice that we were ordering more coffee. She asked me to stop and gave me a brief lesson on coffee preparation (which included her telling me there was only one size that is 12oz, which is what I said before). I was going to quit soon for other reasons, so I just said okay and left it at that.

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