'This is the story of how I got back at them': Impolite construction workers bother hotel staffers and guests, employee finds a petty way to retaliate

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 31, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

This construction crew was, unsurprisingly, up really early. They tend to do that: construction workers often begin their days in the early morning hours before the sun rises. The crew staying at u/cavelioness's hotel was no different: they were starting their days before the hotel staff could even provide breakfast for them. 

This person shares that there were quite a few issues when the construction crew arrived at their hotel. They were rowdy and kept tracking red dust into the hotel, for a start. But they also started getting pushy with the hotel employees and demanding to eat their breakfast earlier than everyone else. A few of the guys also kept stealing the pots of coffee, dumping tons of the stuff into their own bottles to drink later on. At least this person had a plan to get themself through the construction worker's stay, which you can check out in the story below. Commenters also applauded their efforts, and the orginal poster shared a little more information for the commenters, too. 

Next, this retail boss wanted his employee to add a major responsibility to their job, but that employee refused, writing, "I got fired and cost the store approximately $30,000." 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10382481664
    via Glenov Brankovic on Unsplash
  • 02
    Me vs. the Construction Crew, or Breakfast at 6 AM Sharp I work at a small hotel, as front desk clerk. Last month we had a work crew staying with us as guests. We have these fairly frequently, men doing construction, roadwork, repairing pipelines, etc., and for the most part they're decent hardworking guys. Sometimes a little rough around the edges, but no real trouble. This crew was the exception.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 03
    their I don't know what pit of boss had dug them up from, but I and all my co-workers wished they'd go back. They were loud, crude and foul-mouthed. They took up all our smoking rooms, and frequently smoked where they weren't supposed to, like the hall and stairwells, so that other guests complained of the smell. They
    via u/cavelioness
  • 04
    were working somewhere with red clay, and it seemed they had never been taught to wipe their boots before coming indoors, so we were constantly sweeping and mopping up after them. Most work crews go to sleep early, but this crew was hard-partying and would come in drunk and obnoxious at all hours of the night, on more than one occasion scaring potential guests away from staying with us. This is the story of how I got back at them.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 05
    I'm the only staff on the overnight shift so I also put the breakfast out. Our breakfast starts at 6:00 am. I time everything to be fresh, hot and ready at six, I've worked there two years and only been late once or twice when guests needed excess help in the middle of my preparations.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 06
    It's the first week this crew stayed with us. 5:33 in the morning, I'm in the kitchen working to get everything ready when I hear. people behind me. Turn around to see four guys from the work crew getting coffee, okay. But suddenly: "Hey, you gonna put more coffee out or what?"
    via u/cavelioness
  • 07
    What the? I just put the pot out there, how have only four guys managed to empty it so fast? Answer: All of them have filled giant takeaway thermoses. No problem, I tell them, the second coffee pot is brewing right now. I take away the first pot to wash so I can refill it next.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 08
    They've made a complete mess of the coffee station, I mean, I'm used to most of the guests acting like two-year-olds when it comes to spilling sugar and such, but these guys also haven't even bothered to put their creamer and sugar packets in the provided trash bin, just left them strewn all over the counter as if to show deliberate contempt for me.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 09
    As I clean up after them and put out the other pot, 3 more crewmembers arrive. The rest straggle in one by one after this, about 12 or 15 in all.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 10
    They're starting to look over the rest of the breakfast area. One of them turns on the TV, flipping from the local morning news channel we normally keep it on to a country music station, and turning the volume to max. I have to ask him to turn it down because guests are still sleeping in the rooms around us.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 11
    A few of the dry foods- and the hot stuff- is already out. I microwave the eggs and sausage, but I always put the biscuits in the warmer at 5:30 so they can heat up perfectly and be ready at six. It's still 20 minutes till six, but these guys don't care, they grab the paper plates and start filling up. I haven't yet put out the tongs used to grab the hot stuff, but they just use the plastic utensils or their hands.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 12
    Then they start complaining that the biscuits aren't hot. I explain that breakfast starts at six (there's a big ol' sign on the wall that says the same thing, and it's explained to every guest when they check in) and I put the biscuits out early so they could get warm by six.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 13
    They accept this but one guy asks if he can use the microwave to warm his up. I have to deny him because it's a teensy-tiny kitchen and I can't work around him (and everyone after him who wants to do the same thing) to get the breakfast ready. I'm starting to get anxious about finishing on time because they're slowing me up.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 14
    I tell him no, but add the reason, and that he's welcome to use the one in his own room. I try to say it in my nicest, non-confrontational customer service voice, but after that, the whole crew gets more annoying and nasty towards me. They keep asking when I'm going to put this or that out, "Hey, can I get some milk for this cereal yet?" "When can I make a waffle?"
