‘I never came back’: 22-year-old has it with incompetent manager, gets everyone in nightshift to call out, leaving manager alone with the weekend dinner rush

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Sep 22, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

We all love a good late night slice. Oh baby, after a long tiring night, it hits the spot like nothing else. Even if the line is out the door, you're willing to wait for that slice under the night sky because it is always worth it. When that line is long, it's all up to the employees to make sure things flow smoothly. So if the employees aren't getting along, it ain't gonna be easy getting that cheesy, ya know what I mean? 

 

Like, in this situation where the employee had basically run the entire shop for months before a manager was hired. Then this "manager" tried to control everything and shutdown any sort of direction from this seasoned employee. A classic workplace ego tale. So, frustrated, the employee called the nightshift coming up to tell them about the absolute chaos they were about to get themselves into. One by one, they all called out, every one of them. So the new manager was now left all alone to deal with the crazy weekend dinner rush. This employee then looked her in the eyes, and clocked out. Left and never returned. 

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  • Cheezburger Image 10555938048
    via Unsplash+ (and A.C.)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • "Pizza pizza! Chaos"

    I was 22 and in college when I got hired as the assistant manager at a pizza place. After about three weeks of working there, the manager who hired me suddenly quit.
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  • Even though I'd only been there for a short time, I ended up running the store for months until they finally found a new manager.
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  • I was a quick learner, so I picked things up fast. They even offered me the manager job, but being in college, I didn't want that kind of long term responsibility.
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  • One day, the new manager showed up...and she was a piece of work. Straight out of the company training program, she came in and started making sweeping changes, completely ignoring the systems we had in place that actually kept the place running.
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  • Our pizzas were supposed to be "hot and ready," which meant we had to prep ahead of time, but she was all about doing things strictly by the book.
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  • During the week, sales were relatively slow, but even so, when we followed the book, we struggled and customers complained.
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  • But we made it to Thursday.
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  • That morning I went over the sales numbers with her, explaining how 65% of the pizzas we sold were on the weekends and how crazy busy it got.
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  • I explained how every Friday we made four times as much dough as "allowed by the book" in the morning, how we rearranged the prep tables, pre-folded hundreds of pizza boxes etc.
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  • Basically, the entire day on Thursday was spent prepping non perishables.
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  • After we talked, I assumed she was handling it, so I started counting the cash drawers and stock. About 30 minutes later, I noticed the dough maker giving me a wide eyed " look.
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  • When I walked over, he told me she had instructed him to make only the "by the book" amount of dough for Friday.
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  • (For context: "by the book" meant we weren't allowed to make more than a set number of dough balls or prep more than a set number of pizzas, wings, sauce etc.)
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  • I reemphasized to her that we absolutely had to make more dough, summarizing everything I had already explained.
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  • She pushed back, saying we didn't need it and went on about food waste etc. I pushed back harder, knowing I was right, until I finally broke it down mathematically.
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  • She reluctantly caved, and we made the extra dough.
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  • Same thing happened with folding the pizzas boxes, she insisted it was a waste of time to prep that many and actually sent the part time person I had scheduled, to do that specific task and a few others, home early.
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  • Thankfully I was able to fold a few stacks of pizza boxes before I went home.
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  • Crisis avoided.
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  • Now it was Friday morning, time for fresh prep.
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  • Every time I suggested an amount of prep needed for a particular item, she pushed back. I mean EVERYTHING. From stocking parmesan cheese packets to the amount of wing sauce we made.
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  • We FINALLY made it to 3pm. I ended up having to compromise on a few prep items for my own sanity and because I knew the night crew could handle them without it slowing them down too much.
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  • Then it was time to prep the pizzas.
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  • Cheezburger Image 10555949056
    via Unsplash+ (and Ahmet Kurt)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • By 4pm we usually had around 100 pizzas prepped. On weekends, we not only placed the dough onto baking sheets but also sauced, cheesed, and even added pepperoni before refrigerating them.
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  • That's how busy it got, it was the only way to keep up.
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  • So at 3pm the prep crew and I started prepping pizzas. She told us to stop.
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  • Without stopping, I explained again about our weekend volume... that someone basically had to continue to prep pizzas constantly during the rush because of demand.
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  • Basically that what we were about to prep STILL wasn't enough. She told me again to stop.
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  • I didn't stop and continued to push back hard, because I knew the night crew would absolutely suffer horribly if we didn't prep.
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  • By 3:30 it had escalated into a heated argument between her and I.
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  • She pulled me outside to try to "put me in my place," but I doubled down.
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  • While I was mid- sentence, she turned and walked away. Frustrated, I stayed outside for 15 minutes to regroup.
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  • When I walked back in and saw it was almost 4pm, I was just p ed off. I knew the night crew was going to be the ones to have to deal the lack of preparedness and also, I couldn't stay because I had an assignment due.
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  • Then, it hit me.
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  • I went outside and called everyone who was scheduled that night, warning them about the mess they were about to walk into.
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  • Almost instantly the phone inside started ringing nonstop, and since it was already getting busy, I walked back inside and jumped on a register, so she had to answer.
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  • One by one, everyone on night shift called out. She didn't say a word to me about it.
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  • By 4:45p, all three registers had lines out the door. She was running around frantic, trying to call people in, she was calling other stores trying to get employees to come in to our location... all while trying to make pizzas in a frenzy.
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  • Since she didn't mention to me that anything was amiss, I just continued to rapidly take orders for the next 15 minutes or so.
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  • Without saying a word, at 5pm sharp, I looked her de d in the eye, clocked out and left.
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  • That was my last day. I went home and never came back.
    via webfloss

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