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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Ganonsfoot on 2025-06-01 11:05:00+00:00.

First of all, my apologies for the upcoming wall of text, I have a couple good stories.

So I was a cook for a good long portion of my life. The last restaurant I worked at was a pretty nice farm to table Italian place. I really liked the owners and had worked for them at a previous restaurant and I also liked having 2 vacation weeks and insurance so I followed them to this new place

Now the owners were great, the GM however was a stubborn and stingy person. We opened the place up with the idea that there would be a family meal every day before the dinner shift started. Nothing crazy expensive, just a salad and pasta for everyone. Pretty quickly though it just turned into pasta, then eventually into nothing at all with no replacement meal plan for the employees at all. I understand the need to keep costs down, especially at a new restaurant but this was getting ridiculous. The were days I’d end up working a double and very angrily eating just a cliff bar during the whole work day.

I’m serious about the GM being a penny pinching b though. The most egregious example I have is If any servers or cooks made a mistake they were expected to purchase their mistake. There was one time I made a pasta dish by mistake and refused to buy it, mistakes happen damn it! My assistant GM knew it was gonna be a big deal so he ended up purchasing it 😂. Eventually hours started getting cut and people were being let go.

I had been given a couple of split shifts a week (I hated them so much but needed the money). I was expected to come in and open, work a couple of lunch, leave for a couple hours and come back for the dinner shift. So after a few weeks of these shifts it became pretty routine. It allowed me to get lunch either nearby or at home. Except one day it was unexpectedly busy for lunch. We got really slammed and couldn’t really catch up so they asked me if I could stay and help prep for dinner. Now me being maliciously compliant said that I planned on having lunch during that time but I’ll stay if they let me have something good (I’m just thinking pasta with meat on it), they said we can’t do that. So I said I can’t stay then. The look on both of my bosses faces said it all. They of course couldn’t back down but I wasn’t gonna let them walk all over me especially when I’m just following and expecting to work my scheduled hours. I came back a couple hours later with a full belly and worked a pretty busy dinner shift. My split shifts didn’t last too much longer after that.

There was one more time when I had an unexpected Thursday night off but I was asked to come in and wash dishes. Once again I needed the money and I’m not above washing dishes so I said yes. Now I’ve done dishes before for my normal pay and it wasn’t a problem. That’s what I was expecting, my normal pay. I come back and they ask me to please clock in under the dish button they had just created for me. I asked if the pay was different and I was told yes, it’s a couple dollars less. I nearly walked out. I only stayed because my coworkers would have a much worse day without me there but I was livid. My assistant GM tried to offer me some food scraps but I looked at him and refused. Then I remembered that dish employees get a free meal that nobody took advantage because of the cheap GM. I told my assistant GM I wanted a pork rigatoni pasta dish with peppers in it and he was completely caught off guard. “What?! Who’s paying for that?” He says to me. I merely reply with dish gets a free meal and walk away. A few minutes later I get my lovely pasta dish, I go sit down for a few minutes, savor every bite and come back to my smiles from my coworkers and my GM not looking at me 🙂. The dish button was removed from my clock in screen after that.