“I worked in a vegan restaurant for a while, I was well-liked, never stepped out of line per se. But we had a regular customer named ‘Mike,’ he was equally liked and a personal friend of my manager. He was moving to California and it would be his last time dining in our establishment.
We chatted for a while (It was slow, so we could) and I thought it would be nice and give him a going-away gift of 15% off his usual meal, which amounted to two dollars off his usual meal. We said our goodbyes and he left.
I thought that was the end of it until the lunch rush starts. My boss proceeded to come out, pull me off the register, and went off on me.
She asked, ‘Why did you give him a discount? Why are you so self-righteous? Why do you think you can do whatever you want here? You’re the reason I have low-profit margins.’
That last one got me. I waited a day, stirring my rage. Though I wasn’t planning to act on it, originally. I instead got my paycheck from my manager the day after. I went into her office and explained to her that, while I was sorry for giving a discount without permission, I thought it was highly unfair and unprofessional of her to blame her quote ‘Low-profit margins’ on a two-dollar discount.
The shouting started up again.
She shouted, ‘Oh my God, you’re so self-righteous, How dare you come into my office and tell me how to run my livelihood, you can’t do whatever you want here!’
That was the final straw, I began to go off, raising my voice and telling her to calm down, that a two-dollar discount was not the end of the world. And that I had just come in there to basically apologize to her for keeping her customer happy. I then told her that I talked to my manager (her life-long friend) and she agreed I did the right thing.
She glossed over that and tried to say, ‘If you keep giving discounts, everyone else will and I will lose money and will end me.’
I told her yes, that could happen but one, it was a single guy, and it happened once, and won’t happen again because he’s moving to California. And two, if they gave a discount it simply wasn’t my problem because I couldn’t control them.
She responded with, ‘It will be when I deduct all those discounts from your pay.’
I snapped, I shot up and declared, ‘Listen. I’m not trying to steal from you and scam you like you’re making me out to be. If you think I’m so self-righteous I could walk out right now and really mess with you, but I won’t because I don’t want to make things miserable for the other workers here. If you’re so torn up over a two-dollar discount, here!’
I yelled and chucked a ten-dollar bill on her desk, ‘That’s for your low-profit margins, you need it more than me.’
I stormed out of the office, finished my shift, and put in my two weeks.”
