'Go ahead and get yourself fired': Movie theater worker tries to help out entitled coworker, he refuses, cue petty revenge

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 17, 2023 8:00 PM EDT

This entitled, annoying coworker definitely had it coming! This thread, which was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/Remote-Syllabub7412, is yet another example of someone going out of their way to help out a jerk. 

 

Once this new coworker, Luke, proved himself to be all-around awful in just about every way imaginable, the Redditor stood up to him. Later during their shift, the original poster was tasked with giving Luke instructions on how to do something, but Luke refused to listen. Well, you can guess where that led him. Luke obviously didn't know what he was doing, and it didn't take long for their manager to take notice. The rest, as they say, is history. 

 

Our takeaway from this whole debacle is that when you respect your coworkers, you have a far greater chance of being respected and protected. If you're a jerk, don't expect much more than petty revenge and malicious compliance from folks like us. Keep scrolling below for the full story. For more, check out this post about a horrible boss causing a mass exodus.

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  • 01
    Product - "Fine, I don't care. Don't ever talk to me again."
    via Krists Luhaers
  • 02
    Font - Don't want my help? Sure! Go ahead and get yourself fired XL OC First-time poster, long-time lurker, so please forgive any mistakes! TLDR: jerk is such a jerk that his own actions get him fired. A bit of background: A while back when I was still in high school, I worked at the local cinema to earn a bit of pocket money and experience. I stayed for a couple of years, working weekends when school was in session.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 03
    Font - I think it was halfway into my second year when the target of this revenge came into the picture. We'll call him Luke. Luke was a new hire and was just learning the ropes (this was common as turnover was high since we were all students). He seemed alright at first, and everyone was nice to him since we were all pretty close and knew one another from school and we welcomed him in.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 04
    Font - I don't think even a week passed before the problems started. The first issue I heard of was that Luke was trying to flirt with one of the girls. Thing was, this girl was already in a relationship with one of the other employees, and everyone knew this, including Luke. That didn't stop him though, and eventually, the girl told him to his face to cut it out. It only got worse from there.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 05
    Font - Now, I do my best to see the good in people and give them the benefit of the doubt. Despite what the others were saying, I still tried to get along with him. This unfortunately changed during the first real conversation I had with him. We were on break at the same time, and about five of us crowded into the little break room for lunch.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 06
    Font - I forget what exactly we were talking about, but I remember it was an uncomfortable topic, and Luke was using a lot of explicatives. The break room was NOT soundproof and there were patrons outside, especially children. I tried to warn him about using that language so loudly, and that he might get in trouble if a customer heard him. Immediately, his attitude toward me changed, and he responded with something along the lines of "I can say what I want, I have the right to free speech. Don't
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 07
    Font - A few minutes later, the convo had switched to high school, and Luke was raving about how Caucasians were the majority in all the high schools in our district. Now for my high school, this isn't true, as most of the community and students attending were Latino and made up about 70% of our student body. I told him as much:
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 08
    Font - Me: "That's not the case for [high school]," Luke: "Uh, yeah it is? White's the majority everywhere. I have a friend that goes there." Me: "...I actually go there, it's mostly-" Luke: "why are you talking?" Me: "...excuse me?" Luke; "who invited you to this conversation? I wasn't talking to you. Who asked?"
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 09
    Font - Now, this irritated me. I know it's a joke about looking for "who asked", but this was before that became a thing, and I found it extremely rude. But, in a moment of clarity, the best comeback came to mind, like arguing in the shower by yourself, and to this day I could only wish to be able to recreate the moment. Smiling, I threw his words right back in his face: "free speech"
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 10
    Font - The others at the table were laughing as I threw away the rest of my lunch and left the break room. My heart was beating too fast from the weird adrenaline rush I got, and I spent the rest of my break in the back of concessions until it was time to clock back in.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 11
    Font - I think that convo was what sparked Luke's hatred of me. Ever since then, he would glare at me whenever I walked by, would dump the trash from his bin when we were sweeping the floors for me to pick up, and generally was a jerk. His behavior kept getting worse: he would threaten to fight people (he was a short potato of a boy so no one was really scared), argue, say rude, passive-aggressive, or down right racist things, and was just generally a jerk.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 12
