Fast food worker's hours cut after violating company policy despite manager's mistakes: '[I] threw my manager under the bus'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 12, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

This mistreated employee managed to find a loophole that worked in her favor!

She had been in an on-and-off relationship with her manager, which of course, was not the wisest of ideas but it happens. The biggest issue here is that she was the one who was unfairly punished while her manager had yet to receive any ridicule for his behavior. According to company policy, relationships among employees need to be disclosed to upper management. However, this was a two-way street and it was just as much the manager's responsibility to disclose the relationship as it was the employee's. To make matters worse, the employee's punishment came in the form of getting their scheduled hours cut suddenly and without warning.

Keep scrolling below to see how the employee was able to ensure that the manager was chastised as well while also calling out the unjust punishment concerning her scheduled shifts. For more stories like this, take a look at this post about another toxic boss who got their much-deserved comeuppance. 

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  • 01
    "Well, you hired my manager after we were already together?"
    via Louis Hansel
  • 02
    So this is my favorite story of malicious compliance from my own workplace. I was working in fast food at the time (overnights under golden arches) and I had been working there about 9 months at the time.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 03
    Now I had started talking to someone who used to work there as a manager after this person quit. This person decided to come back a few months later, but by that time, we were engaging in a I relationship. S
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 04
    Fast forward 6 months me and this manager had been on and off a few times but this person was a manager on my shift the entire time. Now I had never notified the company of our on/off or relationship to begin with, assuming this person did
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 05
    authorize me clocking on anyways(I was a good employee and they needed the body.)
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 06
    The worst part about what I was scheduled was 9pm-3am on the only two days I had left out of my availability. This meant I had no way to
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 07
    get home (I ride the bus) and I couldn't legally be scheduled out of my availability in the first place.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 08
    (It's Oregon they can ask you to prove your availability but they can't schedule you outside of it unless you have already failed to prove it)
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 09
    Eventually managers from other shifts began telling my managers and I it was because of said relationship.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 10
    My shift's managers were also told any manger would be written up if they authorized me clocking on when I wasn't scheduled.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 11
    When I texted my GM about it, I was sent the relationship policy. While it did include that management needed to be notified, it also stated that new hires were responsible for notifying management of all relationships, not pre- existing staff members.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 12
    At this point I was pretty point blank stating we were in as I relationship when they were hired and if my hours were not reinstated, I would apply for underemployment and report them for h I also threw my manager under the bus here saying t.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 13
    they should be the one in trouble here not me, because I was a bit irritated they hadn't notified the company upon rehiring.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 14
    The GM told me a meeting would need to be scheduled with the regional manager, but made no attempts(from
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 15
    my perspective) to make that happen. GM also offered to switch me to days for less pay or to another store with the same pay cut, I denied this because I would quit before working days in fast food again or taking a pay
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 16
    cut because someone else didn't do their job. My hours didn't come back the following week either. I believe the main overnight manager was in vacation that week, so cue malicious compliance. I worked the
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 17
    hours I was scheduled and not a minute more. They called me twice that week asking me to come in and help with cleaning. I said no I don't want to get anyone in trouble for working unauthorized hours.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 18
    The GM had to come in at 3 in the morning and do my usual deep cleaning tasks because nobody there knew how.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 19
    I didn't hear another word about it but my hours were back and within my
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 20
    availability again the next week. I quit and so did my managers about 3 months later, but it felt nice to get this win.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 21
    Vitogodfather · 18 hr. ago This sounds like you definitely could have sued them and probably should have contacted an employment lawyer.
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 22
    Ipreams 7 hr. ago *My employer broke the law and didn't give me what I was legally owed, but then when I threatened them, they pinkie-promised not to do it again, so I let it slide."
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 23
    kaljalava666.16 hr. ago What's up with the notifying your employee about your relationship status and rule against dating other employees in the US (I assume this happened in the US because I have heard this thing before)
    via myBlanketsD8
  • 24
    chatterbox586 · 16 hr. ago It's more common to have a rule against managers dating someone they're managing so another coworker can't claim that the manager is favoring the person they're dating.
    via myBlanketsD8

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job malicious compliance work reddit thread Reddit company fast food workplace malicious compliance toxic-work-environment
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