'We notified our managers... We were all told no': Teenage burger restaurant workers call out en masse on prom night

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 7, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Prom is too important to miss just because your fast-food boss says "no." It's one of the most exciting nights of high school for many students! 

Some people think proms are overrated, but they're missing the point. Sure, it's just a dance. But it's all about the planning that goes into it. You and your friends can plan your outfits and go shopping together. You plan which person's house you'll meet at beforehand. Everyone's parents gather around to take pictures of you all dressed to the nines with your friend group or your dates. Some kids take a limo, while others pack into someone's car and blast music while they drive to the dance. And then there's the event itself, where the teens spend the night dancing, singing, and eating. There are few opportunities in life to dress up like that, so you may as well make it an unforgettable prom night!

It was an unforgettable night for the owners of this burger place, too. Instead of letting their teenagers take prom night off, the managers just turned down their requests. Big mistake on their part…

Up next, these homeowners discovered some bizarre items left behind in their new houses, like one person who was shocked to find "an entire tribe of raccoons living in the attic." 

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    Cheezburger Image 10399888896
    via Sir Manuel on Unsplash
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    Won't adjust the schedule so I can attend prom? Back in my younger days, before most people had cell phones, I was working at a fast food restaurant during my senior year of high school. The main reason I decided to work there was because one of my best friends worked there, and around the time I started working, our other
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    best friend joined us. We were very close, and we spent our minimum wage earnings on stupid stuff. This fast food restaurant was the King when it came to Burgers, so we had to learn how to prepare a Whopper of a hamburger in no time flat. We also had to learn how to manage the fried foods station, the registers, the drive thru, all specialty items, and all cleaning and end-of-day operations. We were pretty sharp
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    kids despite being stupid teenagers, and within a couple months we could run an entire shift by ourselves (normally there were at least four or five workers and a manager). We were regularly scheduled with just three of us and a manager to work all the night shifts, and we enjoyed working together and running the store. We knew the manager was saving money on labor costs, which made the whole store look good when
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    compared against other stores in the district, but we didn't care. We worked hard, had fun together, and made a nearly criminally small wage for our efforts (at the time it seemed like we had made it big). As it tends to do, prom season came around. We all went to the same school, so we all had prom on the same day. Compounding the issue, one of my friends was taking another worker as his
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    date. Thinking it would help with scheduling, we notified our managers several weeks in advance. We were all told "no." We found that amusing, because of course we were going to go to our prom. Well, the company policy was that as long as you called before missing a shift, then you wouldn't get in trouble for calling in with an emergency.
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    We timed our calls so that we would all call within a few minutes of each other. The poor manager on shift almost broke down crying, but we felt self-righteous as teenagers often do. I was the last to call, and the manager was full-on begging me to not call-out sick. We went off and enjoyed our prom.
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    The next day when we went in for our shifts, we found out the store had struggled in our absence. The manager had scrambled to get people to come in on their scheduled day off, incurring some overtime (to call overtime discouraged with that company would be an understatement). Some of the managers glared at us, while some others gave us knowing grins. Within a week, we were only ever scheduled with
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    two of us working together. I'm sure it ended up costing the company a lot, but it was also very clear that the management had gotten in trouble for not fixing the schedule when we informed them of our prom. The story does have a happy ending-- I met my wife while working there, and we've been together for over 20 years now.
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    Edit: Thanks for all the interest, awards, and sharing of similar stories in the comments! In response to a couple of questions/comments: I felt this was malicious compliance because we kept our jobs by following the policy of calling before missing the shift. My wife was a co-worker there and later
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    went on to be a manager for several years. She loved the work, but the senior management treated the lower managers like garbage, and she finally quit a few years ago.
    via u/JayJayHI2000
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    Psychoticrider Years ago I started a job at gas station and when I hired on I told the owner I wanted a week off in August, about six months away, he said it was ok. The middle of July I mentioned to him about the time off I wanted and he told me it wouldn't work and I could not have the time off. I asked him if he wanted my two weeks notice verbally or in writing? I got the time off!
    via u/Psychoticrider
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    opschief0299 What happened, Manager 2? Oh Manager 1, they all called out! Why? Oh...wasn't their prom that night? They should have just asked off in advance like the rules say. Wellllll.......
    via u/opschief0299
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    oldladylivesinashoe My cousins best friend/maid of honor worked at a very large Pet store that thought they were Smart for all the products & services they offered. She requested months in advance and was still denied a Saturday off to be in the wedding! They actually told her they would fire her if she didn't show up that day. So she got fired.
    via u/oldladylivesinashoe
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    teamkyle Both KFC and Subway (least mine) would move employees to any store for the night/day that might have an events like prom going on.
    via u/teamkyle
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    And least my city the 4 high schools normally don't have proms that are the same day so you could either trade kids or shift some adults around. This was on them.
    via u/teamkyle
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    De... Gotta love businesses that think they take priority in their min-wage worker's lives. Once in a lifetime event vs another day of work? No contest. Employee: "No, I'm not making a time-off request to go to prom, I'm telling you I'm going to prom and you're going to have to now deal with it."
    via u/Deranged_Kitsune

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student students malicious compliance shopping coworkers malicious-compliance-reddit working restaurant workplace prom dance malicious compliance reddit burgers shoppers
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