Restaurant server shows up for her shift exactly on time, manager threatens to fire her anyways: ‘I was supposed to show up 30 minutes before my work time.’ – FAIL Blog

How does “on time” also mean “late?”

Every responsible adult does their best to do their job right. They show up on time, they’re polite, they don’t fight with their bosses. All to be able to keep a job and make ends meet. No sane person goes around nonchalantly forgetting their assignments or showing up late on purpose. Still, sometimes it gets hard to keep the bosses happy when they simply state random unwritten rules that make no sense. 

Redditor u/Budget-Baseball3675 was surprised to find a new manager at work who had an interesting definition of what “on time” meant. The new manager came along to change everybody’s shifts, including hers. Her schedule changed to start at 2:30 pm, so she showed up at 2:30 pm. That’s when the manager went on a rant about how late she was, and how she was supposed to be there thirty minutes earlier. He even threatened to fire her!

This had me reconsidering the definition of “work ethic.” In a customer service type of job, I understand getting there a few minutes early, especially if you have to change into a uniform or do the shift change with some other co-worker. But wouldn’t 10 minutes be enough? Of course, this depends on the place’s rules. Some ask you to be a few minutes early; others are fine with you showing up right at the time when your shift starts. It all depends on the restaurant or business you’re tending to, and they will tell you what they expect. For instance, my boyfriend worked at a restaurant, and he was used to showing up thirty minutes earlier. Always the first one in and last one out. The boss never explicitly told him to do so, but never really thanked him either, there you have a loophole. But what can I say, he liked his job. His boss, on the other hand, not so much. 

Still, whether they show up an hour earlier or right on time, yelling at an employee for not following an arbitrary rule that no one informed them of is a stretch. If they wanted her to show up thirty minutes earlier, they should have said so. And she was absolutely entitled to answer “show me the money” in a Tom-Cruise-in-Jerry-Maguire style, because no one should work for free. In the meantime, just be nice to your co-workers, we all need it.