'My boss demanded I serve all customers': Deli coworkers slice cheese all night just to prove their boss wrong

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 25, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

Customers do not care about what time the store closes, they just want their food. As the employee, you just have to enforce the rules your bosses tell you. If the store closes at 9PM, you have to shut the doors right then, but some customers will still try to squeeze in the door and do a last minute shopping spree. 

It always surprised me when I worked retail that customers would act like that. I understand the frustration of really needing a product, and then that store locks the door in your face. But if you get angry at the poor employee who's just doing their job, your anger is misplaced. They can't let you in even if you scream until you're red in the face! Maybe it just makes these customers feel better to yell and stomp their feet a bit. 

This person, u/SpoodsMcBeef, had an excellent tale of workplace malicious compliance. Working together with another coworker, the two employees did exactly as their boss requested, and got a nice overtime check to go along with their hard work. 

Up next, these 20+ employees spilled their coworker's biggest mistakes ever, from technical errors to $2 million dollar mistakes. 

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  • 01
    Product - '...The Store Director hands me a piece of paper and says "tell me what caused this." ERE Natural SMOKED Swiss SMOKED PROVOLONE! CHRZANY BUTTERKAS GERMANY CARROS SMOKED UDA WITH Mill BACON 749 GERMAN SWISS $0.99 dad MOZZARELLA SMOKED & BEEM
    via Jessica Tan on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - My boss demanded I serve all customers and fill all shelves no matter how far past closing hours it was. LOC So my first job I ever worked at for a few years was a grocery retail store, with several different departments, including a deli for lunch meat and cheese, which is where I worked.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 03
    Font - One night I was working 1pm - 9pm, 9pm is when the deli and other special departments and we're expected to be done and closed clocked out, but the rest of the store remained open 24/7 for general groceries.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 04
    Font - It was me and one other guy, we had an especially busy night, and we were a little behind on our cleaning as a result but we had our meat slicing machines already coated with sanitizer after working for 15 minutes to get all the little meat chunks and shavings out of every corner, as we were pretty serious about making sure those things were clean as can be.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 05
    Font - It's about 8:55 at this point, we're almost late to leave and the store we worked for did NOT like overtime, if you were getting any amount of overtime you would get chewed out the next day for it, even for a little amount. A woman walks up to the counter and starts looking through the product, as we had a glass case filled with a bunch of types of our lunch meats pre- sliced and ready to go for bagging up. She looks at one and says "I want this turkey right here, but I want it freshly sl
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 06
    Font - I tell her "Well ma'am we really can't do that right now, our slicers are both being cleaned at the moment as the department is closed in 5 minutes but i'd be glad to get you something here from our cold case". "So you're not gonna slice it fresh for me, thats what you're saying?" I replied, "Thats correct, I apologize".
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 07
    Font - Without another word she walks away and myself and my coworker go back to what we were doing, and we finish cleaning and go home after about 5 more minutes, narrowly clocking out on time.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 08
    Font - Fast forward 2 days later, me and the same coworker come in and start getting to work like a normal day. About 3pm (two hours into my shift) I personally get called into the head honchos office. The "Store Director" as they're titled. I think nothing of it and head on upstairs and go inside the office and sit down, the Store Director hands me a piece of paper and says "tell me what caused this". I look at the paper and its a printed out screenshot of a Google review for our store, 1 star
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 09
    Font - I explained exactly what happened two nights prior, as clearly as i'm typing it out here. The director is getting heated and begins to cut me off while im speaking, asking "Why would slicers be covered in sanitizer at 8:55? You're scheduled to work until 9pm." I said yes I am, but seeing as im constantly being reminded not to get any overtime so I usually start cleaning them around 8:30pm.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 10
    Font - The director gets even more upset and raises her voice, "I don't CARE, thats not how it works! If you have a customer you SERVE them. And you'd better start making sure those shelves are FILLED before you leave or you won't be working here anymore, now get out".
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 11
    Font - I'm pretty salty at this point, I go back down to the dept and my coworker asked what happened, and I told him. He says, so they want everything done before we leave? I said yep! And without another word he knew what we needed to do.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 12
    Font - 9pm hits as usual and our shelves are at the usual standard of half full, but seeing as we've been given a new standard, we decided to stay and make sure we did what I was instructed to do. We spent next next several hours past closing time slicing, and slicing, and slicing until every single tray of meat and cheese was FULL.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 13
    Font - We had plastic totes in the big fridge full of cheese that we sliced that were wrapped up in half pound blocks for ease of sale, so we decided to fill that tub over the brim with every single type of cheese we had available. We cut up around 70lbs of cheese and wrapped it up in the fridge.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 14
    Font - We also had a Subway style sandwich counter, where we made sandwiches to-order and also pre made on the shelves for sale. We made double the usual amount of sandwiches and filled the shelves, as per requested. Not a single shelf had a single empty spot on it by the time we were done. After every single possible item and shelf was as full as it could be, we finally started to clean and close.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 15
    Font - It was around 3AM when we finally left. The department opens at 5am. We were exhausted but our spiteful overtime venture made us feel pretty good. We got about 6 hours overtime in. They hated anyone getting even 5 to 10 minutes of overtime.
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 16
    Font - We both came in the next day at 1pm as usual, expecting complete retaliation. But nope, instead, our dept manager of the Deli kinda saunters over to us and says "Hey uh...you should be good to start cleaning up at 8:30 like usual.. I think she (The Director) got the point you made."
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 17
    Font - Normally overtime would be asked to be taken care of by clocking out for lunches or coming in later than usual, but they let us keep all 6 hours of that overtime. They never said anything to us about overtime again after that. I accepted a job that paid almost double about 6 months after this incident, and never ever went back to retail h
    via u/SpoodsMcBeef
  • 18
    Font - freak3dot That's the kind of stuff that makes people quit. No overtime and serving that customer that wants fresh cut meat 5 minutes before close are mutually exclusive. It can't be done, but working somewhere else can be done.
    via u/freak3dot
  • 19
    Font - timotheusd313 It's a classic "you can only have two of the three -1pm to 9pm shift no overtime -deli counter open til 9pm
    via u/timotheusd313
  • 20
    Font - AFrogNamed Kermit That department manager is pure gold! I guess that department manager had quite a discussion with the director. I would love to hear that story.
    via u/AFrogNamedKermit
  • 21
    Font - SCP15 Also a terrible business if they want you clocking out when the department closes. There's literally no way to clean if you're supposed to leave right when the department closes...
    via u/SCP15
  • 22
    Product - Dawn_37 When between a rock and a hard place, the only thing to do is be water
    via u/Dawn_37
  • 23
    Font - subnautus They let us keep all 6 hours of that overtime. Probably because it'd be a crime if they didn't- just as (depending on where you were working) it would have been legally questionable to have you on the clock for 14 hours. But, all that said, I applaud your resolve, there.
    via u/subnautus
  • 24
    Font - wolfgang784 +1. Thats how my current job is. Overtime is VERY frowned upon, but yet we have a VERY specific list of cleaning that HAS to be done, but yet if a customer comes we HAVE to serve them despite the department being closed 45 minutes ago. It's stressful and I hate it but the money is the best around. Cleaning takes 1.5-2 hours for 2 people.
    via u/wolfgang784

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boss closing cleaning clean jobs work stories job retail work grocery stores grocery store grocery store meat malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit cheese
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