'The auditor shows up for their surprise inspection, right in the middle of the lunch rush': Food service employee maliciously complies with labelling restaurant food to pass an audit

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 27, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

Who said complying with the rules can't be a little fun? One employee told their story of their coworker's malicious compliance when their bosses started demanding they label every little thing. 

Food service workers have a lot to juggle. This person, u/Dra5iel, shared that they and their coworker both worked at a restaurant chain. Along with prepping food, cooking it, plating it for customers, and cleaning up, back of house staffers have enough on their plates already (pun intended!). When the OP broke the news that the employees would now have to start labelling every little thing, it wasn't exactly what they wanted to hear. 

When I was in food service, we had to print out labels, and we had to search manually for each food item. You'd have to scroll through dozens of options to find the proper stickers. Even if there was a line of customers out the door, someone had to label that the yogurt parfaits would expire in two days. The OP in this story is correct that when you use up the food quickly, slapping a sticker on a pack of burgers or rolls seems laughable. Too bad auditors don't care about that---they need the restaurant labeled properly, or else. 

Next up, these employees decided to overshare on social media, and their bosses found out what they'd been sharing. 

Advertisement
  • 01
    Food
    via Fabrizio Magoni on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - "Little Pig Pieces" L OC This malicious compliance is both very lighthearted and somewhat silly. It took place several years back when I worked in a corporation owned restaurant. While it was not my malicious compliance I was the trigger for it and the only one there to see the results.
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 03
    Font - First, a little bit of necessary background in case you have not worked in foodservice or for a large corporation. For restaurants food quality, safe handling of products/tools/chemicals, cleanliness, and labels are all very important. If you don't want to people to get sick or injured especially in an environment that is always somehow too small, very
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 04
    Font - hot, very loud, slippery, and full of medieval era seige repellent such as hot oil, fire, boiling water, and 9 inch blades. Labels are especially important because the person using the item isn't always the same as the one who portioned it out for service and if not properly labelled you would have no way to ensure it was fresh enough to serve safely.
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 05
    Font - Corporate kitchens take this even further and employ 3rd party auditors for health and safety to ensure everyone is following the standards across all their chains. This is not a bad thing although sometimes their standards clash badly with reality. For example
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 06
    Font - shelled hard-boiled eggs in a brine once opened have a best before date that lasts for a year. The auditors however decided that once the pail was opened they were only good for a single week.
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 07
    Font - There was also no leeway on labelling, even if the product packaging contained all of the information you would put on a label it still required a label. This wasn't unreasonable because a standardized label is easier to read but for very high usage items where you could go through several packages a day it could become difficult to ensure this happened especially during rushes. One of these items is
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 08
    Font - bacon bits, which brings us to our malicious compliance. We had been audited and failed, because 3 items were found in one of the fridges that were not properly labelled because, and I quote "the labels must clearly state the name of the product such that anyone can identify it, it must have the day it was opened/made, and the day it expires, and the Labeller must print their name" two of the labels did not have a labbelers name and one item did not have the name of the product. The produ
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 09
    Font - I was put in charge of making sure we passed our next audit and I took it seriously, talking to the others, finding out where pain points in following procedure occurred and ensuring absolutely everyone got a refresher on the standards. It mostly went well and
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 10
    Font - everyone was getting into the groove but there was another container of bacon bits missing it's name. There were only two of us working at the time so after the lunch rush I pulled the bacon bandit aside to have a heart to heart.
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 11
    Font - Me: Hey, bacon bandit I know we were just busy but you gotta put the name on bacon bits. Bacon bandit: Really? They are used up before the end of the day, there is no way to confuse them with another product, they last for a month. and we just don't have time during 15 min or its free lunch if we want to get the food out on time.
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 12
    Font - Me: I understand the reasons why it happened, you're not getting in trouble for this but the audits can shut us down and even though it feels unnecessary labels are protection for both the customers and the company. Everybody has to be on board with this to make it work and if we can't even label bacon bits the Area Manager is going to question why we have the highest paid kitchen staff at our location. Can I count on you to make sure the bacon bits are labelled?
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 13
    Font - Bacon bandit: big sigh yeah I'll do it but it's still dumb and wastes a lot of time. Me: Thank you, I appreciate it.
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 14
    Font - A few days later it's a particularly soggy day and lo and behold the auditor shows up for their surprise inspection right in the middle of the lunch rush. I'm by myself on the line so am only half able to keep tabs on them while putting out orders. They seem happy with
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 15
    Font - things so far and just as the lunch rush is ending they enter the main fridge where dwell the bacon bits. The auditor is in there for a long time. Way more time than normal and when they come out of the fridge they are grinning ear to ear. "well that's weird" I think. Then they get our general manager and take them back into the fridge and now I'm thinking "oh that can't be a good sign". When they come out
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 16
    Font - they are both laughing and I am completely confused. They go into the office to discuss the results of the audit and I go into the fridge to try to see if I can figure out what's going on. I go in, everything is labelled, everything is FIFO'd (first in first out) and everything is stacked in food safe order. Then I see it, the bacon bits sitting proudly on its shelf in a container clearly labbeled for the world to see:
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 17
    Rectangle - MOTHER FU PIECES Yesterday's Bacon bandit LITTLE PIG date, expiry
    via u/Dra5iel
  • 18
    Font - We passed the audit with 100% because little pig pieces and I quote "clearly stated the name of the product such that anyone can identify it".
    via u/Dra5iel

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

boss waiters malicious compliance bosses waiter audit malicious-compliance-reddit delicious bacon chef food service chefs kitchen restaurants food eating dining funny bacon
Scroll Down For The Next Article