Manager orders 23-year-old kitchen worker to stop helping with other tasks, causing restaurant to fall behind and customers to lose their temper: 'I’m only following his orders'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jun 6, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the best way to show your manager that their ideas are wrong is through a little game of show and tell. Oftentimes, managers are so locked into their own experience (or answering to their own supervisors) that they cannot take their employees' valid grievances seriously. When this happens, it's not worth despairing. Instead, always remember that malicious compliance will demonstrate exactly what your manager cannot see just yet.

This 23-year-old kitchen worker was told to stop helping other folks with their duties and to focus solely on baking the restaurant chain's popular biscuits. However, this meant that the rest of the kitchen lost their greatest helper. Orders fell wildly behind schedule, customers became irate, and sales fell apart that day… all because the 23-year-old decided to do exactly as he was told. Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions from several members of the online community. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10513864704
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Clearly, management did not know what it was doing, but this young worker realized that this was not his problem to resolve. As long as he followed orders, he would be protected when push came to shove. After the tumultuous day at the restaurant, the manager could only blame himself for his own negligence. The best part of the story was that moving forward, the 23-year-old's initial ideas about how situations like this should be handled were ultimately implemented. That, folks, is malicious compliance done right!

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    "You want bread? Okay, no one eats dinner then."

    I (23M) have worked for a certain colored crustacean for a year and a half now. I bounced around between positions until they stuck me as a backup, which for
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    context, means I finish the Par list and make more of anything we run out of. It also makes you the baker.
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    Now this specific chain was well known for their biscuits. Like I'd say most people just go there for them and not the actual food. So it's pretty common to hear a server yell "down bread" on a half hour schedule.
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    Usually I can keep up with the demand and my par list. But one day our morning prep person dipped and I couldn't come in early due to something personal.
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    So when I got there it was a mess. No bread, no prepped food, just chaos. I get things under control until the rush comes in, by that point I'm swamped and I can't keep up
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    with bread because the line needs food constantly made. I was in fact asking for assistance and wasn't given any. I got so behind on bread that our MOD comes to the back and tells me
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    "whatever you're doing for the line stop. Make the biscuits and nothing else for the rest of the night."
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    Cue malicious compliance. I tell our line that I can't help them anymore and that they're on their own. I begin cranking out biscuits like a machine while the line struggles to keep up with the orders. It gets so bad that the
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    same managers comes back and asks why we have 40+ minute tickets and no food has gone out. They calmly tell him it's because they have me making bread and not getting them the materials
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    they need. The manager asks me why I'm not doing my job and I explain that I'm only following his orders and only focusing on bread.
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    I think we had like 6 tables leave because their food was taking over an hour to get to them. Food went out cold, made incorrectly, missing components, the works.
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    All because they made me focus on making the biscuits. I got called into our GM's office the next day to explain what happened and why our sales were so bad. I happily explained what the manager told me and walked out Scott free.
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    About a month later all Backups have a baker and if a morning prep person cannot come in the managers are responsible until the backup can arrive.
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    ....... .......
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    madebypeppers ⚫ "have worked for a certain colored crustacean" Mr. Krabs?
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    skoltroll. managers are responsible until the backup can arrive. I love how it had to be specifically stated that managers are responsible for the restaurant functioning in any capacity.
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    commentsrnice2. As they should be. Any manager worth their salt is going to pitch in whenever they're needed
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    Ty... This is where management has to start limiting seatings, because they don't have the staff to operate at full capacity. The real mistake happened much earlier, but this is were they are now.
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    Now there's a pretty good chance that limiting guests was off the table because of poor management all the - way up because, "You can't turn people away! Look
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    at all the lost sales!" That's a thing they can measure. And it's harder to measure the future damage of six(!) tables walking out (and the dissatisfaction of those that didn't) - but I can guarantee the long term damage of that night is way worse than a slow night.
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    People are notorious for not complaining to the restaurant, but then just never going back and telling all their friends. So many business have absolute sh metrics, and restaurants are particularly hard in this regard.
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    Six months from now, "Gee, I wonder why the sales from this location have tanked? Must be the economy. Whelp, nothing you can do about that, here's your bonuses."
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Tags

boss toxic-manager toxic-management restaurant employees kitchen overworked-employees Horrible Bosses bad bosses restaurant work fast food
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