    via u/cavelioness
  • 15
    I just keep repeating that I'll have everything out by six o'clock, as that is the start of breakfast. The other thing they were doing was blocking me. They would crowd around the whole breakfast counter, each of them waiting and staring at the place where whatever it was they wanted to eat was supposed to go like idiots,
    via u/cavelioness
  • 16
    plates and forks in hand, and there I would be, behind them, trying to put the food in place and having to say "Excuse me," and "Could I get through here, please?" again and again and again. annoying as ¨, and I swear some of them were doing it on purpose. But I got that breakfast out on time, finished at 5:58.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 17
    Now I'd like to say here that I was more tolerant of them than I would otherwise have been because I assumed they had to leave for work early, like 6:00 or 6:15. If any of them had told me beforehand that they needed breakfast early, I would have happily made it earlier. I've done it for other crews before. But no one at all mentioned it, they just... showed up, right after 5:30, and acted mad at me that breakfast wasn't ready for them.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 18
    Well, after all that, their bus didn't leave until... get this... 6:45. And the whole time they were hanging out in my breakfast area and lobby being obnoxious as Their normal tone of voice seemed to be a hearty shout. They were telling crude jokes and stories loudly. Their cell phones were all going off at top volume with various alarms or blowing up with phone calls from other crew members to make sure they were awake. They very much enjoyed calling the crew members not yet in the lobby and ye
    via u/cavelioness
  • 19
    The second day was very much like the first, except I hadn't put any of the dry stuff (cereal, muffins, bread, etc.) out when they got downstairs. I was hoping they'd learned breakfast was at six. Apparently they were hoping I'd learned to be ready for them earlier--again with no one asking me to do so, no request from them or their boss (who didn't eat with them) no pleases, or anything, just showing up at 5:30 and being
    via u/cavelioness
  • 20
    -- and the mood was slightly nasty from the beginning this time. I DID microwave the muffins, so they were hot right away. Again most of them behaved like pigs at a trough, queuing up around whatever I put out and jostling each other to get at it so that it was difficult for me to put the other food out that needed to go next to it. Again their bus left at 6:45.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 21
    When my manager arrived at the end of my shift, I told him about it, not in a do-something-about-this way, more like in a funny story/stress relief/ way. He said even if they actually requested it, not to make the breakfast any earlier because they were waking other guests with their shouting.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 22
    So the third day, I was ready for them. Reports of their bad behavior elsewhere were starting to trickle in from other shifts, so I didn't feel at all bad at what I was about to do.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 23
    I filled up everything dry very early, got all the cold stuff ready in the refrigerator, and at five o'clock, brought the warmer into the kitchen, plugged it in there, and proceeded to fill it up. I took everything, including the plates, napkins, and utensils, off the breakfast counter and stacked it in the kitchen. And I took the remote for the TV with me. At 5:25 AM, I sat down behind my front desk and waited.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 24
    At 5:30, they trickled down the stairs and elevator. I didn't get up or make any move to fix or put out breakfast. I could sense them looking over at me, wondering what was going on. There were two pots of coffee, so they filled up their cups and... waited. Eventually they even sat down.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 25
    The guy who liked the country music channel came over and asked for the remote. I politely told him my manager said we had to wait until six to turn on the TV because it was waking up other guests. He went back to the breakfast area. They were talking about me now.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 26
    "Is she gonna make us breakfast?" "She's "We not gonna get any breakfast" "That lazy At 5:45, I got up and went over there. They all got excited, standing up and stretching, ready to mob any food I put out. But all I did was clean the coffee area and take one of the pots to rinse out and refill.
    via u/cavelioness
  • 27
    One man asked, " , girl, we get any breakfast this morning?" I smiled as I told him, "It will all be out by six o'clock" At exactly 5:55, I started to put out the food. It was ALL ready to go, so all I had to do was run it out there quickly, and I just said "EXCUSE ME, COMING THROUGH" quite loudly to the one or two guys who tried to stand in my way. They couldn't get
    via u/cavelioness
  • 28
    any food until I was done anyway, because I put the plates, napkins, and silverware out at the very last minute, at precisely 6:00 AM. The finishing touch? I turned the TV to the Weather Channel, at medium volume, and I took the remote back to the front desk with me. Two more days of that and they were "trained" not to come downstairs until six. TL;DR: Can we build it? YES WE CAN!
    via u/cavelioness
  • 29
    [deleted] Oh, and it would be decaf across the board from now on.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    [deleted] Good for you. Man, they could have been nice and tipped you some extra dough and I bet you'd have it ready early. But no. They wanted to act like . You should call in sick one of the days so super late. all
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    cavelioness OP. Ah, I work the 11-7 shift, so they would have gotten someone else in long before breakfast, my manager probably as he lives on hotel grounds. But I wouldn't call in on a false pretext.
    via u/cavelioness

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crew guests workplace-stories jobs employee hotel petty-revenge-reddit job revenge work coworkers revenge-stories petty revenge petty workplace hotels
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