‘I quit that job about 3 months later’: Mechanic is left alone after coworkers walk out on an overbooked post‑Thanksgiving Saturday, grinds through the chaos, gets praised with a fast-food gift card by management

This fun little work story happened post‑Thanksgiving Saturday at a dealership. Just imagine how joyous this must be: The service lane fills up, the scheduler loses the plot, and a quick tech suddenly finds out what rock bottom staffing really looks like. Cars keep showing up until there is literally no space left in the lot, tickets stack higher than the oil filters, and five other techs collectively decide this isn't what they signed up for. They drop a quick "we're out" and invite the oil‑change guy to join the exodus. Military brain says no, so everyone else clocks out of the story while one person stays in the bay and keeps working.

From there, it just turns into survival mode. A couple of techs get dragged in off their day off, the skeleton crew grinds through dozens of cars, and the day blurs into a mix of rotations, oil changes, and controlled chaos. Management does what management always does when someone bails the place out. Shakes some hands, says a lot of grateful words, hands over a gift card that covers maybe one good burger run, and then turns the whole thing into a "values" anecdote at the next all‑hands. The walkouts are gone, one of them tries to crawl back later, and the one person who actually held the line gives proper notice and leaves a few months after.

Author image for Etai Eshet Etai Eshet
Add us on Google
Advertisement

Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!

Tags

management terrible coworkers workplace discussion employment issues boss workplace-stories hr manager bosses work coworkers colleague PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance
Scroll Down For The Next Article

Also From FAIL Blog

Store manager demands employee organize products by specific planogram, leading employee to take all their popular items off the shelves: ‘Stop being a helicopter manager’

Store manager demands employee organize products by specific planogram, leading employee to take all their popular items off the shelves: ‘Stop being a helicopter manager’

Trending Now

Employee gets fired 2 weeks after her wedding because her company doesn't want to add her spouse to her insurance: 'Friday morning, my performance was fantastic, I was getting praised, how would I suddenly be fired for my performance on Monday afternoon?'

Employee gets fired 2 weeks after her wedding because her company doesn't want to add her spouse to her insurance: 'Friday morning, my performance was fantastic, I was getting praised, how would I suddenly be fired for my performance on Monday afternoon?'

01
Architect reprimanded for making daughter’s birthday invitation on work laptop, so she refused to use personal phone for on-site job photos, forcing boss to buy her company Samsung and pay for entire second trip to the site: 'I doubled all the expenses'

Architect reprimanded for making daughter’s birthday invitation on work laptop, so she refused to use personal phone for on-site job photos, forcing boss to buy her company Samsung and pay for entire second trip to the site: 'I doubled all the expenses'

02
CEO demands to be CC'd on every email sent within the company, only for their inbox to be flooded when HR sends a personalized email to every employee: ‘They caused their own email apocalypse’

CEO demands to be CC'd on every email sent within the company, only for their inbox to be flooded when HR sends a personalized email to every employee: ‘They caused their own email apocalypse’

03
21-year-old employee avoids boss's demands to shovel snow: 'I had already planned not to go... because it wasn't my job'

21-year-old employee avoids boss's demands to shovel snow: 'I had already planned not to go... because it wasn't my job'

04
Karen dog owner demands vet clinic receptionist cancel the next appointment so she can come in: 'Some folks act like a full schedule is optional!'

Karen dog owner demands vet clinic receptionist cancel the next appointment so she can come in: 'Some folks act like a full schedule is optional!'

05
Job applicant declines an AI-only first interview on principle, viewing it as a cultural red flag, despite the company offering him a human alternative after his refusal: 'I'm not interested in continuing with a process that relies on AI'

Job applicant declines an AI-only first interview on principle, viewing it as a cultural red flag, despite the company offering him a human alternative after his refusal: 'I'm not interested in continuing with a process that relies on AI'

06
Advertisement