Movie theater boss demands employees shovel 6 inches of snow, clever usher works for 12 hours and earns overtime pay: 'You can't leave until you shovel ALL of the snow'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 28, 2025 3:00 PM EST

At this movie theater, employee expectations include more than just handing out popcorn buckets and scanning tickets — these workers were told to shovel snow!

Working at a movie theater these days is much less glamorous than in decades past. I don't know if you've been recently, but you don't really even need employees to get into the theater. They'll just scan your phone, since you probably got the tickets on an app, and from there, you seat yourself. Even if you show up without a ticket, you're supposed to buy it yourself on a kiosk. But they still haven't invented a robot that can make you a heaping bucket of warm popcorn for like $19, so at least the employees have that task to complete! Besides that, movie theater workers sweep up said popcorn from the floors after showings, keep the restrooms clean, and help customers if any issues arise. It's not glamorous, but it's not the worst job in the world, either. (I bet they also get to watch free movies, too, which would be a fun perk!)

At this theater, though, the boss overextended the range of employee tasks to include… shoveling snow in the parking lot. How bizarre! If the snow is that bad, there's no way that people are going to be driving to a movie anyway. They'll probably just sit home and watch Netflix on the couch — no need to brave icy roads if you've got perfectly good movies at home. But that didn't stop this boss from ordering employees to haul snow, which one employee did exhaustively. Good for him for getting both a workout and a huge paycheck, as well as making the boss look ridiculous.

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  • 01
    Man in orange and blue jacket and brown hat pushes shovel along snow covered road
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    This wasn't me doing the malicious compliance, nor the request, but the middle man who witnessed this gloriousness. I worked for a movie theatre company in a state that snows every winter. We had a contract with a snow shoveling company but
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 03
    my boss refused to use it because the costs of each removal had a possiblity of hurting his yearly bonus by a couple percent points (like $300 max out of $20,000). "Only if it snows more than six inches" he would say every time.
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 04
    Unfortunately this meant that one of the ushers would have to shovel snow on the sidewalk. Since it's a safety hazard to block the emergency exit doors of a theatre it meant you had to shovel a path around the entire building and for each exit door. Ultimately due to
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 05
    the size it's about a quarter mile around the building. No one likes doing it because it's cold and shoveling a simple one shovel-length path can take two hours. During a snowy Christmas week (the busiest week for movie
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 06
    theaters of the year, imagine Black Friday shopping for two weeks straight) it had snowed just under six inches. We were extremely busy and my boss demanded to take one of our much needed ushers to go shovel snow (I was an assistant manager).
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 07
    When we asked if the company could come out instead of us doing it we were told no, to which one of my co-workers (we'll call him Dan) said he would do it. An hour later after he had gone outside one by one my boss pulled each usher in and wrote them up for
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 08
    "refusing to shovel snow". When Dan came back in the other ushers complained to him about it. Dan asked our boss why and our boss said that it was because no one wanted to shovel all of the snow, and if Dan didn't shovel all of the snow he would get
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 09
    written up as well. This all happened at the beginning of my shift, around 5pm. Cue the malicious compliance. What my boss didn't realize was that it was the last day of the payroll period. Being Christmas week Dan had
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 10
    already accumulated 40 hours of work earlier in the day. My boss left right after telling Dan to make sure ALL of the snow was removed. We worked the rest of the shift and everyone assumed Dan had finished and left.
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 11
    It's 3am now and we go to punch out for the week but can't because there is a shift that hasn't been approved yet. Someone is still working and is at 12 hours of overtime. It's Dan. I go out to investigate since it should only be myself and my manager. As I walk
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 12
    outside I see Dan coming back in, smiling the biggest grin on his face, and the most dry, un- snowed path I've ever seen in my life. It looked like two pictures cut together; there was not a spec or snow on the entire front path of the theatre. Dan spent ten
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 13
    Smiling teen in blue shirt sits in movie theater seats and holds popcorn bucket
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 14
    hours outside making. Sure that he removed ALL the snow from the walkway. We had a good laugh, clocked off and left. We didn't hear anything until later that week when I was called into the office and had to write
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 15
    out a statement to why I let Dan work twelve hours of overtime. He had this smug look on his face like he had "beaten" us. He was not too pleased when he found out that all of our statements included him saying the phrase "remove all the snow" and that he refused to
    via u/SparkleFritz
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    call the snow plow company. My boss was transferred to another theatre soon after.
    via u/SparkleFritz
  • 17
    Teen boy and girl wear 3D glasses and hold popcorn buckets while laughing in movie theater setting
    via Pablo Merchán Montes For Unsplash+

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

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