    Font - At some point, during a shift I wasn't there, he cornered the girl he had been eyeing and kept verbally harassing her to the point that she hid in the manager's office where he couldn't get to her. She was a sweet and loyal girl and a friend, and she and her boyfriend could be described with the phrase "puppy love" and had been together for a long time. The boyfriend was angry when she texted the group chat about what had happened, and wanted to get Luke fired. However, people were hesita
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 13
    Font - Then another one of the employees made a suggestion: Luke was incompetent, we all knew this. Why not make the managers see it too? Revenge time. It wasn't hard to do, since Luke would tend to shoot himself in the foot. When possible, we'd point him out to managers when reviewing the cameras in the halls about him dumping his trash can when sweeping onto the ground in front of patrons. When he was cursing up a storm during break, a text would be sent and someone would lead a manager to him
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 14
    Font - See at the cinema, there's a position called 'Point', aka the ticket taker that lets you into the theater area. It's the second most dreaded position (the first being self-serve cleanup) as you have to stand in place and interact with customers at a rapid-fire pace, smiling and listening for theaters to be called at the same time. When the night ends, the last person on Point has to close and clean the self-serve stations. Today, to my initial dread, Luke and I were both on point.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 15
    Font - The entire time, Luke would leave his station and pace the lobby. Toward me, then back, not even sweeping the ground as he went. He wasn't supposed to leave Point and had to walk around customers to get back to his podium to help them. He was told off by a manager once or twice for this, but he continued his antics anyway. Then, as things slowed down, one of the managers approached me and told me we were going down to one Point (one person at the center rather than at both entrances) and
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 16
    Font - When I finished closing my point, I walked over to Luke and told him to move his podium to the center so he could take closing Point. He did, though scowling at me. When he was set, I began to explain. Me: "so you'll be closing point tonight after the last movie starts. You'll need to go to th-" Luke: "go away" Me: "what?" Luke: "I don't need your help, so don't talk to me."
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 17
    Font - Me: "but I need to teach you how to close point-" Luke: "I don't care, shut up" Me: "I know you don't like me, but this is work. You need to-" Luke; "no, I don't want your help. Shut the up." Me: "but-" off, don't talk to me." At this point, I was beyond upset. I was furious. I was trying to help, even after how he had acted, how he treated everyone here! I didn't care what he said in the break Luke: "F room, but it shouldn't affect work. This was ridiculous!
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 18
    Font - I must have snapped or something, because I complied, walking away, saying: "fine, I don't care. Don't ever talk to me again." Luke: "Hey I said-!" Me: (waving a hand over my shoulder) "don't talk to me ever again." I went behind concessions to help, where he couldn't reach me. I don't know when, but I started crying out of frustration, and one of my friends came and hugged me, bringing me to a corner to cool down. I don't get angry often, and when I do, it makes me scared. I was just sic
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 19
    Font - I'm not sure how long I sat back there, but soon enough that same friend came and waved me to the front of concessions. I wiped my face and walked out, and he pointed to Point. There was Luke, being instructed by the manager on how to close point, and the manager did not look happy with him. Arms folded, frowning, flat tone, everything spoke of irritation. My friend said they'd already explained that Luke refused my help when the manager asked them what was going on, as Point can be seen
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 20
    Font - The next weekend when the schedule came out, I didn't even have to check my email. It was posted in the group text, specifically the section with Luke's name. It was blacked out. If he had quit, his name would have been removed, but the fact it was blacked out meant it was a sudden event Luke had been fired.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 21
    Font - I'm not sure what it was that they fired him for anymore, but considering we were always low on staff and they had to worry about discrimination, I'm guessing there were enough complaints that they had to fire him. I'd like to think that last interaction I had with him was the final nail in the coffin, but I was just glad to see him go more than anything. I heard he worked at a common fast food place for a while, but ended up getting mcfired from there too. Good luck in life Luke. You wer
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 22
    Font - LadyNorbert 18 hr. ago +1. Sometimes the trash takes itself out. And sometimes it dumps itself on the floor for someone else to sweep up.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 23
    Organism - Bocephus-the-goat. 18 hr. ago I'm gonna be real: "who asked" never has and never will be funny
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 24
    Human body - Svartrkraka 18 hr. ago Can't believe how patient you were with this guy.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412
  • 25
    Font - lunelily 16 hr. ago We need a curse word for people who take joy in shutting other people down and making them feel small. There is no type of person I despise more.
    via u/Remote-Syllabub7412

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antiwork malicious compliance coworkers movie theater movies petty revenge entitled reddit thread Reddit entitled people
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