Café owner demands bakery lead order more product due to upcoming holiday, ignoring and overriding their knowledge and experience, they comply and then quit when they're blamed for the wasted product: 'So I did it. I doubled my regular order'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Nov 10, 2025 12:00 PM EST

When ego trumps experience and data, even the best-run operations can crumble.

One criticism that is often leveled against bosses is that they often don't even know how to do the job they're managing. But equally as important to realize, once you get into management, is that not only do you need to do everything yourself, but you don't even necessarily need to know how to do it. 

Should you understand the work? Well, yeah, maybe. But in the modern world of management, it's far from a necessity. To a certain extent, as long as it's getting done, that's all you need to know, and sometimes it's for the better.

But here's the problem. A lot of managers who have been parachuted from a (hopefully) parallel line of work tend to get all worked up and insecure about the fact that they know their new subordinates are watching their back, and maybe even wanted their job. 

Rather than rising to meet this prospective challenge, they raise their ego instead in defense. And, inflated ego at the ready, they go around making demands expecting them to be followed, without first checking to make sure that those demands actually make a lick of sense.

That's what happened here when this bakery supervisor at an upscale cafe was told to order more product by their boss, who happened to be the owner. While an upcoming holiday would see an increase in trade, the days after were always slow. This meant that there would be massive amounts of product waste if the orders weren't changed accordingly.

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  • "She in fact told me to double my normal order."

    A bakery worker in white baking clothes has their back to the display case
    via Andy Li andylid0

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

  • 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). 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
    via lorgskyegon
  • for a regular Sunday. 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
  • Now our owner was somewhat absentee from our store. She owned five locations, four of which were in the same city. 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
    via lorgskyegon
  • visited us once a month. 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. Even the manager couldn't stand her.
    via lorgskyegon
  • She saw that my bakery case was somewhat low and asked why. I explained that the day after holidays was always slower and I ordered less because I didn't want to waste money. She told me never to do that again. She in fact told me to double my normal order.
    via lorgskyegon
  • Now I had been in this job for four years by this point and I knew that bakery section inside and out. Also at this point, only the manager and one of the cooks had been there longer than me. Even the manager told me that things were always better when I
    via lorgskyegon
  • was there. I always stayed late to cover call-ins, often came in on my day off if they needed me. I even once drove a catering delivery 90 minutes each way to satisfy a loyal customer.
    via lorgskyegon
  • 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. With my regular daily orders, we usually ran out only near the end of the day, barring unforeseen
    via lorgskyegon
  • circumstances (like someone coming in and doing a big pastry order without notice). This was from a lot of trial and error over the years and I changed my order up whenever things looked like they were changing.
    via lorgskyegon
  • But she insisted, even after the manager also told her that our regular order was fine. I tried again to tell and she just told me to do it. My manager also said it by that point. So I did it. I doubled my regular order. After about two weeks, she emailed me and asked why we were throwing out
    via lorgskyegon
  • so many pastries every day. I told her that she told me to double my order. At that point, my boss says, she wanted to fire me. My boss convinced her that she needed me to help run the store (which she probably did). So I wasn't fired, but I lost my position
    via lorgskyegon
  • as bakery lead. I was still a supervisor who mostly worked the bakery section, but I no longer ordered product. Still the same wage, but I was switched from mostly mornings to mostly nights.
    via lorgskyegon
  • While I did miss my morning regulars, I also enjoyed making the same money for less responsibility. About six months later, the manager quit to go back to school and the place went downhill fast. As I said, everyone working there hated the owner (except the asst. manager, who
    via lorgskyegon
  • had quit about a month before this for a new job). As soon as this happened, I started looking for a new job even though I hated changing jobs. So did a number of others. Everyone was loyal to the manager, nobody to the owner. I took a supervisor job at a
    via lorgskyegon
  • 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
  • formlesswendigo The owner told you to do something. Then wanted to fire you due to doing that. Sounds like they wanted to get rid of you from the start.
    via lorgskyegon
  • OP lorgskyegon I can tell you that she wasn't a fan of me, but I am a very dedicated employee and she didn't see me that often.
    via lorgskyegon
  • Unasked_for_advice It took me years to realize that I was working as if I was an owner and not an employee, its great to have a good work ethic but putting in all that extra work for zero reward was stupid.
    via lorgskyegon
  • OP lorgskyegon I'm working for an institutional food service company now, supervising a prison kitchen. More money and a third the work.
    via lorgskyegon
  • formlesswendigo No doubt that you are good. But since she wasn't a fan, it might have been the plan all along. But who knows.
    via lorgskyegon
  • OP lorgskyegon As I mentioned, I didn't stay very long after this occurred.
    via lorgskyegon
  • realhumannotai Thats interesting. Are you and staff completely insulated from the prison itself?
    via lorgskyegon
  • OP lorgskyegon Nope. We work in the kitchen with the residents. They do most of the grunt work. I supervise, do the planning, and bring the carts of food to the dormitories.
    via lorgskyegon
  • CrazyButterfly6762 So because you followed her rules, and tried to tell her what you know, you almost got fired? She's not a good owner or manager. Sorry got confused with titles but she shouldn't even be in that job
    via lorgskyegon
  • Black-Mettle My current boss has me do all sorts of bulls tasks, calls me into his office for bulls generally wastes my time. and Every day he asks me why I'm behind. I'm like "dawg you asked me to help you out in another area, that puts me behind." He always goes "I didn't do that, that's not what I said." So I just started telling him "no," or refusing to answer his pages. I'm suddenly no longer behind.
    via lorgskyegon
  • madkins007 I have had SOOO MANY bosses give bag orders then get mad at staff for doing it. Classic sign of poor managerial skills.
    via lorgskyegon
  • xobelddir I honestly doubt it. In my experience, hospitality. owners are very reactive. You had one bad day? Must be the new guy. Never mind that there is a well-publicised, annual fun run on the other side of town, ending right at a bunch of other upscale cafes...
    via lorgskyegon
  • WesTxStoner425 Had a manager that would give me the order form for frozen food Firm orders, which were orders that got us reduced prices offered by mfr for product that would be featured in an upcoming ad. He would always bump up my numbers, even though I would build in extra for after the ad expired, so that we'd profit from the discounts while selling at regular price. I'd be flirting with expiration dates on frozen food items, and have limited freezer space in the back. I decided to under-ord
    via lorgskyegon
  • ___ candied_yams ____ Also something I've learned is that it can breed resentment. You start feeling annoyed for doing all these little things that become nobody with real power knows about it. Even more frustrating when someone then dismisses your hard work as straightforward or no big deal or some other nonsense. If you're coasting then yeah you might agree because it's fair. But if you care and are trying hard taking ownership, then your efforts being dismissed as straightforward is actually
    via lorgskyegon

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