Absentee boss demands bakery supervisor increase pastry orders, supervisor complies despite knowing better, only to get demoted when it backfired: ‘We lost lots of sales’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Oct 29, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

Owners like to act like they know everything and their decisions are the best, even though they are usually barely around. They come once in almost never, and they behave like they have any clue about how their business operates on a daily basis.

Exactly like the owner in the story below.

The owner of this cafe visits her business around once a month, which means that she doesn't know anything about how the cafe runs every day. So when she approached the bakery supervisor and told them to increase the orders for the bakery, they tried to explain to her that their four years on the job have taught them exactly how they should operate each day and how much they should order. Still, the boss's demands had to be answered, and a few weeks later, she understood why she should not have messed with an already working system.

Instead of owning up to her mistake, the owner wanted to fire the supervisor. She ended up demoting them, and this led to a whole chain of events that ended with some major loss of sales.

Keep scrolling to read all about that…

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  • 01

    Absentee boss wants me to increase the daily order against my suggestion? You got it.

    I used to work at an upscale-ish cafe. I was a supervisor and in charge of the bakery section (there was also a kitchen and a coffee bar).
    via lorgskyegon
  • 02
    Pastry Chef Arranging Fresh Croissants in Bakery
    via James Collington

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

  • 03
    Now Mother's Day was our biggest day of the year by a huge margin. Like it would be close to triple our daily sales for a regular Sunday.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 04
    Most mid-grade holidays would also be busy. And after every big holiday sales day, the sales the next day would be around 50- 60% of normal, so I would order about two thirds of my regular order for that Monday.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 05
    Now our owner was somewhat absentee from our store. She owned five locations, four of which were in the same city.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 06
    Ours was the outlier, in a smaller location about two hours away. She spent almost all of her time at the four locations and maybe visited us once a month.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 07
    This month, she just happened to come on the day after Mother's Day. I can add that of all the employees, only the assistant manager liked the owner.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 08
    Even the manager couldn't stand her. She saw that my bakery case was somewhat low and asked why.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 09
    I explained that the day after holidays was always slower and I ordered less because I didn't want to waste money.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 10
    She told me never to do that again. She in fact told me to double my normal order.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 11
    Now I had been in this job for four years by this point and I knew that bakery section inside and out.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 12
    Also at this point, only the manager and one of the cooks had been there longer than me.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 13
    Even the manager told me that things were always better when I was there. I always stayed late to cover call-ins, often came in on my day off if they needed me.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 14
    I even once drove a catering delivery 90 minutes each way to satisfy a loyal customer.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 15
    Baker in His Bakery
    via Kzenon

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

  • 16
    I told the owner that today was a special circumstance and that doubling the order would lead to a lot of food waste and recommended that we not do it.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 17
    With my regular daily orders, we usually ran out only near the end of the day, barring unforeseen circumstances (like someone coming in and doing a big pastry order without notice).
    via lorgskyegon
  • 18
    This was from a lot of trial and error over the years and changed my order up whenever things looked like they were changing.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 19
    But she insisted, even after the manager also told her that our regular order was fine.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 20
    I tried again to tell and she just told me to do it. My manager also said it by that point.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 21
    So I did it. I doubled my regular order. After about two weeks, she emailed me and asked why we were throwing out so many pastries every day.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 22
    I told her that she told me to double my order. At that point, my boss says, she wanted to fire me.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 23
    My boss convinced her that she needed me to help run the store (which she probably did).
    via lorgskyegon
  • 24
    So I wasn't fired, but I lost my position as bakery lead. I was still a supervisor who mostly worked the bakery section, but I no longer ordered product.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 25
    Still the same wage, but I was switched from mostly mornings to mostly nights. While I did miss my morning regulars, I also enjoyed making the same money for less responsibility.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 26
    About six months later, the manager quit to go back to school and the place went downhill fast.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 27
    As I said, everyone working there hated the owner (except the asst. manager, who had quit about a month before this for a new job).
    via lorgskyegon
  • 28
    As soon as this happened, I started looking for a new job even though I hated changing jobs.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 29
    So did a number of others. Everyone was loyal to the manager, nobody to the owner.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 30
    I took a supervisor job at a nearby restaurant and never looked back. I'm told by some coworkers who are still there that it became difficult to get through the day without me and the manager there and we lost lots of sales for over a year before they started picking up again.
    via lorgskyegon

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boss workplace-stories employee fired bakery manager job owner tales-from-the-workplace reddit story ceo overworked-employees workplace Reddit company cafe funny
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